New-York tribune., 1919-11-23

unit. Unfortunately, however, this
possibility has been destroyed by the
conduct Of the present Administra-
ton. From its first dealings with dis
tracted Mexico in 1913 down to the
work of the Peace Conference at YER
sailles in 1919, one grave blunder has
followed another until to-day the
can truly be described as foreign
policy.
"Moreover, the Administrations par
ing the negotiations at Paris destroyed
the possibility of united action at
home.
"The consistent Republican policy
through the administrations Of McKin-
ley, Roosevelt and Taft, under the ad
ministration of the State Department
by Hay, Root and Knox, has been an
endeavor to provide against interna-
tional war by setting up-ra great tri-
bunal by which law should be substi-
tuted for force in the settlement of
international disputes.
MANY of US had hoped that the
Treaty of Versailles would have that
provision as the cornerstone of the
new structure that it was building We
were bitterly disappointed when it did
not, and when we saw that instead of
establishing the rule of law the treaty
largely relied upon recourse to politi-
cal and diplomatic discussion as q
means of preventing international war.
ut will be the first duty of a Re
publican administration to press for
the establishment of an international
court of justice to hear and decide
controversies between nations and, as
Tb.o :nc ;c<o OF
tiania more than nine years ago, to
give that court power to enforce it's
decress. 1t must press also for con-
einuing international conference, meet
ing at stated intervals, to declare and
define the rules of information law and
conduct by which civilized nations are
to be bound and in accordance with
which the international court of jus
tice would make its findings.
"Gentlemen, there is no alternative
to the use of force save the rule Of
law. Discussion and debate may delay
the appeal to force, or they may change
the form of that appeal, but they will
never prevent it being ultimately
made. Until nations are ruled in their
relations to each other by law, and
until it is established that Il law
breaker among nations is to be treated
IKE laW-Dreakcr among men, we snail
only be playing with the problem of
preventing the outbreak of interna-
tional war.
"The world is ready, too, for the
working out of constructive policies
based upon the principle that there
shall be no more exploitation of back
ward peoples or of the natural re-
sources of the lands which they in
habit. The application of this prin-
ciple means that civilized nation can
not permit anarchy, cruelty, rapine
and outrage in neighboring part Of
the world to 60 unnoticed. We are our
brothers keepers. For a civilized ma
tlon to permit a neighbor, rich in soil
and in opportunity, to be given over to
anarchy and turbulence Is as faithless
and as wicked as it would be for an
individual to fail to spring to the res
cue of his fellow whose life was in
danger through no fault of his own.
Respecting domestic problems, DR.,
Butler declared the first necessity was
to get back our constitutional form of
government "by stripping the execu-
tive department of the extraordinary
powers assumed during the war" and
by trying to restore confidence and CO.
operation between the legislative and
the executive branches