The Cordova daily times. [volume] (Cordova, Alaska) 1914-1947, 1919-03-07

and the worlds affairs the lnteTe"S
of Americans and of humanity will be
best served by giving fullest publicity
lions plan. To condemn the proposal
without giving the people chance
to know just what it is that is being
denounced is not in accord with demo
cratic traditions. Above all else, the
league of nations proposal should not
be condemned simply because it is a
new idea. w. w. Jermane, the Wash
ington correspondent of the Seattle
Times, makes the following very inter
eSting contribution to the discussions:
"Americanism meant one thing in
1888, but quite another thing in 1863.
BY the same token, in 1919 it may be
something entirely different from
what it was at either of these times.
The league may not be American, as
yet but it may not be un-American.
This is what the American people
must find out, and the senate discus
sion will therefore be welcome. If it
is to harm anybody it will be those
taking part in it.
in every generation of American
history public men have wrecked them
selves by opposing measures of prog
ress. The Declaration Of Independence
was sneered at as hackneyed, lacking
in originality and filled with meaning
less generalities. The constitution of
the United States was savagely at
tackled as imperialistic, fatal to the
freedom of the people and calculated
to reduce them to a condition of bond
age worse than any they had suffered
under England.
THE emancipation proclamation
was called an executive usurpation
and weak appeal to the black man
to help a President who had lost his
bearings. So strong was that feeling
in 1864 that the house of representa-
tives at first practically rejected the
thirteenth amendment by failing to
give it the necessary two-thirds major
ity, and yet that was the amendment
which prohibited slavery.
"One must read contemporaneous
history to learn the names of the
statesmen who took this attitude of
hostility to measures intended to
make life more nearly worth living.
They have faded out of the public
mlnd and the only names that are re-
membered are those of the men who
supported these great documents and
helped defend the government that in
initiated them. In the list of oppo-
nents were men as brilliant as any on
do J,,t L~a
ments were faulty their fate was
oblivion
Men who today are supporting the
league of nations in this country pre-
dict that history will repeat itself
Able but mistaken men will kick
against the pricks, will have a little
brief notOriety, and then be forgotten.
The league will be accepted by all the
nations, and the modern world will be-
gin to count time from Friday Feb.
IA, when President Wilson read the
completed preliminary draft to the
peace conference.
This prediction will be verified if
historic precedent is worth anything,
and for that reason the average man
and woman should read the senate at
tacks with open minds and not be too
quick to indorse them
World opinion never has been in
SO fluid state, and people who have
cocksure opinions about any of the
big things that are now taking form
may lind themselves in a hopeless mi
nof1ty at any moment AS to the
league itself, concentration of world
opinion is now under full Roadway.
If this city reads the signs Alright,
Mr.. Wilson, understood this when he
said in Paris, 4 dare say that no ma
ton will run the risk of attempting to
resist From now on the accomplished
fact must be dealt with, and not mere
aspiration, and it must be dealt with
differently.
I'm advance there were many hon.
est doubts, just as there were many
dishonest sneers. The history of the
contest between science and religion,
which began with the result of learn
ing furnishes a parallel to which
friends OF the league are beginning to
call attention.
When any new idea was presented
the people in alarm said that it was
ridiculous; little later they said it
was contrary to the Bible, and still
later in numerous cases, that they
had always believed it. Will opposi-
ton to the league of nations repeat
that history? 1t may and it may not.
The chances, however, are that it
will"
CECRETARv ANE,c AnMIcc,on