Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1919-07-16
A CALL TO DUTY.
(Fron, THE New York World

President Wilson's address, in pre-
senting to the Seas-e the treaty Of
peace with the covenant of the League
Of Nations, cannot fail to make pro-
found impression on the mind and
purpose of the American people. And
it was the American people to whom
the President was speaking.
Mr.. Wilson has never been more
felicitous in any of his public utter
ances than he was yesterday when he
explained the stupendous difficulties
with which the Paris Conference las
been compelled to grapple in rebuild
ing the peace of the world, and the
reasons why it had been found i'm
perative to make the League of Ma
tions the keystone Of the structure.
The. Presidents address, in the main
was an appeal to the American peo-
pie to finish their great work and
make it secure. He put the issue
of peace upon the same high plane
that he put the issue of war when
the United States became the moral
arbiter of the world. That moral
leadership remains. It cannot be
sacrificed for the mean. sordid mo-
tives that actuate the opposition to
the League Of Nations without bring
I ing civilization again to the verge of
chaos, and II that comes there will
be no security for the American peo-
pie in pretended isolation that ev-
ents have made wholly fictitious.
One Of the Presidents senatorial
critics complained yesterday that the
address was "internationalisnl." It
probably had never occurred to this
eminent statesman that there is like
~ to be great deal Of information
Rlism in relations between nations,
and that every pact between nations
| is an expression Of internationalism
| in some form or another. What is
the chief concern Of the world today
is the manner In which this interna-
tionalism is to express itself-wheth-
or 1t is to be the internationalism of
Wilson and Lloyd George and Glenn
enceau, or the internationalism OF
Lepine and 1rotzky and Bella Kun
whether It is to be the International
ism that subjects, the nations to the
reign Of law or . the, internationalism
that subjects them to the reign Of
anarchy. ago.. a7,.,
Senatorial partisanship and paroch-
ialism may try to obscure that issue.
but they cannot obscure the facts.
Great powers have been conferred
upon the Senate by the Constitution
of the United States, but the power to
turn back the clock, Of history is not
one of them. ~ Either the United
States must assume this moral lead
ership TO which the President refers
or it must turn its back upon all the
ideals for which it has been fighting,
including even the safety and security
of the Nation, for il the extremists OF
the Senate have their way we shall
become the most distrusted country
in the world for having run away
from our responsibilities in the
shameful fear, that, in spite of all our
wealth and resources and power, we
might incur obligations in discharg-
ing those responsibilities.
The Presidents address is more
than plea for the treaty and the
League. 1t is, a call to duty no less
imperative than that which he made
to Congress on April 2, 1917, when the
United States was summoned to war
"for the things that we have always
carried nearest our hearts-for de-
mocracy,. for the right OF those VINO
submit to authority to have a voice
in their own government, for the
rights and liberties of small nations,
for a. universal dominion of right by
such concert of free peoples as shall
bring peace and safety to all nations
and make the world itself at last
free"
1t is no longer Germany but a
minority in the United States senate
that is the great obstacle to the full
fillment of this programme to which
the American people dedicated them
selves two years ago. With German
militarism overthrown, this Senate
counsel of cowardice now interposes
to blight the victory and cheat man
kind of the fruits of it's suffering and
sacrifice. That is the issue, and the
only issue in this contest that has
been created by blind and insensate
partisanship.
WORD OF WARNING.