The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-09-06

| 4.
ask any better forum than to stand
/ I'M before the world and challenge
the other party 10 make good it's ex-
cuse for not acting in that case.
That compulsion is the most ire
mendous moral compulsion that
could be devised by organized man
! kind. think / can take II for
granted, my fellow citizens. that you
never realized before what scope
| this great treaty has. You have been
asked to look at so many little spots
| in 1t with magnifying glass that
vol, did not know how big 1T was,
what a great enterprise of the human
spirit it Is, and what a Thoroughly
i American document 1t is from cover
! to cover. 1t is the first great inter
national agreement In the history or
| mankind where the principle adopted
! has been not the power of the strong
but the right of the weak.
ITO reject that treaty, to alter that
| treaty. is to impair one of the first
charters of mankind. And yet there
are men who APPROACH the question
with passion, with private passion,
and party passion, who think only OF
some immediate advantage to them
selves or to a group of their fellow
countrymen, and who look at the
thing with the jaundiced eyes OF
those who have some private pur-
pose of their own. !.
when at last, in the annals OF
mankind. they are gibbeted they will
regret that the gibbet is so high.
II would not have you think that
7 am irving to characterize those
who conscientiously object to any
, thing in this great document. | take
off my hat in the presence OF any
mans genuine conscience; and there
are men who are conscientiously OPP
posed to 1t, though they will pardon
mo if say ignorantly opposed
have no quarrel with them. 1t mas
been a pleasure TO confer WIN solne
of them. and to tell them as frankly
as / would have told my most lnll,
mate friend the whole inside or my
mind, and every other nina tnal !
know anything about that had oeen
concerned with the conduct OF al
fairs at Paris, in order that the!
might understand this thing and go
with the rest of US in the eonilrhla-
ton of what is necessary LOT the
peace of the world
81 have no intolerant spirit IN the
matter; but I also assure you that
from the bottom of my feet 10 the
top of my head l have got fight
Eng spirit about it. And II anybody
! dares to defeat this great experiment
then they must gather together the
counselors Of the world and do some
thing better. If there is a better
scheme, /, for one, will subscribe 10
it, but I want to say now, as SAID
the other night, it is case OF put
run or shut up. Negation Will not
| save the world. Opposition con
structs nothing. Opposition is the
specially Of those who are bolshevist-
ically inclined.
again assure you / am not COM
| pairing any of my respected cor
| leagues to bolshevists, but am mere
! Iy pointing out that the bolsheFlstic
! spirit lacks every element or con-
structiye opposition. They nave de-
stroyed everything and they nave
1 proposed nothing.
"And while there is common ab-
horrence for political bolshevism, !
! hone there will not be any such thins
| grow up in our country as inter
national boIshevism, the bolshevism
that destroys the constructive WORK
Of men who have conscIentlousiy
striyen to cement the good feeling OF
the great peoples of the world. And
the majestic thing about the league
OF nations is that it Is to include
| the great peoples of the world-aii
eycent Germany. Germany is one OF
the great peoples of the world.
would be ashamed not to say that.
''Those sixty million Industrious, In
ventiye and accomplished people are
one Of the great people of the world
They have been set upon, they nave
been misled; their minds have oeen
debased by a false philosophy. They
| have been taught things that the
human spirit ought to reflect: But, they
will come out Of that nightmare; they
will come out of that fantasm, and
they will again be a great people; anu
when they are out of it, when they
have got over that dream of conquest
| and appression, when they nave
shown that their new government real
| lv is based upon new principles and
nnon democratic principles, we, there
| at Paris, all agreed that they should
be admitted to the league OF nations.
GIN the meantime. her one-time
mariners. Austria, is to be admitted /;
Hungary, I dare say will be admitted;
and the only nations outside of the
I1eague-unless we choose TO stay out
and go in later with Germany-the
only great nation left out is Ger
many: the only nations left out. OF any
consequence, are Germany and Fur
| key. and we are just now looking FOR
the pieces of Turkey. She is SO thor
oughly disintegrated that the process
of assembling the parts Is becomtns
increasingly difficult, and the chief
controversy now is. who shall at
tempt that very difficult and perilous
lob. 1t is not great vision. my fel.
low citizens, this of the thoughtIul
world combined for peace, and this
of all the great peoples of the world
associated to see that justice Is done
that the strong, whom intend wrong
are restrained, and the weak who can
not defand themselves are made Sc
cure? We have problem ahead or us
that ought to interest us in this con,
lnection. We have promised the peo-
pie of the Philippine islands that we