Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1919-03-07
THE PRESIDENTS CHALLENGE
(From The New York Wordl

The proudest thing have to report
to you" said President Wilson in his
speech in Boston yesterday, "is that
this great country of ours is trusted
throughout the world"
This is the proudest thing that any
President could report 1t is the high
est tribute that can be paid to the Re
public. How, then, is that trust to be
kept! How is the faith of the world in
the American people to be maintained
That was the text of the Presidents
address, and nobody familiar with CON
ditions in Europe can deny his con
clusion:
This confidence we have established
Throughout the world imposes a bur
den upon us. Any man who resists
the present tides that run in the world
will find himself thrown upon a shore
so high and barren that it will seem
as if he had been separated from his
humankind forever.
"If America were at this juncture to
fail the world, what would come OF it?
America is the hope of the world, and
if she does not justify that hope the
results are unthinkable"
Suppose, he continued in effect, we
sign the treaty OF peace and do no
more, we will have nothing but mod
ern scrap of paper.
Thus far the opposition to the League
OF Nations in the United States, and
particularly in the Senate has been a
counsel of cowardice. 1t has come
from timid men who are afraid to per
nit the United States to play mans
part in the world. They fear that it
may cost money. They fear that it
will entail duties. They suspect that
great friendly peoples like the British.
the French and the Italians are at
heart thieves and bandits who are lur-
ing us into darkened street only to
rob and murder us They are terrified
of responsibilities
They worry about the Constitution
and the Monroe Doctrine and the Pan
anna Canal They grow sick at heart
at the very thought that the Nation
which has taught self-government to
the Filipinos might be asked to assist
some other backward people on the
road to freedom.
When these critics are not ruled by
their cowardice they are ruled by their
petty parochial prejudices. They think
the United States can be i'll the world
but not OF the world They would
have the most powerful of republics
emulate the example of the Coreans
and become a hermit nation lest as
ISOLATION with other countries corrupt
our hearts and our institutions. They
do not believe that wars can be pre-
vented, but if wars can be prevented
let somebody else stop them. 1t is
none of our business, and by being
neutral there would be opportunities
for making money.
Moreover, a League of Nations as a
practical thing in international affairs
is an innovation, and innovations are
always to be regarded with suspicion
President Wilson favors it, and every
thing that the President advocates
should be opposed Perhaps he coe.ced
the British, the French and the ltal-
ians. Who knows? This scheme to
prevent war may be all subtle plot for
his own political aggrandizement. And
so it runs.
But the hard facts OF the world stu
alton must be faced The millions OF
men who have suffered the horrors OF
this war, the hundreds of millions of
people who have made the sacrifice OF
life and treasure, have rightly regarded
it as war to end war. If it is not
that to them, if their children must
L. eto that fhaN
have trod, if the old order of things is
to be restored all this agony has been
in vain. If there is to be no assurance
of peace and security, if the nations
are not to exert their reason and their
power to MAINTAIN the liberty that has
been won, what was the good OF 1t
all? Is there any American in the
Senate or out of the Senate who is pre-
pared to assume the moral responsible
ity for thus cheating the living and de-
frauding the dead
No critic of the League Of Nations
has advanced any plan of his own by
which the peace that ends this war can
be guaranteed Not one of them holds
out the smallest measure of hope to
civilization wounded almost to death.
They leave the world weltering in its
own blood and tell the afflicted peoples
to heal themselves as best they can.
The World does not believe that
that sentiment represents the mind and
the heart of the American people They
may be confused for the moment by
the clamor OF discordant voices, but
they have never strayed far from the
ideals of the Republic. As the Presi-
dent said yesterday, eve set this Ma
ton up to make men free, and now
we will make men free" And that is
his challenge to his opponents when he
Invites them to test the sentiment OF
America"