Omaha daily bee., 1919-03-20

effective and least adventurous
method of preventing war;"
The opponents of the league"
he continued, "set up an imaginary
scarecrow of their own creation
and then fired at it with great sat-
isfaction to themselves. If the
United States is not subject to the
orders of the executive council, it is
senseless to talk of our being ruled
by body in which we have only
one vote out OF nine
He discussed the various objec-
tons that had been raised, saying in
part:
IAN objection brought forward by
the opponents of the league is that
Asiatic immigration, the policy Of
a protective tariff, or some other
matter of vital domestic interest
may be brought before the excel
tive council for inquiry and decided
against us. 1t would seem to be
clear that the trainers of the cove
nant did not intend to submit to the
council the international affairs Of
the members of the league, and if
there is any serious doubt on the
question, there will doubtless be no
objection to making it perfectly
clear
Monroe Doctrine Extended.
Coming to the Monroe doctrine,
which, he said, was "the greatest
bugbear of ALL" Mr. Lowell ex-
pressed the opinion that the United
States would be justified in asking
for a clause in the covenant that no
foreign power should acquire any
possession on the American con-
tinents or the adjacent islands.
However, he said. the covenant ex-
tended the doctrine over the world
and its adoption would relieve the
United States itself of any suspicion
of imperialistic designs on its
American neighbors."
Finally" said the speaker, "an
objection is made to the covenant
on the ground that its provisions
are contrary to the constitution Of
the United States, on the ground
that treaty to limit ornaments, or
to require commercial boycott, or
to guarantee the territory of an
other country, or to limit the right
to declare war are contrary to the
powers vested in congress. Now
it SO happens that all these things
have been regulated by treaties al
| ready made, still in existence and
duly ratified by the senate. Treaties
regulating commerce in various
ways have been common, and are
too numerous to require citation"
Calls for Definite Statement.
DR.. Lowell called upon his op-
ponent to declare first: Whether he
would or would not vote for the
covenant provided it was amended
as the senator wished; and, second,
what amendments he desired.
Departing from his address to re-
ply to his opponent DR.. Lowell said:
I'VE both feel that this covenant
is, as it stands, defective, but the
difference is that | feel that when
these defects have been removed
that covenant, with those defects
cured, ought to be ratified-and he
does not tell us whether he thinks
so or not"
Referring to the farewell address
of George Washington, the speaker
said: 1T was great document in
its day and SO was the Ten Com
mandments.' I
In developing the point that uni
versal arbitration treaties would
have prevented Germany from pre-
cipitating this war, DR.. Lowell re-
marked that such a system might
have prevented our fighting Spain
in 1898, but was taking Cuba worth
this war;"
Nov what are duties that we as
sume?" DR.. Lowell asked. The
principle obligations are as follows:
ITO respect and preserve as
against external aggression the ter
ritorial integrity and existing po-
little independence" of the small
members OF the league (article 1917
Il do not mean to comment on
these as | go along, but Senator
Lodge has referred to that and said
that if that had been in existence we
could not have taken Cuba; that
| France could not have joined
| against England with US in the
revolutionary war. But | want mere
| ly to add that had there been such a
league with that provision, this later
war could not have occurred. Was
the Spanish war, by which we took
Cuba-was it worth this war? That
is the sort of question that we have
| to decide"
The audience seemed DISPOSED to
be impartial and again the applause
| ,,,a, ~ ,,,,on f....,l,