Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-09-27
CRISP BIT of Comment
From the villager.

The league Of nations has ALREADY been tried
twice in modern history. Napoleon knew from
the start that world peace meant constraint and
he did not blink the thought Of world army:
Alexander-and the rest OF Europe-soon found
that world peace must involve world dictator,
ship. The men who set up the Hague Tribunal
tried to get around this difficulty; they could
not do It. The present league. Of nations offers
no new device for surrounding the obstacle;
nationality 10 today an even stronger force
than il, was century. ago. There are no half
way considerations. If the league Of nations
works, It is . Supes<State; H. Il does not work,
it is not league of nations. II Il works as
the union Of our states has worked, then we
shall stand to the United States Of the World.
sitting at Geneva. - Massachusetts stands to
this government, sitting 1T Washington. There
never has been and there never will be more
than two allegiances possible for nen,-family
and State. Lenin and Trotsky face that; they
know q man cannot owe his loyalty equally to
labor and the state; they know one OF these
must 60 under. The affairs of the world can
not be centralized by 4 mere organism, .crea-
needed to run the world. If it has power, we
have not. There is the issue.
It is pure demagogy to talk about the Organ
lied opinion OF mankind" as II that opinion
were something to prevent wars. The opinion
of mankind" can prevent nothing at all except
dS IL rises up dIteI Tue TACT auu puHlSueSS tauo
it may some day be deterrent to potential
crime; it has not proved so yet There is no
opinion of mankind about most OF the trouble
some affairs of the world; there Is none about
Fiume; there is none about Silesia; one side
thinks one way and one side the other.
and to suppose that the stronger side can CO.
cree the weaker side into its way of thinking
is to suppose what Germany supposed. We
have had enough OF catch phrases.
Lloyd George now has an "organ;" The
Future is its sinifcant title. No one needs
ever to command the English premier Eyes
Left"--one eye at least always looks to that
has Northcliffe to reckon with; the Times and
the Mail, one can be sure, will furnish all the
centrifugal force The Future should have. Look
ing back over the course of Mr.. Wilson's ac-
tivity, one cannot but be struck by the contrast.
Mr.. Wilson's propaganda machine has had. no
obstacles whatsoever. America has no North
cliffe; at first glance, Mr.. Hearst seems an
approach to him. but events have demonstrated
that Northcliffe has a real power-less than
has been supposed perhaps, but considerable
nevertheless: Mr.. Hearst, on the other hand,
has proved less dangerous person than we had
feared; his :ropper in politics more than limited
that his millions of readers are less guided by
his editorial opinions than they are entertained
by the features" by which he has bought his
great circulation. But what is true of Mr..
IICdISt DIT DOllCHl, True OF tHe Quiet PUBLISH
ers as we'll; their newspapers are read for their
front pages, not for their editorial pages, and
when Mr.. Wilson rolled out his propaganda
machine, there was no concentrated opinion of
any sort to withstand it. George Creel was Of
the profession and the editors gave the official
Bulletin rough time of it, to be sure, but the
Bulletin was mere drop in the administrations
bucket. What counted was semi-offlcial crops
of forward looking directed by Colonel
House, those three thousand historians en-
listed to interpret the war to America as Mr.
Wilson wanted it interpreted, the college pro-
fessors of sociology who contributed patent in
sides" to little newspapers of the country
small army of these folk have for two years
been swrenching the true cause the false way"
with an unscruplousness that must make Truth
blush and will make History smile. Some day
the American newspapers for the FIRST six
months Of 1919 will be checked up with the
English and French journals of the same peri
cd; the record there disclosed of this admins
tration's propaganda will make an unsavory
chapter in our annals.