The Cordova daily times. [volume] (Cordova, Alaska) 1914-1947, 1919-03-05

luton; yet each surrendered portion
of such sovereignty when the Con-
stitution of the United States was
adopted The United States has main
tanned its sovereignty for 143 years,
and yet it has surrendered a portion
of that sovereignty every time it has
signed a treaty with foreign gov
eminent; for it signed those docu-
their provisions. If it be called upon
to surrender still more of that myth
cal substance for the nations good
and for the welfare of humanity, does
that signify that as nation we are
RELOCATING ourselves to an inferior pO-
sition in the affairs of the world?
Nay, it is the hope and belief Of
patriotic men and women throughout
the country that it will place the ma
ton on a higher plane than it has
occupied heretofore.
AS to the Monroe doctrine, that ira
dition is a plan of defense of the ma
ton, albeit source of responsibility
and trust of great moment We
take the position that the welfare of
the other American republics and gov
ernments is so interlocked with our
own welfare that danger to them
means danger to us. Therefore we
have announced that the acquisition
of territory on this hemisphere by the
nations of the old world will be looked
upon as casus belli by this nation.
While there is somewhat of idealism
in our position, there is more of the
practical. 1t is a case where domestic
peace and safety go hand in hand
with benefcient intention. But sup
pose we should be obliged to relin-
quish this doctrine. 1t is more than
likely, from what can be cleaned from
a reading of the constitution of the
proposed league and from the remarks
of the great men who are interested
in framing it, that should the league
of nations become a reality there
would be no need for a Monroe doc
trine by the United States, any more
than there would be need for main
tanning the balance of power" In
Europe. If the same doctrine that we
have maintained in the new world can
be extended to the whole habitable
globe, is it not a "consummation de-
voutly to be wished? Each signatory
to the league compact will be obliged
to relinquish something; and if the
United States is called upon to re-
linquish a doctrine that is made obso-
lete by the new order of things, it
seems like mere trife, especially as
it can be reasserted again at any time
when the league is found to be i'm
practicable, if such an eventuality
takes place.
AS to the objection that we will be
called upon to NEEDLE in the disputes
Of other nations with which we have
no concern, it may be designated as
'provinciaP'- relic Of the Washing
ton tradition, which we cast to the
winds at the close of the Spanish
American war The acquisition of
the Philippines and the expansion of
the world commerce Of the nation
made us, willy-nilly, world power.
AS such there could be no dispute be-
tween nations in which We would not
be vitality interested. For two years
and half this country assumed that
the European war was none of our
business, and these blatant senators
who held up the business of the coun-
try yesterday were among those who
chung to that theory even after our
ships were sunk and our seamen and
citizens on peaceful missions bent
were foully murdered. 1t was not our
business and we should keep our ships |
at home, they said. Well, they were
not kept at home; and the result was,
as it should be, that we were as much |
interested in annihilating an interna-
tional outlaw as the rest Of the world |
was. This war has proved, if it has
proved nothing else, that the United |
States is interested" in the quarrels
of it's neighbors. And if it can &C
complish anything in adjusting those
difficulties without drenching the
world once more in blood it is its
bounden duty to do so.
For some reason certain newspapers |
and other periodicals are releasing
upon the public d flood of so-called
argument against the league of ma
tions. They are even deliberately
perverting the facts by saying that
the people of other countries do not
want the league, and probably in the
same issues their news columns con-
vey the information of the wonderful
acclaim with which President Wilson,
as one of the advocates of the league,
is heing received everywhere, not only