Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1919-08-19
LODGE DECLARES
LEAGUE FOR WAR
likens 1t to Holy Alliance Which
Fettered Europe.
WOULD WEAKEN THE U. S.
Senator Says Covenant In Its Present
Form Would Kill the Monroe Doc
trine and Plunge America
Into Every Quarrel.

Washington, Aug. 13.-Describing
the League of Nations as "deformed
experiment upon a noble purpose"
Senator Lodge of Massachusetts, chair
man of the foreign relations commit
tee and Republican leader of the SEN
ate, declared in a senate speech that
there were features of the league cove
nant which "as an American" he never
could accept. Creating not a league
of peace but an alliance embracing
many provisions for war;" the cove
nant in its present form, he asserted,
would kill the Monroe doctrine, nullify
any possibility of withdrawal from
membership, impair the sovereign
power of deciding domestic questions
and plunge the United States into
every controversy and conflict on the
face of the globe
LET us beware" he said, ''how we
palter with our independence. We
have not reached the great position
from which we were able to come
down into the field of battle and help
to save the world from tyranny, by be-
ing guided by others. Our vast power
has all been built up and gathered to-
gether by ourselves alone.
Fears Gripping of Nation.
'We forced our navy upward from
the days of the Revolution, through a
world often hostile and always indif
ferent. We owe no debt to anyone eX-
cept to France in our Revolution and
those policies and those rights on
which our power has been founded
should never be lessened or weakened.
II will be no service to the world to
do so and it will of intolerablc in
jury to the United States. We will do
our share to preserve the worlds
peace. But we can do it best by not
gripping ourselves.
81 am as anxious as any human be-
ing to have the United States render
every possible service to civilization,
but l am certain we can do it best by
not putting ourselves in leading strings
or subjecting our policies and our SOW
ereignty to other nations. / will go as
far as anyone in world service, but the
first step to world service is the main
uenance of the United States.
81 can never be anything else, but
an American, and 1 must think of the
United States first, and when l think
of the United States first in an ar
rangement like this, am thinking of
what is best for the world, for if the
United States fails, the best hopes of
mankind fail with it."
Will Not "Break World Heart"
"We are told that we shall break
the heart of the world if we do not
take this league just as it stands. l
fear that the hearts of the vast ma
jority of mankind would beat on
strongly and steadily and without any
if the league were to per-
ish altogether. If it should be effec-
lively and benefcently changed the
people who would lie awake in sorrow
for a single night could be easily gath
cred in one not very large room, but
those who would draw a long breath
Of relief would reach to millions"
Likening the league to the ill-famed
Holy alliance, Mr.. Lodge quoted the
covenant provision giving the assem-
bly, authority to IDEAL at it's meetings
with any matter affecting the peace of
the world" and continued:
There is no such sweeping or far
reaching provisions as that in the
treaty of Paris, and yet able men de-
veloped from that treaty the Holy al
lance, which for 80 years was an I'M
curse to the world. England
broke from the holy alliance because
English statesmen saw that it was in
tended to turn the alliance-and this
league is an alliance-into means of
internal revolutions or in
'In article 10 the United States is
bound on the appeal of any member of
the league not only to respect but to
preserve its independence and it's
boundaries, and that pledge, if we give
1t. must be fulfilled. There is to- me
no distinction whatever in treaty be-
tween what some persons are pleased |
to call legal and moral obligations. A
treaty rests and must rest, except |
where it is imposed under duress and |
securities and hostages are taken for !
It's fuEfillment, upon moral obligations.
IF the United States or any other |
great country should refuse, no matter !
how specious the reasons, to fulfill 7
both the letter and spirit every obliga- /
ton in this covenant. the United States /
would be dishonored and the league /
would crumble to dust, leaving behind !
It legacy of wars"