The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-08-29

OF which are based upon oppression
of weak nations, many OF which are
as yet secret and undisclosed and.
when disclosed, might drive us to acts
of injustice similar to that in which
the president felt himself compelled
to acquiesce in the case of Shan
tung."
Should Act Immediately.
Senator Knox said a state of peace
actually would be established in the
world as soon as three of the great
powers had ratified the treaty and
| that the United States should make
her own peace status complete by
concurrent resolution of congress.
Declaring the foreign relations COM
mittee had tried in vain to get i'm
portant data relating to the treaty,
the senaor said the people at last were
waking to the true issue as the facts
about the Versailles negotiations leak
ed out.
"Great Gaunt Tragedy"
Little by little" he continued.
they are bringing a divulgence of the
facts connected with the treaty and
they may now hope finally to see the
whole of-the great gaunt tragedy into
which those whom they had charged
with protecting them were about to
betray them.
what is it about these things that
the people cannot know? What is
there to hide from them? Must we
pie must take it. sight unseen?' Are
we to be no more advantaged than
our fallen enemies?"
Quoting President Wilson's declara-
tions in 1917 that the purpose of the
United States in the war was to over
throw German autocratic powar Fnd
leave the German people free to
choose their own ways Of life the
senator said that with the signing of
the armistice I'VE had achieved the
full purpose for which We entered the
war;" and sho aid have quit the war
as we entered It, still free and indie
pendent, masters of our own des-
tiny
Senator Knox paid a tribute to the
service rendered the nation by citi-
zens of German ancestry who fought
gladly. he said. in the hope that their
kinsmen in Germany would benefit in
the end. Instead, he said, peace con-
ditions had been imposed which the
German people never could fulfill.
What of Russia?
Calling attention that Russia was
not included in the peace settlement,
he continued;
Think you. Germ any. smarting and
staggering under the terms Of this
treaty, will supinely rest content with
the dole of grace and sufferance we
are Vouchsafing her, the crumbs from
her victors' table? That people will
no more cease to plot and plan to re.
cover their former high state than did
Satan, plunged into the abysmal
depths OF hell. Whether they are in
the league, If formed, or out of it.
Germany's agents, secretly or openly,
viii be at work with her former al
lies and with Injured Russia and with
Japan. AS Russia goes, so will go the
whole Slavic and affiliated peoples
And II Germany succeeds in this.
western Europe, at least. must nar,
ish."
Stripped of its ideaIistic phrases. Mr.
Knox said, the treaty was really but
an alliance among five great powers
against whom Germany would try to
bring stronger alliance. The real in
terest of France. he said, was in gain
| OF the German people.
'The Truce OF Versailles"
THE instrument before U.S." he said
is not the treaty but the truce of Yer
sailles.
1T takes Germany's territory. Eu-
ropean and foreign. without compen-
sation; 1t takes from her practically
all of her ocean shipping and a large
portion of her international and yes
! sells; 1t deprives her of all special ben
efits of treaties and conventions; it
takes her cables; it compels her to
/
ials; it internationalizes her great
! river system and throws them open to
| traffic of all nations on a national
basis as II they were the high seas: il
opens her coastwise shipping to all
nations; 1t compels her to grant excep-
| tional import and export privileges
and to accept important restrictions:
1t closes out German interests in prac-
| tically the whole civilized world: II
closes out the interests of that same
world in Germany.
Hun Debt Too Heavy.'
Having done all this, it assesses
against her Professionally with a stipu-
lation permitting an increase in debt
of one hundred and twenty billion
gold marks. which is in addition to
the property restored in kind and to
the value of the boats. gold and secur-
tiles delivered; it makes her respon-
sible for these damages inflicted, not
only by herself but by her allies, and
even by the allied and associated pow
ers themselves, with a list of items
which includes some admittedly con-
trary to the rules of international law
hitherto existing; finally and in addi-
ton she is compelled to answer to her
own nationals for the value of the
property taken by the allied and as
ISOLATED powers.
THE United States is bound up in
every one of the obligations and duties
incident to the enforcement of these
terms with the great responsibilities