The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-03-05

timation of the air just played. L will not
come back till it's over, over there, and
yet, l pray God. in the interest of peace
and of the world, that that may be soon
The first thing that am going to tell
the people on the other side of the water,
is that an overwhelming majority of the
American people is in favor of the league
of nations. / know that that is true; L
have had unmistakable intimatlons OF 1t
| from all parts of the country, and the voice
rings true in every case. l count myself
| fortunate to speak here under the unusual
| circumstances of this evening | am happy
great cause. He has displayed an eleva-
| ton of view and devotion to public duty
which is beyond praise
And l am the more happy because tnis
| means that this is not party issue no
party has the right TO appropriate TINS
| issue and no party Will in the long run
! I'VE have listened to so clear and ad-
mirable an exposition of many OF the main
| features of the proposed covenant of the
league of nations, that 1t Is perhaps not
/ necessary for me to discuss in any par
| ticular way the contents of the document
l will seek, rather. to give you its setting
! l do not know when L have been more I'm
pressed than by the conferences OF the
| commission set up by the conference OF
peace to draw up covenant for the league
| of nations. The representatives of four
| teen nations sat around that board-not
young men, not men inexperienced in the
| affairs of their country, not men mex
perienced In the politics of the world; ana
| was the concurrence of purpose on the part
of all those men to come to an agreement
1 and an effective working agreement with
regard to this league of the civilized world.
| There was conviction IN the wnoie
impulse; there was conviction 9 that that TINS
also the conviction that not man there
| would venture to go home and say he mad
not tried to do it.
Taft Set the Picture.
"Mr. Taft has set the picture for you
of what a failure of this great purpose
would mean. We have been hearing for all
these weary months that this agony of war
has lasted because of the sinister purpose
of the central empires, and we have made
maps of the course that they meant their
used to call from Bremen to Bagdad?
| They lay thru these very regions to
which Mr.. Taft has called your attention,
but they lay then thru united empire, the
Germany was bound to respect as her ally
lay in the path of that line of conquest
professed to make her own lay in the direct
path that she intended to tread Il
And now what has happened? The
| Austro- Hungarian Empire has gone TO
pieces and the Turkish Empire has disap-
| peared, and the hands that effected that
great result-for 1t was result of liberia
of the assets of those great nations. You
not only would have weak nations lying
in this path, but you would have nations
in which that old poisonous seed of intrigue
could be planted with the certainty that
|
the things that the League of Nations is
Intended to watch is the course of intrigue
Intrigue cannot stand publicity. and If the
| League of Nations were nothing but q
great debating society it would kill in
trigue.
| I''It is one of the agreements of this cove
| nant that it is the friendly right of every
| nation a member of the league to call at
tention to anything that it thinks will dis
| where that thing is occurring.
There is no subject that may touch thu
| reace of the world which is exempt from
inquiry and discussion, and I think every
| body here present will agree with me tina
Germany would never have gone to war i
she had permitted the world to discuss thu
aggression upon Serbia fog single week
1.-The British foreign office suggested i
! | plead that there might be a day or tive
delay so that the representatives of tn
nations Of Europe could get together ant
: discuss the possibilities of settlement
Germany did not dare permit days dis
t CT ssion. You know what happened. A
soon as the world realized that an OUTLAW
was at large the nations began one b!
: I'VE know for a certainty that il Ger
: many had thought for moment MON tina
, and with Russia, she never would hav
undertaken the enterprise, and the League
of Nations is meant a notice to all out
law nations that not only Great Britain
: but the United States and the rest of tn
, world will go. in to stop enterprises o
: that sort And so the League of Nation
is nothing more nor less than the cove
nant that the world will always maintain
the standards which it has now vindicatet
by some of the Sfnost precious blood eve
5 srilt.
Liberated Peoples Call.
1.-THE liberated peoples of the Austro
Hungarian Empire end of the Turkisl
, Empire call out to for this thing. I
has not arisen in the coupcil of statesmen
Europe is n bit sick at heart at this yer,
moment, because it has seen that states
men have no vision, and that the onl.
vision has been the vision of the people
Those who suffer see. Those against whom
wrong is wrought know how desirable i
= the right and the righteous.
Fl 1.-THE nations that have long been unde
' the heel of the Austrians. that have loni
, covered before the Germans. that have lon
suffered the, 1ndeScribable agonieS of be
3 ing governed by the @rurk, have called GU
to the world, generation after generation
no cabinet in the world has heard them
Private organizations, plying hearts
philanthropic men and women, have poured
out their treasure in order to relieve thes
| sufferings: but no nation has said to tn
nations responsible, you must stop; thi
| thing is -intolerable, and we will not permi
! it, The vision has been with the people
MY friends. l wish you fwould ref1ec
| upon this proposition. The vision as +
| seldom come from the top in the nations o
the world. 1t has come from the need
= of great bodies of men who meant to b
= | free. And I can explain some of the crit
icisms which have been leveled against thi
| great enterprise only by the suppositiol
p that the men who utter the criticisms hav
never felt the great pulse of the heart o
81 the world.
Ignorance of World.
vi And 1 am amazed-not alarmed, bu
/ | amazed-that there should be in some quar-
| ters such comprehensive ignorance of tn
T | state of the world. These gentlemen do no
5 | know what the mind of men is, just now
8 Everybody else does. 1 do not know wher
: | they have been closeted. do not know b.
| what influences they have been blinded
G but do know that they have been separat
9 ed from the general currents of the though
| of mankind.
And / want to utter this solemn warn
/ | Ing. not in the way of a threat: the force
| of the world do not threaten, they operate
! | The great tides of the world do not Civ
! | notice that they are going to rise and run
9 | they rise in their majesty and overwhelm
NFRv0Hlc ENEpnv