The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1919-10-03

NNt-A.-s
we could have taken. All the world stood as |
amazed and said is it true after all that
this people believe and mean what it says. Is
II true after all that this L great altruistic
force in the world Now look what has hap
pened, my fellow citizens.
Peoples Liberated.
Poland. Bohemia. Armenia and Jugo-Slayia,
there kinsmen, dare say of these people
in this audience, they could none Of them
have won their independence than
Cuba could have won theirs. They un-
der no authority that is as reckless in the
acts of its force that is as regardless of the
rights of people, and Of humanity the Span
ish government ever was in the government
OF the PHILIPPINES by force Of might.
These people have been liberated and now
the world is waiting to see whether the United
States will join in saying that it means what
it fought for and guarantee their freedom, and
say what we have given to you no man can
take away. This is our final heroic test of
character and if has the slightest doubt
of what the result of that test is going to
be, know that it is true this people
loves freedom and law and justice more than
material prosperity. So that 1 say, If we
wish to stand aside under the benefit of the
league, but share of its burden or re-
sponsibility, for my part, won't go in and
not accept what is our part of the leadership Of
the world, and that leadership is Of sort
my fellow citizens, it is a leadership that
leads along the lines by which great ma
tons can drive out the weak nations, and
not explicit power, but liberated power,
a power to show the world when America
born there finger pointed towards
those lands in which men might deploy some
of these days and live in perfect freedom,
where no mans hands are to be bound. Where
people accept their advantage here, not of their
own choice, but out of the generous impulse
of human generosity and the human spirit,
and it Is a place where war is no more, that
is leadership, that is the side want Now
the world is over with this war, it is incon-
ceivable that we should reject it.
1t is inconceivable to demand that we put
any condition upon accepting it, for | have
sort of hurt pride, my fellow citizens, as an
American that we should say that the integrity
of the world under the covenant can be
thing that don't consent to and do not
want Other nations other governments, were
Just Jealous in their sovereignties as we
have been and this guarantees the sovereignty
of all the members of this great union of
nations. There is only one nation for the
time being excluded, and that is Germany, and
Germany is excluded only in order that she
may go through period of probation. Only
in order that she may prove to the world
that she has made real, permanent change
in her constitution and that hereafter not
Wilhems wish, but the votes of the German
people will determine the policy of that coun-
try. If / may say so without even by inn
plication involving great public men, whom
entirely respect, l want to say that the only
popular clamor, that after all the various res
ervations, the only popular clamor back OF the
impulse to reject any part of this treaty
proceeds from exactly the same source that
the pro-German proceeded from
ask the honorable and enlightened men
who 1 believe thoughtlessly favor reservations
such as / have read, to reflect upon that, to
examine into the truth of it, and to reflect
upon this proposition, that by holding off from
this league they the purposes of Ger
many. For what Germany has sought through
out the was, first, to prevent our going
in than to separate in interest and pur-
pose from the other governments with which
associatng. Now shall we, by the
vote of the United States senate, do for Ger
many what it could not do with her arms We
shall be doing it whether we intend 1t or not.
ExcuIpates Opponents.
| l exculpate the men I am thinking of en-
! tirely from the purpose of doing it. 1t would
| be unworthy of me to suggest such a pur-
| pose But l do suggest, l do state with
confidence that that is the only end that would
| be gained; because Germany is isolated from
\ the other nations. She desires nothing so
much as that we should be isolated, because
| she knows that the same kind Of suspicion,
1 the same kind of hostility, the same kind of
unfriendliness-tha subtle poison that perme-
| ates every trouble that comes between nations
4 will center on the United States as well as
/ upon Germany. Her isolation will be broken.
| She will have a comrade whether that nation
/ wants to be her comrade or not. What the
lads did on the fields of France will be un
done. We will allow Germany to do in 1919
! what she failed to do in 1918.
/ 1t would be unworthy of me, my fellow citi-
! zens, in the responsible position in which you
/ have put me, if / to overstate any OF
4 these things. have searched my conscience
with regard to it ! believe l am telling
| you the sober truth, and / am telling you
! what l get, not by intution-I know more
/ than you do about it but through those many
| voices that inevitably reach the government.
| but do not always reach you; from overseas
/ are thinking and saying, and they are pray
! ing that the United States may stand of
| from the league.
Take New Viewpoint.
call upon you, therefore, my fellow citi-
zens, to look at this thing in new aspect.
a1uffn All
est, not with theory of responsibilities but
with consciousness of the great moral issue
which the United States must now decide.
/ If we keep out of this league now we
can never enter it, except along side of Ger
many. We can either go in come
in later with our recent enemy. And to
adopt a reservation such as have referred
to and explicitly renounce responsibilities UNI
der the central engagement of the covenant
is to do nothing less than that
l hope that in order to strengthen this
impression your minds you will take pains
TO read the treaty of peace. You need not
read all of it-a lot of it is technical and you
can skip that But l want you to get q
picture of what is in this great document
| 1t is much too narrow view of it to think
/ of it a treaty of peace with Germany. II
is that, but it IS very much more than .
i treaty of peace with Germany. 1t is treaty
| in which an attempt is made to set up tins
rights of peoples everywhere very explicitly
The lines of this treaty are going to be pro
jected and have been projected into the treaty
.
into the treaty with Hungary, into the treaty
with Turkey. Everywhere the same principle
is adopted, that the men who wrote the treat
les at Versailles were not at liberty to give
anybody elses property to anybody else. Ant
it is the first great international agreement
in the history of the civilization that was moi
based on the opposite principle Every Other
great international arrangement has been {
division of spoils and this is an absolut'
remuneration of spoils,
Even with regard to the helpless parts Of
the world, even with regard to those pool
beuighted people in Africa over whom Ger
many had exercised selfish authority which
exploited them and did not help them, ever
they are not handed to anybody else
League Called Humane.
The principle of annexation, the principle
of extending sovereignty to territories tina
are not occupied by those people, is rejected
in this treaty, and all Of these matters arr
put under the trust of the league of ma
lions to be administered for the benefit o.
their inhabitants. The greatest humane ar
arrangement that has ever been attempted. AnC
the rules are laid down in the covenant itsel
which prevent the selfish exploitation of thes'
helpful people by the agents of the league
who will exercise authority over them dur
ing the period of their development.