davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09
SSSoSS

increased IN direct ratio to the amount of
talking done about them by the statesmen
who have his governmental affairs in charge
he gets less for his money, and gets no
more money. He moves in troubled haze
about his daily duties, for most Of the old
familiar things have crashed down round
his ears and none of the new has begun. as
yet, to rise to stability. He has no doubts
OF or for his country, but he is beginning TO
nave serious doubts concerning certain
section OF his countrymen. He feels that
the paralyzing feature of the present life
in the United States is the ever GROWING
desire-and fulfllment of ito talk
taik-talk; the passion for publicity that
controls and actuates the posturings. no.
sings and pronouncements of our nublic
and quasi public men; the subordination of
public service to public mention.
The average American is muddled in
his own mind over these and MANY other
things He cannot clarity or classify them:
but there is evidence that he is beginning
10 get, dlmly, perhaps, but none the less
get an inklng of the truth that it is up to
him to do the reconstruction that is To he
done, and not to allow the party politicians
to do it,
If he arrives at that stage we NAV look
LOT some betterment If he does not the
average American will deserve what he will
get, and what he will get will be but an in
creased and more expensive portion of what
he already has"
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09
Continued from page one)

immigration alone is gigantic enough to war
rant careful consideration before we support
the league of nations in its present form
Then there is the comment:
we should cling to the Monroe Doctrine
and reserve the privilege to lay tariffs and
regulate immigration
From Georgia there is an appeal to
the Senate:
Our country has stood in the past and
she will continue to stand in the future
provided our liberties are not sacrificed in
the treaty to be presented for the ap-
proval of the United States Senate. In the
name of our great and glorious country
may the ratification of this treaty be re-
fused and forever denied by the protector
and defender of our lberties-the United
States Senate"
A citizen from the Pacific Coast harks
back to the tenets of Washington
"And now it's proposed to merge our
Identity with monarches.
"What we need now is little straight
out Amercanism The Americanism that
dwet in the heart of the immortal Wash
lngton when he warned his countrvmen
against entangling alliances Let these
nations who talk glbly about democracy
and liberty and who were associated with
US in this war clear their own doorsteps by
banishing kings and lords and dukes from
the temples of power, and then we might
have more patience to talk to them about
a league of nations. Let us talk in terms
of the great American republic for change.
instead of terms of European monarchies."
A New Yorker inquiries:
us America so unable to care for herself
that she needs must place herself under an
international protectorate Ought we not
have sufficient faith in her great destiny
to wish to preserve her independence
What would have been Roosevelt's an
swer to these questions? l know So should
every Americana
After all, asks another
"is it worth while? What reason is there
for reversing the sound doctrine of small
chances for large gains by taking large
chances for small gains? At any rate, it
would seem best to go slow and not Jump
hastily into a thing of this magnitude and
Importance, and to inform the American
people fully just what the consequences are
are going to be-
And again:
"The plan now presented would make of
our nation a mere European appendage 1t
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09
The Voice Of the People

Also there is no European nation going to
fight us
A New Yorker adds:
THE right to resort to arms is not likely
to be surrendered until league is estab-
lished whose strength is at the disposal of
an impartial judiciary and whose consttu
ton contains bill of rights which the jul
dietary are sworn to uphold"
Still others see nothing in the league
but scrap of paper. Says a Wisconsin
man
"Al honor and praise to heroic and
dauntless President Wilson, who has just
played the part of the Methodist revivalst,
rode the circuit making a desperate effort
to convert the 'heathen. but who as a
matter of fact, has foundered around like
little dog in high oats, and instead of
realizing his league of nations ambition has
been compelled to come home recommend
ing a sort of ethical, moral supremacy af-
fair, text for which could take from
McGuffey's old Second Reader
"'Speak gently, it is better far
To rule by love than fear
"Some league of nations Just as we'll
have our common council make municipal
laws and then do away with Chief Jansen
and the police force
Another correspondent concludes:
1--WE stand right where we started; we
know only that the draft Of the league
covenant has been formulated for discus
sion; and we know also that the people of
suffering France are again chilled by the
dread of an ineffective paper peace, so de-
signed to make them as before the flesh
and blood wall against barbarism, while
other nations may safely dawde and de-
bate, did for months and years"
From another:
"rhis league of nations is the greatest
peril that has come up in the United States
since the Civil War Let us stand firm;
let us never exchange our blrthright for
mess of pottage 70 save our birthright
from ruin now means the hardest kind of
work every day, every hour, every minute,
until that danger which hovers over us has
been removed. Let US never forget that
under soft gloved hands are iron fists. Let
US beware camoufage of every kind. Let US
be alert in every fibre of our being in or
der to preserve our independence which
Wake up, America, and wake up quickly. ere
it is too late'
And again:
"The only kind Of union we ought to
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09

