Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-06-20
The League Of Nations
And the Treaty Of Peace

u.
tary of State, now leading Senate OPP
ponent of the League of Nations, who
declared in an address at the University OF
Pennsylvania nine summers ago:
1--WE have reached a point when it is
evident that the future holds in store
time when wars shall cease; when the
nations of the world shall realize a fed
Grafton as real and vital as that now sub
sisting between the component parts of
a single State; when by deliberate in
ternational conjunction the strong shall
universally help the weak, and when the
corporate righteousness of the world
shall compel unrighteousness to disap-
pear and shall destroy the habitations
of cruelty still lingering in the dark
places of the earth"
What has the Pennsylvania statesman
done with the principles he then so eloquent
ly professed? If deliberate international
conjunction" was good thing to believe in
nearly a decade ago, wi en- the occasion for
putting it to practice was in no wise so faV-
Orable as now, why ABANDON it at the very
moment when nations great and small stand
ready to join America in bringing the ideal
actually to pass? Our eminent Rel ublicans
have a long memory for partisanship. but
curiously short one for principle. Senator
Lodge, no further back than the spring Of
1915, said in the same vein with Senator
Knox: "It may seem Utopian at this
lions in order to- put controlling force be-
hind the maintenance of peace and interna-
tional order, but it is along this path that
we must travel if we are to attain in any
measure to the end we all desire, peace upon
earth" Thus when the idea of League of
Nations was at purely academic stage Sem
ator Knox was enthusiastically for it, When
the war TEMPEST was at it's roaring height
and no plan for preserving of future peace
could get hearing, Senator Lodge was a
doughty disciple of an international league.
But the opportunity for definite and con-
elusive action in behalf of the great principle
having arrived, Messrs Knox AM Lodge,
along with the majority of their party col
leagues, turn bitter obstruction1sts. Such is
the breadth and depth of the Republican
Senates craftsmanship.
After all, however, it is not surprising to
find the forces of reaction and of special
privilege in domestic affairs aligned against
the forces of progress and liberalism in in
ternat1onal affairs. From the day the Paris
conference assembled they were busted with
efforts to separate the League Covenant from
the treaty and to postpone discussion of the
League until after the declaration of peace
when the chance of uniting the Powers
upon plan of effective international organ
1zat1on would have dwindled to shadow of
what it was whilst the great practical issues
were vitality present. President Wilson stood
out for immediate consideration of the
not forged into results then, it probably
never would be; and of that same mind were
the Liberals of all countries. Accordingly,
the peace conference proceeded upon the
plan OF making the League fundamental to
the treaty instead OF mere adju1ct or after
tnought; and so thoroughly was this plan ad-
hered to that it is now impossible to accent
the treaty of peace without accepting the
League. Covenant
Not only is the entire first section of the
treaty given over to setting forth of all
the provisions of the Covenant but nm to
Cne very end OF the treaty the League plays
an essential part being referred to, as Mr.,
hamilton Holt points out, seventy-one dis
Cinct times. Inc League, for instance" 1--WE
quote Mr.. HolD will have full charge of
nnal disposition Of the Saare Valley: it will
control the free city of Danzig; it will suner-
wise the conventions setween Germanv "a
foIand and Germany and Austria: if will
nave unlimited power to investigate condi
lions IN Germany; it will supervise all treat
les between Germany and the allied mowers.
~ VIII nave duties to perform in regulating
Inc international traffic of ports Waterways
! ana railroads; it will have power to settle al,
uIsputes arising out of the Peace Treaty. and
10 amend 1t; and it is inextricablv hound
up with the labor conventions in which it
mas all sorts of administrative. executive
les1slatlVe, and even judicial functions"
"naC are the KnOXes and Lodges eoino IN
do about it? Will thew defer and en oie ~
peace IN order to defeat principle to which
cord tnGlr sr openminded moments they gave
I9 support? Will they play a game
hlgnly pleasing to the German intrigners ~
oroer to vent their partisan prejudice against
Inc Inc PRESIDENT of the United States? VIII
! Iney discredit their nation and be+ra :,
nI1 hopes merely to score a point in
| pygmy politics? po1i' III
The C1UnlrV ,Sco1oc