Weekly Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1919-1920, 1919-03-12
The Problem Of The Next Decade Will Be To Obeate angen
JOHNSBURY, VERMONT,

| knows when and how Il crowd can be
made to applaud in that way, and
how an audience can be influenced
under the stress of the moment and
made to approve OF a thing that in
sober quiet they might not approve
of at all. But that neither explains
away or condemns the great idea of
an assembly of the civilized nations
of the world to set up United
States of the Earth that shall
straighten out many kinks in our
social system which hitherto there
has been no organization to handle.
We were sorry to hear Brother
! Hndley of the Rutland Herald rise
in his two tracks after Greene had
: finished and ask to change his ballot
on whether OF not he approved of
the League of Nations. Because it
inferred that he had formerly sup
ported the League until Brother
: Greene launched his oratory and that
after hearing his views on the sub
.iect he shifted over pronto on an
other mans momentary say-so. And
that is bad. very bad for a man at
the head of a great newspaper to flop
over so easily. 1t seems to us that on
so vast topic, most of Us should
have valid enough reasons for our
belief and convictions strong enough
so that an hour of skillful oratory
does not stampede them. Brother
Hindlcy will probably wax sarcastic
over this chap in Caledonia county,
take him to task and advise him to
go back writing fiction. But this
chap over here in Caledonia county
has unfortunately been out in a sec
tion of the world where he has seen
his country in perspective and also
seen the glaring need for just this
sort of an international organization
now proposed. And he has returned
home strong for League of Nations
of the right sort-without being
any less the American. He has
reason to believe League of Nations
will work; that the times are ripe
for it; that the only folks who will
spoil it and explode it are few folks
who only see their Americanism from
g Washington committee-room angle
and not from the broader, vastcf
standpoint of international welfare.
Now we have no bone to pick with
Brother Greene. He has as much
right to his convictions as we have
to ours. And he's walking on safe
territory when he calls up Washing
tons farewell address and the naked
breasts of the Concord Minute-men
and the glory of the Yankee battle
eagle. He is furthermore honest
and earnest in his belief and we give
him credit for knowing every last
play in the Congressman's role in
lieu of which he will undoubtedly be
our next senator. But if Congress-
man Greene or any other Ver-
monter could only get away from the
grindstone of their own concentrated
Americanism for few months and
out of his big coterie of hero-wol-
shippers, we are wondering if it
wouldn't dawn upon him after getting
the other fellows viewpoint, that he
might be bit behind the times. For
the League of Nations is coming as
sure as the Lord made little apples
and all his oratory among his admir-
ing constituency, cannot stop it. The
fact that the world is cropping out
after some such organization implies
the crying need for it's existence in
concrete form. And .the crying need
means that the times are ripe for it.
All that remains is the modus
operandi.
Greene bases his contention that we
should keep out of the League OF
Nations on the same old threadbare
theory that the world is exactly where
it was in Washington's day; that
there is still a George VII on the
throne of England; that Europe is
still handful of weazoned little old
men wearing decorations; that the
oceans on two sides of US are still
walls of isolation built around us;
that war is glorious and that good
comes from it; that to join with other
naClOnS III Tie League VIII iicdii Iiie''
the tail can easily wag the dog; that
humanity has not yet had its
stomachful of war; that everyone
who dares raise his voice in approval
of get-to-gether of the nations is
guilty of treason and is hyphen-
atcd American playing England's
game, and all the rest of the old re-
dictionary stuff we have been fed
upon in our Memorial Day addresses
since we were kids around the old
swimming-hole with the yellow dog
running off with our trousers.
There is no space here for the list
of direful calamities that would
happen to us the moment we put our
signature to the League of Nations.
He wants to know what mother
would send her son to settle some
squabble in the Balkans, forgetting
two things: that if we have fair and
square League of Nations there will
be no Balkan squabble to solve :.
at least that takes human lives to
solve and secondly that for
lack of a League sixty-six THOUSAND
mothers have just given their seas
to die in European struggle c'er
a squabble between Austria and
Serbia. He wants to know if VIZ are
aVr ,sr