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

groups or men TO COntrIfe inc uo"H-
fall Of civilization in private confer
ence.
"But want to say something about
that. That has a different aspect,
and perhaps you will regard 1t as a
slight depression from the direction
which l am asking you 70 be patient
enough to follow.
my fellow citizen, It does not
make any difference what kind OF
minority governs you. If 1t is a minor
lily. And the thing we must see 10
/, is that no minority anywhere mas
tiers the majority.
THAT is at the heart, my fellow
citizens, of the tragical things that
are happening in that great country
(which we long to help and can ma no
way that is effective to help mean
the great realm of Russia. The men
lwho are now measurapiy IN control
(, of the affairs of Russia represent
nobody but themselves. They nave
again and again been challenged 10
call constitutional convention.
They have again and again peeh
challenged to prove that they had
some kind of a mandate even from
a single class of their fellow citi-
tzens. And they dared not attempt
lit: they have no mandate from any
body. There are only thirty-four OF
them, am told, and there were more
than thirty-four men who used TO
control the destinies of Europe from
Wilhelmstrasse. There is a closer
monopoly of power in Petrograd and
Moscow than there ever was In Ber-
lin, and the thing that is intolerable
/ is not that the Russian people are
ihaving their way. but that another
group of men, more cruel than the
car himself, is controlling the des-
TIMES of that great people. Ana
want to say here and now that
am against the control of any minor
ity anywhere. Search your own eco
nomic history and what have you
been uneasy about? Now and again
YOU have said there were small
groups of capitalists who were con-
trolling the industry and therefore
the development of the United
States. Seriously, my fellow citi-
Gems, IL that is so (and sometimes
have feared that it was), we must
break up that monopoly. am not
now saying that there is any group
of our fellow citizens who are con-
sciously doing anything OF the kind;
II am saying that these allegations
must be proved. But II it is proved.
that any class, any group, anywhere
is without the suffrages OF their fel-
low citizens in control of our affairs
then | am with you to destroy the
Ipower of that group. We have got
to be frank with ourselves. however.
, TO 10 oil rpinOritv govern
ment in Germany, we must see TO IT
that we do not have it in the United
States.
IF you do not want little groups
of selfish men TO plot the future OF
Europe, we must not allow little
| groups OF selfish men to plot the
future of America. Any man that
| speaks for a class must prove that
he also speaks for all his fellow cfti-
zens and for mankind; and then we
will listen to him. The most difficult
thing in a democracy, my Fellow cltl-
izens, is to get classes, where they I'M
fortunately exist, to understand one
another, and unite, and yet you have
mot got a great democracy until they
do understand one another and unite.
| So that if we are in for seeing that
! there are no more czars and no more
| kaisers, then let us do a thorough
lob and see that nothing Of that sort
occurs anywhere.
Then there was another thing we
wanted to do, my fellow citizens, that
lis done in this document. We wanted
| to see that helpless people were no
where in the world put at the mercy
of INSCRIPTIONS enemies and mas,
tiers. There is one pftiful example
which is in the hearts OF all OF us.
| / mean the example of Armenia,
There are christian people, helpless,
at the mercy of a Turkish govern
ment which thought it IN service OF
God to destroy them, and at this
moment, my fellow citizens, It is an
open question whether the Armenian
people will not, while we SIT here
| and debate, be absolutely destroyed.
When l think of words piled on
words, of debate following debate.
when these unspeakabIe things thar
cannot be handled until the debate is
| over are happening in these pitiful
parts of the world, | wonder that
men do not wake up TO the moral
responsibility of what they are doing.
Great peoples are driven out upon
| a desert where there Is no food and
can be none, and they are compelled
| to die and then men, women and
children thrown into common
grave, so imperfectly covered up that
here and there is a pitiful arm
stretched out TO heaven; and there
| is no pity in the world. When shall
we wake to the moral responsibility
| of this great occasion?
| "And so, my fellow citizens. there
are other aspects to that matter.
Not all the populations that are
! having something that is not a square
deal lived in Armenia. There are
! others. And one Of the glories OF
the great document which I brought
back with me is this: That every,
where within the area Of settlement
covred by the political questions in
volved IN that treaty, people of that
sort have been given their freedom
and guaranteed their freedom But
the thing does not end there, be
cause the treaty includes the cove
nant of the league of nations. And
what does that say That says that
it is the privilege Of any member