administrator has one plan, another an
other, that the Interstate Commerce Com
mission advocates this and the Congress
something else. He finds the President
nebulous about it, Mr.. McAdoo vehement
the railroad presidents on the fence the
shareholders uneasy, the legislators with
forty different ideas and the whole matter
stirring inconclusively like a paint pot
in the Yellowstone Park, which sputters
and splurges and growls and fuses, but
never gets anywhere or does anything but
make muddy noise.
He listens to demands that the roads
be given back at once, that they shall be
held for the original period of twenty-one
months, that they shall be retained for
five years and that they must go on forever
under governmental control; and he is
puzzled exceedingly over the way the stu
alton shapes up, which is somewhat like
this: First, the railroad men could not
run the railroads satisfactorily before the
war; second, the government could not
run the railroads satisfactorily during the
war; third, who the dickens is going to
run them after the war?
"And in all Washington he finds no con-
crete or reassuring answer to the uues-
ton, and it dismays him to observe the
vast amount of language that is being
spilled to obfuscate the situation; but he
does get a glimmer of the main and funda-
mental fact which is that whosoever runs
them the average American is going to
have the privilege of paying for the run
ming. He considers his own experiences
with government ownership, such as they
have been, and remembers his experiences
with private ownership also; and setting
one against the other he isn't treasured
that he viii get anything but the worst
of it no matter what the outcome may be-
and that disturbs him; albeit the average
American is pretty we'll used to getting
the worst of it, as it happens"
And still the din goes on
He notes that the reactionaries are pre-
pairing to react and that the radicals are
radial, not to say, raddled He hears that
the league of nations is chimerical or
categorical, az the case may be, and that
the freedom of the seas is subject to inter-
probation by nterpretatve interpretations
OF whom there are many in his muddled
midst lie reads laborous columns Of what
is not being done at the peace conference,
and more laborous columns Of what will
not be done.
tie wonders why there should not be
lie" lines about what has been done and
why peace should appear to be more diff
cult than war was, and family grasps the
fact that perhaps the reason is that our
preparedness for peace comes the same
way our preparedness for war came-after
the event"
SO it finally comes down to this
Meantime, his personal difficulties have
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09
~ Muddled Americans

scared and scorchcd by the hot fires Of
denunciation of Germany and the Germans,
and he is asked to cut down his food
intake in order that food may be exported
TO Germany to prevent the spread of Boil
shevlsm and feed the people who have
caused him all this trouble and loss and
pain. He finds that the government has
taken over the telephones and the tele-
graphs. but wonders why it is that with
reduced rates it costs him more to use the
long distance telephone than it formerly
did; nor can he satisfy himself why it so
often takes two days for letter to get to
Washington from New York when the
trains make the run in less than six hours,
and it is quicker to GO TO Chicago from
New York, in person, and return than to
try to transact business by mail He Won
ders if government ownership really is such
a good thing after all, after he has had his
experiences with consolidated railroad
ticket offices under governmental control
and has eaten few of the standardized
meals on the dining cars
"He discovers that if he wants to 90 any
where on the railroads and not ride in day
coaches he must set the definite date for
the journey many days in advance in order
to get accommodations; and that gives him
food for thought and basis for comparison
with the old days, because it is quite i'm
possible for him, not being a seer, and some
times travelling on emergent business, to
know in all cases a week ahead the date on
which it may be necessary for him to travel.
He tries to cable abroad and discovers that
since Mr.. Bureson took the cables it often
takes seven days to get few words under
the Atlantic from New York to London; and
his experiences with Mr.. Burcson's domestic
tclegraphs are also disconcerting.
"He read with interest the protests against
the Presidents going to France and agreed
that it might not be q wise thing to do. He
was pleased with the reports Of the ire
mendous receptions the President received,
but now wonders why it IS that the corrc-
spondents say there was so much delay in
getting the peace going. He all set
TO have Elhu Root on the peace commission,
and Is puzzled yet as to the exact reason
Henry White was substituted If he is a
Republican he wonders why he never heard
OF Henry White, and il he is a Democrat he
asks the same question: He has accepted
the mnistrations of Colonel House in gov
ernmental affairs and has heard of the
colonel's prodigious powers. Wherefore.
knowing that the colonel is man of such
transcendent abilities, he isn't sure in his
own mind why the President had to 90 at
all; or, if the colonel really isn't so prodgi-
Gus, why the President intends to return
He tries to understand the reasons set forth
for the delay in getting under way in Paris,
and the thought that the knowledge by the
other nations concerned that the President
is booked to return may have something to
do with that delay harnesses him, for he con
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09

