Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-09-05

ments at Vienna and Berlin did not
dare to admit time for discussion.
Il am recalling those circum-
stances, my fellow citizens. because
/ want to point out to you what ap-
parently has escaped the attention
of some of the critics of the League
of Nations that the heart of the
League of Nations does not lie in
, any of the portions which have
been discussed in public debate.
! The great bulk of the provisions of
, that covenant contained these en-
gagements and promises on the part
| of the states which undertook to
! become members of il; that in no
! circumstances will they go to war
| without first having either submit
! ted the question to arbitration-ln
which case they agree to abide by
the result; or, having submitted the
! question to discussion by the Coun-
! Gil of the League of Nations in
which case they will allow SIN
months for the discussion and en-
gage not to go to war until three
months after the Council has an
nounced it's opinion upon the sub
ject under dispute.
$50 that the heart of the Cove
nant of the League is that the ma
! tions solemnly covenant not to go
! to war for nine months after con-
! troversy becomes acute.
IF there had been nine days of
discussion Germany would not have
gone to war. If there had. been
nine days within which to bring to
bear the opinion of the world, the
! judgment of mankind upon the pur-
! pose of these governments they
never would have dared to execute
| those purposes.
Agreed to End Wars
80 that what it is important for
us to remember is that when we
sent those boys in khaki across the
sea, we promised them, we promis-
ed the world that we would not
conclude this conflict with a mere
Treaty of Peace. We entered into
solemn engagements with all the
nations with whom we associated
| ourselves, that we would bring
about such a kind of settlement
of nations that wars like this could
not again occur.
IF this war has to be fought
over again then all our high ideals
and purposes have been disappoint-
ed, for we did not go into this war
merely to beat Germany. We went
into this war to beat all purposes
such as Germany entertained.
I'VE are presently, my fellow
countrymen, to have a very great
pleasure of Welcoming on this side
of the sea the queen and king OF
the Belgians. (Aplause.) And, /,
for one, am perfectly sure that we
are going to make it clear to them
that we have not forgotten the vio-
lation of Belgium; that we have not
forgotten the intolerable wrongs
which were put upon that suffering
people. l have seen their devastated
country. Where it was not actually
laid in ruins, every factory was
gutted of its contents; all the ma
chinery by which it would be pos
sible for men to go to work again
was taken away, and those parts of
the machinery that they could not
take away were destroyed by ex-
perts who knew how to destroy
them.
Belgium was very successful
competitor of Germany in some lines
of manufacture, and the German
armies were sent there to see to it
that that competition was put a
stop to. Their purpose was to crush
the independent action of that little
kingdom-not merely to use it as a
gateway through which to attack
It IduCe' Suu "Hth lney SOl lulO
France they not only fought the
armies of France, but they put the
coal mines of France out of COM
mission, so that it will be decade
or more, before France can supply
herself with coal from her accus-
toned sources.
You have heard a great deal
about article ten of the Covenant of
the League of Nations. Article ten
speaks the conscience of the world.
Article ten is the article which goes
to the heart of this whole bad busi-
ness, for that article says that the
meubers of this League-and that is
intended to be all the great nations
of the world-engage to resist and
to preserve against all external ag
gression the territorial integrity and
political independence of the nations
concerned. That promise is neces-
sary in order to prevent this sort of
war recurring, and we are abso-
lutely discredited if we fought this
war and then neglected the essential
safeguard against it.
League Council Advises
I'VE engage, in the first sentence
of article ten, to respect and pre-
serve from external aggression, the
territorial integrity and the existing
political independence, not only of
the other member states but of all
states, and If any member of the
League of Nations disregards that
promise, then what happens? The
Council of the League advises what
should be done to enforce the re-
spect for that Covenant, on the part
of the nation attempting to violate
it. And there is no compulsion upon
us to take that action-eXcept the
compulsion of our good conscience
and judgment. So that it is per-
fectly evident that if, in the judg-
ment of the people of the United
States, the Council adjudged wrong,
and that this was not an occasion
for the use of force, there would
be no necessity on the part of the
Congress of the United States to vote
the use of force. But there could
be no advice of the Council on any
such subject without unanimous
vote, and the unanimous vote would
include our own. And If we ac-
cepted the advice we shall be ac
Cepting our own advice. For l need
not tell you that the representa-
tives of the Government of the
United States would not vote with
out instructions from their Govern
ment at home, and that what we
united in advising we could be GER
tain that our people would desire
to do.
There is in that Covenant not
one note of surrender of the inde-
pendent judgment of the Govern
ment of the United States, but an
expression of it, because that inde-
pendent judgment would have to
nj witt i,td &c