Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1919-05-08
The Worlds Next Step
NO.
Tho League OF Nation. and the Prog
ross Of Civilization
BY CLARENCE L. SPEED

The worlds next step is to be the
formation OF a league of nations. Ten.
tative plans for its constitution have
been approved at.the peace conference
Representatives OF fourteen of the
greatest governments In the world
have agreed on the tentative details
Reports indicate that delegates from
other nations assembled at Paris to fix
on the terms for ending the great war
are ready to sign treaty creating a
league OF nations. Even the defeated
nations approve the idea If not the
details. 1t may be taken now as a
foregone conclusion that the world
as whole has decided to act in con-
cert. to organize to prevent wars In
future, to protect the weak and pre-
vent aggression by the strong.
Since the dawn of history the world
has been progressing logically toward
this step, though falteringly and with
many slips backward. From the pre-
historic times when 1t was every man
for himself. down through the ages
when small tribes deSpoiled their
neighbors, when despotisms of the an
cient world struggled for mastery.
when feudal lords who were little
more than robbers made wars for
booty. to the development of the mod
ern nations as they stood five years
ago, man had slowly been learning
that he could not live for himself
alone, but must depend on the Co
operation of his neighbors.
Slowly, very slowly, the ideas of
right and justice as we now under
stand them grew up. Primitive man
learned that to protect himself he had
to live in accord with his neighbors.
But his neighbors then were the few
Of his fellow beings who lived in his
immediate vicinity. They were sepa-
rated from others by wide stretches of
jungle, plain or swamp.
As human population increased
"neighbors" came to mean all the
members of great tribes, and finally
all citizens of nation.
But scientific progress outstripped
for time mankinds social progress.
There came the application of steam,
the discovery Of electricity. the tele-
graph, the wireless, the flying machine,
which made the world neighborhood.
Trade was carried on from one end
of the world to the other. No nation
could live an independent life. Failure
of the cotton crop in Texas meant pri-
walton and suffering in Manchester; a
change in the tariff laws of the United
States might mean great distress in
far distant countries. Nevertheless
the nations of the earth continued to
act entirely independently, each look
ing for its own selfish interests with
out regard for the interests OF the
remainder of the world.
The individual in every civilized
country had long ago recognized the
Justice of the Limitation of his rights.
He no longer claimed the privilege Of
going out and killing an enemy with
whom he had disagreed; of stealing
his nelghbors property just because
he wanted 1t, of enslaving his fellows,
of fighting duels, Of carrying concealed 4!
weapons.
He gave up all these ancient privi- |
leges and depended on his government |
for protection. He did so in spite of |
the fact that there were individuals in |
every land who refused to do likewise.
He suffered at times from the thief, |
the robber, the murderer; yet as the
centuries went by he took the law
into his own hands less and less fire.
nuently, until before the great war
broke over the world the greater part
Of the earth's surface was settled, or
Derby, safe.
Yet it never seemed to occur to
these same men who had submitted to
80 much curtallment of their individ-
nal privileges that there might ever
ne any Joint exercise of power by all
If the states of which they severally
1appened TO be citizens. Nations built
10 huge armies and navies, glared at
zach other across frontiers, seized the
ands of weak or undeveloped peoples,
md exploited conquered territories for
heir own benefit.
True. some countries, notably Eng
and. which held subject colonies in all
parts of the earth, and the United
states. which only recently had rather
accepted responsibilities
n the Philippines, had reached a
,tage of development where they no
onger considered it the proper thing
nercilessly to exploit dependent peo-
lies. vet this sentiment was far from
general. Land grabbing was the &C
.epted practice. Peaceful civilization
vas held back by the necessity Of de-
roting so much of the resources Of
very land to preparation for a
truggle that was deemed inevitable.
Finally, in 1914, the storm broke.
Var. costing millions of lives and
cores of billions Of dollars, swept
yer the earth, involving nation after
,ation in the fighting and the whole
world in the misery 1t entailed. Man,
i, 4L.o,,ol, 4ha hfftorpQt suffering in 4