The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1919-02-22
SOME NEWSPAPER COMMENT

SOME NEWSPAPER COMMENT
The London and Paris papers are beginning % talk "tur-
key" and they are even reminding Mr.. Wilson, which the Lon
don Post does, that he is not the "lawgver," but merely one
of the delegates to the peace conference, and even a self-ap-
pointed one and an unconfirmed one, and one whose appeal
for a vote of confidence in the last election met with rejec-
ton by the American voters.
Speaking especially of the colonial policy, the Post says:
But the idea of making the British government n a do
minion government the servant of an international superior is
a idea the British government will not endure"
The London Express declares that Germany deliberately
gambled the colonial empire she had against the world empire
she hoped to have and lost. I'VE never heard that she pro-
posed in the event of victory to hand over conquered French
and British possessions to a lot of neutral, inexperienced gen.
tlemen in frOck coats"
The London Graphic says:
when the United States defeated Spain she annexed Span
ih possessions without making an noise about the matter"
The London Chronicle says:
1T is the counsel of perfection rather than of necessity,
and if some governments remain blind to its merits, it is not
a cae where they cal be cudged into seeing them"
Attention is also called to the fact that all the colonies
that are affected were taken before the United States entered
the war, or made a move in that direction, and it is CALLING to
the pride of Britain and France to have a nation that entered
subsequently now step in and tell them what they must do
with what they captured" with no aid from the one that is
trying to dispose of those "spOils." They believe, we infer,
that it is actually none of our business. And is it SO vitality
of our business that we want to assume the responsibility
and expense of financing and policing large portions OF the
world?
In Paris the papers are speaking out more plainly than
thew did in the beginning. The Echo de Paris says it does
not understand that the delegates to the peace conference
have any powers to bind their respective nations to surren-
der any part of their sovereignty and that to pool their re-
sources and issues is tantamount to such a surrender OF SOW
ereignty. Even President Wilson has no such power to COM
promise the sovereignty of the United States or to bind it to
take part in wars that have not yet been declared. The Echo
de Paris says:
THE experience of history shows arrayed against the ss-
EN- the force of national passions which rebel against all
rigid outside control and the impotence of every international
government to compel the strong to obey. People talk OF dis
arming, but there is weapon that cannot be suppressed in
this age when armies improvised-the umern strength
of a nation Such is the adventure o n which W e are invited
to embark. If it fails we are left without alliances, confront
ed with enemies and without the means of constrainng them
to pay what they W U.S."
The Temps rejects many of the things that have been
brought forward and tentatively adopted and bids the nation
to continue to rely upon itself and upon it's army. 1t says:
France, who stood out during the a by the heroSm of
her army and her sacrifices is just as jealous of her independ-
ence a England and the United States of theirs, and it is her
army which must be its guarantees. Consequently her ARM
must be strong in order to safeguard Ter complete security in
all circumstances. 1t behooves us to maintain a n army which,
whatever the emergencies, will! protect IS against every new in
vasion"
The same paper analyses a scheme proposed by the Ber-
lin society of international law and finds that many of it's
conclusions have now been embodied in the proposed society
of nations.
SO there you are. What we are in doubt about over here,
and most in doubt about, is what it is going to mean to us to
help run and police the world.
And in the meantime it is Germany that all the time
stands to win more and more if not eventually to WIN out by
these delays and these ultra ideahsms. The more impractical
the schemes proposed at Versailles, the more the practical
results will be for Germany.
But these views of the British and French newspapers
are not repeated to us by the Creel publicity bureau or the
cables which Mr.. Burleson took over to win the war after the
war was over.