The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-09-06

De StdHdlnS Off and to be watched by . the alliance, would be the United
 States of America. You can't afford 10 be unfriendly to everybody, unless you can afford to 1 have everybody unfriendly to you. This war was commercial and in- dustrial war. It was not a political
 war. Very well, then, if we must stand apart and be the hostile rivals of the rest of the world. then we must do something else we must be physically ready for anything to { come. We must have a great stand ing army. We must see to it that ey- cry man in America is trained to arms. l We must see to it that there are munitions and guns enough for an 1 army. That means a mobilized na- | tion. That means that arms are not | only laid up in store but also that they
 are kept up to date so that they are ready to use tomorrow. 1 And what does that mean? Reduc- | tion of taxes? No Not only the con- l tinuation of the present taxes but the 1 increase of the present taxes? It 1 means something very much more l serious than that.
 We can stand that so far as the l expense is concerned, if we care to | keep up the high cost of living and ! enjoy the other luxuries that we have recently enjoyed. But what is much 1 more serious, we have got to have the l sort of organization which is the only l kind of organization that can handle l armies of that sort. We may say ! what we please of the German gov | crnmeut that has been destroyed. my ! fellow citizens, but it was the only ] sort of government that could handle ! an armed nation. You can't handle 1 an armed nation by vote. You can't ' handle an armed nation if it is demo- ] cratic, because democracies don't go 1 10 war that way. You have got to ! have a concentrated, militaristic or | ganization of government to run a. | nation of that sort.
 And you can't watch other nations 1 with your unasslsted eye You have got to watch them by secret agencies | planted everywhere. And let me tes- | tify to this, my fellow citizens. not i only did not know it until we got into | this war, but I did not believe it when l was told that it was true. Ger | many was not the only country that | maintained a secret service. Every | country in Europe maintained it be- | cause they had to be ready for Ger | many's spring upon them. and the l only difference between the German
 secret service and the other secret ' services was that the German secret | service found out more than the oth- 1 CTS did.
 Under the League plan. the fnan- | ciaI leadership will be ours the com l mercial advantage val be ours. and | the other countries of the world will | look to us, and shall I say. are look | ing 10 us, for leadership and direc-
 ton.
 | Very well. then. if I am to com | pete with the critics of this League ] and of this treaty as selfish Ameri- l can say I want to get in and get in as quick as I can; I want to be inside and know how the thing is run. and l help to run it, so that you have the alternative-armed isolation or peace
 ful partnership.
 Can any sane man hesitate as to
 the choice, and can any sane man ask
 the question, which is the way of peace?
 have heard some men say with
 an amazing ignorance that the cov-
 enant of the League of Nations was
 an arrangement for war. Very well. The other arrangement, what would
 it be? An arrangement for peace, for
 kindliness, for cooperation? Would everybody beckon us to their mark
 cts?
 cannot bring my creduility up to
 tha: point. I have reached years of
 discretion and I have met some very
 young men who know a great deal
 more than some very old men. There
 isn't phrase of doubtful meaning in
 the whole document
 And what is the meaning? It is
 that the covenant of the League of
 Nations is a covenant of arbitration
 and discussion. Had anybody ever
 told you that before?
 I dare say that everybody you have
 heard about this document discusses
 Article X Well, there are twenty
 five other articles in it, and all of
 them are about something else.
 They discuss how soon and how
 quick we can get out of it. Well,
 am not a quitter, for one. We can
 get out just as soon as we want to,
 but we don't want to get out just as soon as we get in.
 And then they tal1 about the Mon roe Doctrine, when 1t expressly says that nothing in that instrument shall be construed as affecting in any way the validity of the Monroe Dictrine.
 It says so in so many words. And all the other things they talk about draw your attention from the essentials.
 The essential matter, my fellow citizens, is this: All members of that League promise that they will never go to war without first submitting the questions at issue to arbitration and absolutely abiding by the decision of the arbitrators, or, if they are not willing to submit it to arbitration, that they will submit it to discussion by the capital council of the League, that they will give the council of the League six months in which to con- slider 1t, and that if they do not like the opinion of the council. they will wait three months after the opinion is rendered before going to war.
 This afternoon a book I had for gotten all about, one of the campaign books of the last political campaign, was put In my hands, and found Tn that book the platforms of the two parties, and in both those platforms they advocated just such an arrange ment as the League of Nations. When I was on the other side of the water I did not know that l was taking, Obevinr orders from both parties But