Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1919-08-13
"NEITHER PEACE NOR N4.R.-
lFrom Tie New York World

y
Back of all of President Wiser
drastic recommendations for the pro-
lection of the public against profit
eering and the maintenance, so far
as power exists, in Government, OF
reasonable prices for the necessaries
of life, stands the vital fact that he
compressed into single sentence,
There is now neither peace nor war;
And as we are neither at peace nor at
war, we lack all the elements Of sta
bility that attach to either state.
The general condition of the world
cannot be better described than Presi-
dent Wilson described it in his adj
dress to Congress yesterday:
There can be no confidence in
industry, no calculable basis for
credits, no confident buying or
systematic selling, no certain
prospect Of employment, no nor
NAL restoration Of business, no
hopeful attempt at reconstruction
or the proper reassembling Of the
dislocated elements Of enterprise
until peace has been established,
and SO far as may be, guaranteed.
Some measure OF relief may follow
from the legislation that the Presi.
dent recommends, provided Congress
acts quickly and intelligently, but this
situation cannot be permanently cured
by statute or by executive action
The disease is too deep. Nobody ever
liquidatedt q war by legislation and
nobody ever will. The first step In
the process Of liquidation must come
in the establishment of peace,o and
there is no peace. NJ
The United States today Is practi-
cally the financial and economic die
tator Of Europe, but nobody knows
! what the United States is going to dc
in the matter Of peace until the SEN
ate acts on the treaty. All the issues
that were settled with SO much effort
in Paris may be thrown back on the
council table. Every controversy may
be, revived. The whole structure Of
peace that has thus far been raised
may be wrecked by the refusal Of
the senate to permit the guarantees
that are essential. There is no GER
tainty Of anything while this miser-
able partisan debate drags on.
The uncertainty that exists IN Eu-
rope has communicated itself to
America, and we have begun the same
process Of fermentation that is in
progress there. Doubt and unrest
have ploughed a fertile field for ev-
cry agitator. All business has be-
come more or less speculative, and
speculative business means gambling
with the very means of subsistence
The profiteer is taking advantage OF
the situation to squeeze every pos
sible dollar out of the consumer, but
he did not create the situation. He is
merely exploiting it.
President Wilson in his address
canyassed the subject in it's entirety
and submitted list of recommended
lions that touch every factor in the
problem; yet none of this legislation
can get to the heart of the question
unless we first have peace, with all
that peace implies. That cannot come
until the obstructionist Senators UNI
der the leadership of Henry Cabot
Lodge are coerced by public opinion
into action on the treaty.
For the most part the Presidents
suggestions are in the nature OF war
measures, and they go much further
than many of the war powers that
the government ever exercised in the
most critical days of the conflict. The
main reason for this new appeal to
war powers is the condition created
by the refusal of the Senate to permit
state of peace, and until we begin
with that fundamental issue we are
drifting further and further away
from sound governmental practices
and sound economic practices.
The world is, indeed, on the oper-
ating table without an anaesthetic, as
the President said, and the chief agent
in prolonging the agony of the
operation, is the United States Senate