Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1919-07-21
BEGGING THE QUESTION.

Unless one is really for war with ia |
pan, he must accept the present ar
arrangement for Shantung in the peace
treaty and seek to hold Japan to her
/. pledge as to its restoration. From any
!. ideal or moral standpoint the Shantung |
. settlement is indefensible. 1t is gross
violation of "self-determination." Yet
Japan's, rights in Shantung, legally
speaking, are as good as England's INF
HOngkOng, or Frances in lndO- China,
OF. Americas in the Philippines. What
right of .self-determinat ton did we per-
init the Filipinos to exercise twenty
years sgo.--springfeld lMass.) Repub-
-lica1.
OF course, technically, the title OF
Japan to Shantung is as good as any
other title secured by force. Some
: twenty years ago Germany, by thel
force Of arms, compelled China to sur
render Kiao.Chau and some surround
ing territory, signing it over to Ger
> many for ninety-nine years: The pro-
= .ceedings were the same in principle as
: exhibited by the masked gunman upon
. the dark street who shoves a pistol I'M
. der the nose Of a pedestrian and de-
mands his money or his life. Germany
: stole the territory from China just as
truly as Jesse James ever stole money
from bank And here comes the|
Springfield Republican, muswump
: democrat ever since the Cleveland
Blaine campaign of 1854, and seeks to
! Justify such an outrage by pointing to
! others of similar nature. The Free
. man-JOurnal resents the statement
: that Japan's claim to Shantung is as
. good, as Americas claim to the Philip
pines, Spain secured the Philippines
: without the. consent Of the Fillpln0S
: and held them against the will OF their
people. The Filipinos were OF another
race and spoke another language anu
were displeased with the government
, Spain was giving them. No such stu
! alton existed in Shantung. which was
: portion of China for centuries and
which was and is populated by Chinese.
Moreover, twenty years ago. there was
not the claim Of such superior virtues
on the part of the governments OF the
world. Dissertations on self-determina-
ton and making the world safe for
democracy were not then INDUCED i'll.
/. even by dreamers and idealists. Now
is the time for us to make good. II
possible, in our preachments hiat-
Chau and Shantung belong to CHINA
and to no other nation.
sunless one is really for war with ia
nan, he must accept" etc. rrcaelics the
uplifter. OF Springfield. Perhaps we
must accept. but, thank God, we do not
have to accept without protest ana
without exposing tile hypocrisy of those
who can see only one side of any lues-
tiOn.
Germany had no moral rights in
Shantung, no more than the thicf has
to his plumber, and even IL tie lcSa
right does go to Japan, japan Is SIN
without right, morally speaking. 1t rs
useless to point to the crimes OF the
past to Justify those. of the present.
Whether or not England has any rights
i'm Hongkong, or France in 1ndo-China.
has nothing to do with the Shantuhs
question. The Hongkeng and lndo-
China. affair were. settled years ago,
the Shantung a fair has just been set
fled and it has been the means OF pull
ing the mask from some faces that