The copper era and Morenci leader., 1919-03-07
THEN AND NOW.

''The American democracy stands for something more than beef and cotton and grain and manufactures; stands for something that cannot be measured by rates of exchange, and does not rise or fall with the balance ot trade. The American people achieved liberty and schooled themselves to the service of jus tice before they acquired wealth, and they value their country liberty and justice above all their pride of possessions.
 EsThey deem that the moral laws which formulate the duties of men toward each ether are binding upon nations equally with individuals. Inforced by their own experl- ence, confirmed by their observation of inter- national life, they have come to see that the independence of nations the liberty of their peoples, justice and humanity, cannot be mann tained upon the good nature, the kindly feeling of the strong toward the weak; that real in- dependence, real liberty, cannot rest upon sui ferance; that peace and liberty can be pre- served only by the authority and observance of rules of national conduct founded upon the principles of justice and humanity only by the establishment of law among nations sponsive to the enlightened public opinion of mankind.
 ''To them liberty means not liberty for themselves alone, but for all who are oppress- cd. Justice means not justice for themselves alone, but shield for all who are weak against the aggression of the strong.'
 The author of these inspiring sentiments is not Woodrow Wilson, the former college professor, the impractical idealist, the senti- mental visionary who is President of the United States, but Elihu Root, former Secre- tary of War in the Cabinet of President Me kinley, former Secretary of State in the Cab met of President Roosevelt former Republi- can United States Senator from New York, the man whom Mr. Roosevelt once described as ''the ablest man in the public life of this any other country.'' They were uttered in an address to the Republican State Conven- tion of New York, Feb. 16, 1916, and were in the nature of an indictment against President Wilson for having failed to intervene when the neutrality of Belgium was invaded by Germany.
 The New York Sun, which, as the organ of the Republican National Committee, is now helping to direct the campaign against the League of Nations, said of MT. Roots ad- dress that he had, as nearly as it is possible for human precedence to do so, forecast the verdict of history concerning President Will sons character, deeds, words and failures.' Yet when President Wilson, in his Boston speech, made substantially the same definition of liberty and justice that MT. Root present ed, the Sun denounced it as ''merely mawk- ish dream of MT. Wilson himself"
 We have mentioned this case because of the appalling intellectual dishonesty which the opposition to the League of Nations has hroupht tO hear mon the discussion of the question. The same who applauded the Root speech in 1916 because it was an attack op the Wilson Administration repudiate the Root sentiments in 1919 because President Wilson is seeking to incorporate them into in ternational law and make them workable. .
 It is needless to say that any public de- bate carried on in such a spirit is a menace not only to the peace of the world but to the safety of all American institutions. The con- stitution of the League of Nations IS before the country for consideration and d1scuss1on The decision of the American people, whether for or against the league, will determine the destiny of the world for generations to come for many decades after Woodrow Wilson IS dead and every leader of the Republican and Democratic parties has returned to dust
 If that issue cannot be discussed honest ly, if it cannot be discussed sincerely, if 1t cannot be dissociated from every cheap and petty question of possible partisan advan- tage and determined on its merits, the Ameri- can people will have betrayed mankind and committed a crime hardly less heinous than that which rests upon the blood-stained hands of German autocracy.