The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-07-16
THE

When the peace conference assembled the paramount task
before it was to deal with and dispose OF Germany. This was
done when the German delegates signed the pact. Wilson and
Lansing will devote their time to home affairs for a season, and
others Will be chosen to carry on the work. The aftermath
means much and will require a great deal Of time and labor. It
IS a pity that some of these Republican senator's who are so dis
satisfied with the work of Wilson cannot be sent to complete the
JOB The CLAIMANT countries must be satisfied or silenced in
some way.
Italy wants Fiume and a large slice of the Adriatic coast
She wants Northern Epirus and some Of the lonian islands
which belong to Greece. Italy is sulen and dissatisfied with the
way things are going, and with the way things have gone.
- II te league OF nations is once completed its moral force
will be an irresistible power. This country can either make
or mar its usefulness. Everything depends on the action of
congress,
When Greece and Italy are placated, when Austria is
trimmed, when the J~ugoSlavs and the Czecho-SIovaks are dis
posed OF, the work is only well begun. Comes lonp-suffering
Armenia holding up her helpless hands, the blood and tears
'rckllng down her cheeks. Something must be done for
armenia, The Turk must be made to cease his riot OF murder
n that unfortunate country. The Turk has butchered 100000
2t her people in orthodox fashion-the men, the women and the
children. Besides this, another 100000 have been driven out of
The country, robbed and plundered by the unspeakable Turk
Then come the ever-prescnt Balkans. The Balkans are a
deVls caldron, filled with seething hell broth, and have given
more trouble to Europe than almost anything else. The peace
conference must act as a world court, and it will not soon reach
the end OF its docket. Even then, it cannot adjourn or dissolve,
because other cases will be coming up from time to time.
This court should 60 to The Hague, where a rich American,
Col' Andrew Mucklethrht Carnegie, has buIded a spacious edi,
ice to house it, Hague means meadow, and on this Netherland
meadow htigants can meet, and, proceeding to the great temple
OF justice have their causes adjudcated and their differences
adjusted, Unless we are going back to the sword and the torch,
which would mean universal Bolshevism, there must be some
tribunal before which contending parties may appear to have
their rights declared and their wrongs righted The great Hague
temple Is untenanted, save for a few c~aretakers, and it should
be put to use and used, as was intended, for the benefit of man
kind. The civilized nations are their brothers keepers. and they
must devise some means OF making these brothers behave them
selves.
There are so many different kinds of people in the Balkans
that no melting pot has yet been found to coalesce them into
anything like homogenety. Some of these people are highly
cultivated, while Others are but a few degrees removed from saw
agery, According to western thinking, they can scarcely be
called folks. They believe in the law of the beak and talon
They are still back in the good old times when it was the proper
thing to take from anyone who had and kill him if he objected
Dealing with these people will be all the more difficult, because
there is no law or precedent that they respect. They Weld TO
nothing but force, and listen to no argument but the sword.
Il the whole caboodle OF them could be showed into Cocytus.I
the world would be we'll rid of them.
The work OF the peace conference has only begun, and the
grandchildren OF the present day may have an opportunity to
serve as peacemakers and world-dividers. Like other allied
countries, we are into it up to our ears, and we must do our
part until the end, no matter how far distant that may be.