Here correspondent points to Ar
ticle X, which he first quotes
article X. The powers not delegated
to the United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the states. are re-
served to the states respectively or to the
people.
81, is manifest, therefore, to the extent
the proposed league of nations viii sur
render any Of the powers or independence
of the nation or the states or the people
thereof that Congress is powerless to
adopt it. The league must be adopted by
the people, to whom is reserved by the
Constitution the independence of the
United States as a nation
A Massachusetts writer also alludes
to the Constitution:
"Mr Wilson, in his talk with the Sena-
tors, seemed to think that few changes
in the Constitution did not amount to
much. 1t was Vote for the league; never
mind the Constitutions
"Can you tell me who it was who first
said, What is the Constitution between
friends ."
Perhaps with recollection of the
Seattle strike this WashlngtOnian scents
Bolshevism
will we be compelled to stiAe our Amer
lean conceptions of democracy and Freedom
TO be ruled by majority vote of Bolshe :.
visit statesmen, who may come to rule theS
league?"
"Why will there be war without a
league?" comes the query:
"President Wilson says unless the league
of nations is accepted by the United States
we must prepare for war With whom?
What nation? Germany has been beaten.
Japan is not going to fight us. England is
our friend. SO is France. OF course the
United States will enlarge its navy and
have in a few years citizenship army.
But for the present the United States is
not going to war with any foreign powers
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09
"One-Mor1 PotUer"

AutOcfaClc motives are imputed 20 the
President, who comes in for as much
criticism as the friends Of the league
delivered to the hostile Senators. TOO
much one-man power" is another Wash
ington verdict:
81 believe the league of nations has been
tried before. What was the result? | don't
believe in one-man power. Neither do you.
Neither do believe we should have had all
this Bolshevikism if there hadn't been so
much one-man power. | never saw one man
run anything yet but what he got sat on
before he got through"
Recalling the arena Of the court room,
one writes
when the cross-examiner senses that the
defendants withholding knowledge, he pro-
ceeds to get at that defendants motive. The
American people, hard headed, by virtue of
the Monroe Doctrine sure of their right to
know asking What is the Presidents
motive"
innate:
THE truth is that Mr. Wilson is a nomi-
nalist verbalist with sentimental ten
denotes. He believes not in ideas but in
words. Like the voodoo man, he believes
that there is some magic in mere phrases.
# one phrase does not accomplish the thing
he has in view, possibly another will. viii
not the papers kindly refrain from calling
Mr. Wilson an idealist?"
An Alabaman puts him in another
form
"Camoufage as we may, shut our eyes if
we will, but it is fact that an ambitious
and determined man with persuasive per-
sonality, autocratic in temperament, has
appeared upon the horizon with the avowed
purpose of wrenching our ship of state
from its mornings and launching upon an
uncharted sea, delivering it to an inter
national crew of which he is to be captain
Nor is this man a patriot, in the strctest
sense; he is rather internationalist, or
perhaps he had rather be known as a
world man."
From California comes a quotation of
one of the Presidents campaign speeches:
II am one of those who absolutely reject
the trustee theory, the guardianship theory
| have never found man who knew how to
take care of me, and reasoning from that
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09

"HERE seems to be no doubt
about it: the average American
h is now wandering in state of
bewlderment through the laby-
rinth of reconstruction. His mind is too
feeble thread to guide him through the
1ntrlcacies Of present day politics.
Though willing to listen to reason, his
ears are greeted by babel of voices
wing with each other in contradictions.
IT he arrives at a conclusion, the next
day finds it scrapped among the obso-
lete ideas, but he very seldom has
chance to arrive at one. At short, it
is the opinion of Samuel G. Blythe, writ
ing in "The Saturday Evening Post"
that the average American is in a pitt
able prediqament; and thus he has
summed up the situation:
THE average American is muddled-
muddled over Washington and its exem-
plars; muddled over politics and its practi-
TONERS; muddled over the conditions that
obtain everywhere from one end of the
country to the other. He has read the first
open covenants of peace, openly arrived at
and diplomacy that Shall proceed always
frankly and in the public view; and while
he was refreshing his memory on that de-
mand he learned that his own government
had taken over all the cables that lead to
Paris, where these covenants are to be
made. He invests all his savings in Lib
erty bonds and goes forth in the morning
TO discover that his grocer is charging him
a dollar dozen for eggs that have good
many OF the aspects of the execution of
our announced policy of 'ptiess publicity
about them.
he joined in the general condemnat ion
OF Senator La Toilette and wonders in what
internment camp the Senator's fierce foes
IN the Senate had him placed; and while he
is wondering he finds that La Toilette, now
that the war is over, has been exonerated,
and he muses. over the question OF whether
the fact that the Republicans have but two
majority in the Senate after March s, and
need La Follettes vote, has anything to do
with it.
He has uncomplai ningly ridden on the
crowded railroads, thus doing his part, and
has paid the increased ight rates without
IA whlmper, and now he finds that the gov
eminent, il it tries to reduce the rates, can
only do it by taking some hundred millions
more of his money in order that the wages
OF the employees on the RAILROADS shall not
be reduced also; and the average American
wonders where he gets off on proposition
OF that sort. He listens TO the ominous
discussions OF the dangers OF Bolshevism,
IN Congress and out Of it, and is perplexed
because many of these men VIII, speak in
such fear OF Red Menace in the United
states do not advocate restriction Of i'm
migration. He knows that all our troubles
OF this sort are imported troubles, that
these -disturbers come freely in from the
outside. from other countries; and he can
not understand why Congress has not
struck at the root Of the evil, prohibited
their entrance and deportcd those that are
here. He wonders whether the foreign vote
has anything to do with it; whether such
step by the politicians in Congress would
not deprive those politicians Of the sup
port Of this foreign born element. And he
is still wondering.
For nearly two years his soul has been
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09

