Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1919-03-06
the American market was taken a

l =
from the packed galleris which greet
ed this manly declaration was never
before equalled in the recollection of
living men.
The applause was deserved. Sen
ator Reed had just expressed the
practically unanimous sentiment OF
the American people.
The American people have been
mad very restless, and the majority
Of them are deeply dissatisfied with
the needless delay in getting thier
/ soldier relatives back to thir homes.
To be blunt about it, the majority
Of the American people look upon
| this proposed League Of Nations as
mere academic idealism. They can
see no sense in our ENJOYS spending
more than three months in formu-
4 lating this preposterous scheme OF a
super State to which the sovereignty
and the independence of the United
| States would be surrendered, and
leaving in the meanwhile their sons
! and thier brothers who have won
our war with Germany to endure the
hardships and the inconsistencies and
the uneoncealed hostility, as well as
the actually contemptuous mistreat-
ment. which are their unhappy and
undeserved lot to-day in the very
countries which they saved by their
sacrifices and their valor.
Each shipload Of soldiers coming
back from France brings to our as
tonished people fresh narratives of
the unfortunate conditions which
surround our brave men a.
broad. And as the returning soldiers
separate and go to their homes the
/ establishment of the disillusioned
communities is rapidly changing to
resentment.
AS a matter of justice, as a matter
of good faith and matter of com
mon sense, our soldiers should all
be brought home from Europe with
all the speed possible.
The American pople know that we
were able to send our soldiers to
Europe at five times the rate of speed
with which they are being brought
back, and no vague excuses and ex-
plantations will make the American
| people believe that Their boys cannot
be brought across the Atlantic to
their homes as rapidly as they were
sent across the Atlantic away from
their homes if the Government is as
anxious and determined to bring
them home as it was to ship them
away
The Government should do exac-
I-tly what Senator Reed says he would
DO if the decision Of the matter were
ia his hands.
As a mere matter of decent graft
itude, both the French and British
I Governments should be more than
willing to loan enough transport yes
sells to enable us to bring our sol
diers back, as they were more than
willing to loan US vessels to trans
port our soldiers to those fields of
battle where they rescued England
and France from the imminent de-
feat which Germany then had in store
for them.
| If the President had been at home
and in touch with his own country
men he would have been among the
first to see the extraordinary reaction
| of sentiment which has set in among
the people, and he would have real
lied that the American people are
sick and tired of seeing the United
| States led about like a performing
bear in French and British leading
strings and dancing for foreign a.
musement and profit whenever the,
French and British official barrel or
gan plays the tune to which we are
expected to dance.
The sloppy sentimental and emo
tional hysteria of war times are
| thing of the past and are now seen
by almost everybody to be as ridi-
culous as a calm and sober thinking
minority perceived them to be at the
time when they held almost universal
sway. The country has returned al
most completely to its normal state
of good sense, and the people now
want our relations with foreign
Governments and the handling of our
affairs conducted upon a peace basis.
We rejoice that there are still in
the United States Senate men who
have the good sense and the manly
American principals, of well tried and
long established American policies.
and who are not to be inundated
by any sort of pressure or influence,
whether domestic or foreign, into
keeping silent over this great wron /
which is being done to our soldiers
and to those to whom they are 30
dear, and who in more than tzvo