Great Falls daily tribune., 1919-05-04
THE PRESIDENT AND ITALY.

|
foreign relations, and who is the present repub-
! lcan floor leader in the senate. But Senator
Lodge will be ready to make alliance with any
person, potentate, or powers Of Light or dark
ness, on the sole condition that they make oppo-
sition to the president Of his country. Moreover,
the floor leader of the republican party seems
to have had poor luck in persuading his party
associates to make partisan issue out of the
foreign policies of the nation. A number of re-
publican senator's in recent day have denounced
his attempt to do so, and resented his action in
trying to gag them in expressing opinions about
| the peace conference. The republican press also
| does not take kindly to Senator Lodges sugges-
tion of silence until republican senatorial eau
Gus tells them what to think and say about the
revised covenant of the League of Nations. Most
of them are busy expressing positive opinions in
advance of the party senatorial caucus about it,
and, what must be CALLING to the Massachusetts
senator, most of these opinions are favorable,
| The same is true of the independent press. The
Philadelphia Public Ledger, which is generally
republican in it's eanings, though independently
republican, supports the president strongly on
his position with regard to Fiume. It says:
president Wilson has stood to his guns on
! the question of Fiume. It is difficult to see how
he could have done otherwise.
IF we are to permit human passion to govern
| and declare again the grim old doctrine that al
ways lights new war at the dying flames of the
last, the doctrine that to the vctors belong the
| spoils,' then Italy should have Fiume and the
| whole coast of the Adriatic, and the jettisoned
| fragments of the justly hated Austrian empire
should have precisely what Italy chose to give
! them.
but we Americans pretended at all events to
hn hIgher a h0ldjnv
object. Let us be honest about it. It was not
! Woodrow Wilson alone that made this pretense.
We all made it. We all said that we were fight
| ing for a new ideaP in Europe which would call
/ into being a commonwealth Of nations and avoid
the familiar and mischevious mistake of plant
ing in the grave of one war the seeds Of it's sue
| cessor.
Were we the prize hypocrites Of history? Did
we mean what we said or were we only mouthing
fine sentiments to cover lust Of conquest, blood
and savage exultation over the vanquished? That
is really the question that is at stake today along
the picturesque eastern shores Of the Adriatic.
It is the same question that was at stake on the
left bank of the Rhine which Ferdinand Foch is
reported to have said France must have or he
would resign The common belief now is that
France has bowed to the touching, the pathetic,
the for-the-first-time hopeful appeal Of the help
less Of all nations for peace not only in their day
but for their children and their children's chill
dren. And it has now come to the turn Of Italy
to make similar sacrifice
The Boston News Bureau which no one will
accuse of partiality toward the president or the
present administration, also says:
president Wilson is right. Greater Serbia
must have Fiume. To the Jugoslavs possession
of Fiume Is a matter of life and death. Without
Flume the new Serbian state can have no COM
mercial life, no genuine national existence. AT
Fiume, and Fiume only, the railroad systems Of
Croatia, Bosnia, and Slavonia connecting at Bel
grade with Serbia reach the sea- South of FL
ume there are many harbors but no seaport on
the whole Dalmatian coast. The Dinarc Alps
rising abruptly from the sea prevent railroad
building to the coast.
For Italy possession Of Fiume is but slight
additional qualification of the racial desire to in
clude all people of Italian descent (here are some
25,000) within the geographical limits of the
kingdom Of Italy, and it furthers the Chauvin-
istic Italian ambition to make the Adriatic an
Italian lake.
s1rhe possession of Fiume is of no commercial
Importance to Italy, and it is not necessary for
her national security with Pola in her possession.
The balance of equities is overwhelmingly in fa-
vor of the Jugoslavs, and President Wilson has
done well to recognize It,"
IN fact large per cent of the republican pa
pers, nearly all the independent newspapers, and
practically all the democratic papers in this coun-
try express opinions in accord with the president
on the subject Of the controversy between him
and the Italian delegates with respect to Fiume.
we are OF the opinion that eventually the Ital-
lans themselves will see the matter in new light
when they are convinced that there is nothing
for them in an attitude of antagonism and isola-
! tlon at the peace conference