bears the brand of made in Europe, by
Europeans, for Europeans We can never
consent to have our interests depend on the
verdict Of a packed jury such as the cxecu-
tive council or the body of delegates"
Pennsylvania exhorts:
Let US not give up the practical teach
ngs OF our Constitution for uncertain and
immature measures, maintaining our old
attitude toward the world until other PEG
pie have progressed nearer to our own po-
litcal standard"
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09
Cholera

"Incidents of actual terrorism are TO me
all intertwincd with parallel examples Of
Bolshevist mentality, also cxpicatve Of
the state of mind which could declare
terror Zinoviev. President of the Petro-
grad Soviet for instance, in the same days
Of July when the mass arrests OF 'bour-
geois hostages were taking place, began in
tensifying his campaign to rouse the work.
men to go out and slaughter the rest o!
the citizens where found. He had been al
it for months, but the Petrograd workmen'
played upon they had been for years by
these furious fanatics, would not go OUT
and kill the bourseoisie in cold blood. Then
in July, came the cholera, intensified by ire
long, slow starvation to which Bolshevist
disorganizaton had subjected the whole
of Petrograd 1t came violently, thousand
cases in one day, nearly half dying Inc
city was stricken, every doctor was IN the
hospitals working night and day WITH
the sick. That particular night | knew the
Soviet was going to meet TO take action
and | was interested to 60, because | knew
the burning question of free commerce 70
relieve the food situation and end the ar
surd unsuccessful food naturalization was
bound to come up. But l could not 20 be
cause my friend with whom | lived, was
attacked by the cholera. knew a dozen
doctors, but could not get one Finally oy
telephone, got one at hospital and ne
authorized Il drug store by telephone 10
sell me tincture Of opium for him, ana
with that We were able, by working a.
night, to save his life.
IN the morning, relieved that the cr's.s
was past. ! walked out to quiet my nerves
and bought copy of the official news
paper. the communal In it was the report
of the nights meeting. The food monoro'
Nzation question had been raised, found
but Zinoviev, seeing the danger Of losing
the Bolshevist grip, turned the thoughts O.
these simple men from the point at issue
as he had done hundred times before pS
delivering a passionate demagogic address
laying the cholera epidemic at the doors o.
the bourgeose saying it was their dong
That was TO be expected of him. but the"
he went on to say something Tor which So,
earth has no fitting punishment. lie sa0
that we the workmen would put stop
to the epidemic, and if the bourgeois doc
tors did not do their duty. they would DE-
shot on the spot. Emphasizing his poin''
evidently feeling he had nearly passed his
political crisis, he said; Any workman VINO
finds doctor is not doing his duty rlS0'
must kill him
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09
In Conclusion

'The Terror is having certain sueo'-'
1t is gradually killing off all the culfu"
there was in Russia, and If it could 50 Q"
long enough, there would be simply 3"
aggregation of villages, some at peace
others at war. The cities have steadily as
migrated and, after year In power '''
Bolsheviki have not one constructive act "
their credit But they are still in power
late in November as | write. and while thss
remain in power the Red Terror will con-
tinue."
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09
Conference:
the 9TH
Week

CUNDAY, March 2:
Colonel House had a confer
~ ence with Arthur J. Balfour.
Premier Clemenceau conferred with
Generals rocn and Petain.
Monday, March 3:
The Preparations commission was re-
ported to have fixed the Allied war
claims at $12O, 100000.
Discussion on the formation of new
frontiers in Europe continued, with
prospect of conclusion being reached
this week.
Representatives left for Spaa to
complete arrangements for release of
German ships in German ports.
Tuesday, March a:
Commissions were busy during the
day discussing the question of repara
ton, the Polish claims, and Belgiums
demands.
Wednesday, March S:
The council of ten reported to have
reached q decision on the sum to be
demanded of Germany and on the
disposition to be made of the terri
tory west of the Rhine.
Thursday, March s:
The council discussed the military,
naval and aerial terms Of German dis
arment.