Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-09-30

u
II Iy share the Presidents disappoint-
ment at his having to forego the last
stage of his speaking tour in support OF the
Peace Treaty and the League of Nations.
They are deeply gratifed, however, that he
has been prevailed upon to take a sorely
needed rest. The strain of his latest trip,
coming on top of the constant stress under
which he has labOred for years, was enough
to fray nerves of steel.
The marvel is that Mr.. Wilson, with
constitution which, though sound, is not ro-
bust, has stood the tremendous demands upon
his strength so magnltlcently. NOT once
since 1915, when he had fOrtnight's vaca-
ton in New Hampshire, has he been free
| from the full weight of national and inter.
national problems-the graVest problems
| ever faced by America or by the world. Those
| involved in the prosecution of the war were
! indeed difficult and vast, but less so than
! those which came in the making OF peace.
| In the Paris conference President Wilson
bore not only the responsibility OF America
| chief spokesman, but that also OF the chief
reconciler of differences between other mem
| bers of the council; and it is recorded on all
sides that his was the uppermost and decisive
! influence at the peace table. No sooner was
! that gigantic task performed (and performed
acceptably to nearly all concerned, save Ger
man miItarists and faction of the United
States Senate) than the President
fronted at home with partisan fight against
| the work which had been done so greatly and
opinion to the support of the Treaty and the
League Covenant against efforts to destroy
| Them that he went forth for ten thousan
mile journey around the continent. And
when at last he was forced to cancel the re-
mainder of his speaking engagements he had
gone some eight thousand two hundred miles,
had made forty addresses and had demon
strated beyond peradventure that the ma
! tions mind and the nations heart are en-
| listed with jealous conviction in the cause
fNYs n Joh hn ctTI IIIcf do
stable by international cooperation to pre-
! vent future wars.
II would give my life for the consum-
nation of this Covenant" said the President
with a quiet simplicity that bespoke the
| depth of his earnestness. Was it not for
| the principles and purposes embodied in
| that Covenant that thousands of American
youths gave their life at Chateau-Thierry and
st. Mihiel and in the grim shades of Argonne
Wood? Was it not for Just peace and q
| lasting peace that America added her treas
ure and dearest blood to the billions already
| spent and the millions of lives already laid
| down by the allied defenders of freedom?
The President asks nothing more than a
guarantee, as dependable a guarantee as
human wisdom and integrity can devise, that
| this colossal sacrifice will not have to be
made again, and this ptiable tragedy re-
| enacted. That simple aim-simple, yet no.
vast in its import to humanity!-is the sum
and substance of the Covenant of the League
| of Nations, which a Senatorial faction is
seeking to destroy. 1t seems well-nigh in
credible that members of the United States
Senate should stand for the rejection of a
plan which is the only one proposed, and as
| far as has been shown, the only one pos
| sible, for the insurance of peace and for the
happy solution of those dark problems which
now encompass the life of nations. The sad
| fact is, however, that the Lodges and KnOXes
and Reeds do stand for the virtual rejection
and defeat of that plan. Under cover of
amending it, they would destroy it altogether.
Some of them, indeed, have plainly avowed
their desire for separate peace with Ger
many, a course which would be equivalent
to abandoning friends at the most crit
ical juncture Of the worlds history.
| 1t was against this shameful and danger
GUS policy, and in support of a statesmanly
plan of peace that the President took the
case to the people, What their verdict is
cannot be doubted from the enthusiasm with
which he has been heard in State after State
from the Potomac to the Mississippi and on
to the tides OF the Golden Gate. With scarce
ly an exception, il we may credit the reports
of unbiased and unimpeachably truthful cor
| respondents, his exposition of the Treaty and
the League have carried conviction to great
audiences, and his appeal for ratification has
evoked thunderOus approval. Mr., Wilson has
not finished his trip, but he has accom-
plished his mission, He has aroused and ar
rayed the public mind in behalf of Treaty
ratification. more potent utterance than
any he might have made, had not illness i'm
thoughts of millions of Americans, rises as a
peoples demand for prompt and favorable
action by the Senate.
By all means let such interpretations or
reservations OF the Treaty as it's friends may
deem necessary be adopted in distinct reso-
luton. But this is quite different from the
scheme of those who would so amend it as
to leave only thing of shreds and patches
robbed of it's virtue a preventive against
war and doomed to rejection by the other
nations. That is the design of those Sena-
tors whose prejudice against the President
blinds them to what is wise and patriotic and
humane. That IS the design which Mr. Will
son has been fighting, and which every friend
of America and of mankind should oppose
with iron resolution.
An optimist is a man who is not afraid OF
the flu.
II those Marines have landed in Italy, then
Italy had better look out. Ask the kaiser