Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1919-09-19
FuLF|LS
4: AMERICAN IDEAL
Herbert Hoover Says Democra.
DIES Replaced Autocracies
!. at Our Bidding.
FOOD ADMINISTRATION CHIEF.
UfDee Ratification on Ground That
Peace Treaty Will Collapse
Without League OF
Nations.

Herbert Hoover is go deeply con-
cexned over the opposition to tho
League Of Nations in the United
suites that he has let himself be in
tetviewed at length on the League sit
uation. In q talk with the New York
Times correspondent in Paris, the
Food Administration Chief asserts that
having caused the League idea to pre-
Vajl America cannot abandon 1t. We
cannot withdraw, he says, and leave
Europe to chaos. ITO abandon the
League Covenant now means that the
treaty itself will collapse"
Nh. Ho0ver's wide acquaintance
with conditions both here and abroad.
hle reputation as an administrator, a
man Of great affairs who deals with
facts, not theories, make his state
'nent one Of the most important con-
Iuibutions to the recent League discus
ssions.
: '.There are one or two points in con-
nection with the present treaty. said
Mr.. Hoover, that need careful consid-
grafton by the American public. We
need to digest the fact that we have
for century and a half been advo-
eating democracy not only as
remedy for the internal ills of all So
Tciety, but also as the only real safe.
guard against war. We have believed
and proclaimed, in season and out,
that world in which there was q
free expression and enforcement of
the will Of the majority was the real
basis Of government, was essential for
the Advancement of civilization, and
that we have proved its enormous hu-
man benefits in our country.
American Ideas Have Prevailed.
I'VE went into the war to destroy
,autocracy as menace to our own and
tall other democracies. II we had not
come into the war every inch Of Euro
pean soil today would be under auto
cratic government We have imposed
our will on the world. Out Of this
victory has come the destruction Of
the four, great autocracies in Ger
many. Russia, Turkey and Austria and
the little ,autocracy in Greece. New
democracies have sprung into being In
Poland, Finland, Letvia, Hthuania,
Esthonia, Czechoslovakia, Greater
Serbia, Greece, Siberia, and even Ger
many and Austria have established
democratic governments. Beyond
these a host of small republics, such
a. Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and
others, have sprung up, and again AZ
q result Of this great world movement
the constitutions of Spain, Rumania,
and even England, have made final
ascent to complete franchise and de-
tmocracy, although they still maintain
q symbol Of royalty.
I'VE have been the living spring for
this last century and half from which
these ideas have ;prung, and we have
.triumphed. The world today, except
for comparatively few reactionary
and communistic autocracies, is dem
oczatic, and we did it
"A man who takes a wife and |
blesses the world with several infants |
cannot 60 away and leave them on
the claim that there was no legal mar
rage
these infant lemocracies al have |
political, social and economic prob
lens Involving their neishbors that !
are fraught with the most intense |
friction. There are no natural bound
aries in Europe. Races are not COM
pact they blend at every border. They |
need railway communication and sea |
outlets through their neighbors' terri |
tory. ~ -
"Aany Of these states must for the
next few years struggle almost for
hare bones to maintain their very -.
skistence. Every one Of them 10 60
ins to do its best; to protect its own
iakesests, wen to the prejudice Of til
D1lGhbors, - ~: =
oSvsrknlnts Lack Experience.
~ IN ASDs1ca sheuld realise that