The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1919-12-12
AN uNPARroNABLE CRIME

the TeSeTFdtlOu 10 AkLlClS ~ pdSS6u
the heart would be cut out of the doc
ument; so the minority leader and the
president seem to be in substantial
agreement.
The funeral arrangements matter
not at ALL Whether the president
buries the document by withdrawing
it, or whether he presents the mutt.
lated remains to our associates in the
late war for interment may have a
far-reaching effect on the political
game as it is played in the United
States, but none on our position in
relation to the rest of the world.
If the treaty is dead a great many
people will be vastly pleased. The
cynics will be justified The militar-
lists will be established. The munition
makers will thank God and take
courage. All the caron flock that fat
tens upon war will rejoice. And lot
of poor fools who have been misled
by clever sophistry will be genuinely
proud of what they will consider i
victory for Americanism, when what
they celebrate is really it's everlasting
disgrace.
If the traety is dead, we must arm.
The abolition of the treaty means a
return to the old system. But there
Will be a variation. We shall not be
able to rely as heretofore on the Brit
ish fleet, for we shall have trapped
Great Britain, and cheated her out of
the most important of her winnings
in the war against Germany. We
shall have chilled the friendship of
France, for we shall have cheated her
out of the left bank of the Rine, with
out giving her anything in return.
We proclaimed our idealism, and
Europe believed in it. But if the
treaty is killed, it will be because we
are too little in love with our ideals
to take some risks to do some labor
in their support. Therefore we shall
stand convicted, not of cynicism and
greed alone, but of disgusting hypo-
crisy as we'll.
Therefore we must arm. France
and England trusted us, and the
senate has betrayed them. Italy never
trusted us, and the senate has turned
her suspicion into certainty. One by
one the senate has stripped away all
the fine aspirations with which the
nation was clothed, and left the naked
in the presence of it senemies, for if
the treaty is killed, we shall have no
real friends left.
And the sickening part Of it is that
it was all for the sake of few con-
temptible offices. America is ideal
istic. She entered this war with her
heart filled with the generous hope
that by entering it she might bring
peace, not solely to her own shores,
but to all this tortured world. Amer
lea was never afraid of Germany. ANY
man who puts up the argument that
we fought for no other purpose than
to protect ourselves is a fool as well
as a liar. We fought to protect all
men against crowned criminals.
America wasted her treasure with
out giving it a thought because she
is not capable of computing the value
of right in dollars. She strewed
| France with the bones of her sons
| because she set the right of humanity
above her own flesh and blood Hav
ing shed her blood for the cause, it is
conceivable that she would balk at
the necessity of sweating for it?
1t is cruel thing that these men in
Washington are doing. Simply be-
cause they hate the man who happen
ed to be the human instrument that
America used, they are willing to be-
daub their own country with slime.
Simply to capture few places Of
honor and trust for themselves and
lLelF party tney are willing 10 undo
all the work that was done in France
with so much pain and bitter toll that
the human soul sickens at the mem
DRY of it.
We hold no brief for Woodrow VIII
son. He might be a gibbering idiot,
he might be reincarnation Of Nero, a
llar thief and scoundrel, he might
be Beezlebub, Prince of Powers of
Darkness; but, he whote treaty that
exhibited America to the world as
generous and wise and true. They
might take Woodrow Wilson out and
hang him on the hightst hill, but that
would not change the treaty: nor will
/ the slaughter OF the treaty change