Albuquerque morning journal., 1920-09-20
MEDDLING ABROAD.
"What's Hecuba to me or l to Hecuba?'


Senator Hardines recent warning against Amer
tcas ..meddling abroad" although not original with
him. nevertheless is one of those political axioms
that bear repeating. 1t is especially timely wheh
one remembers that of the basic policies OF ms
opponents is that of policing our neighbors back
yards
We expect that foreign-born Americans shall be
one-hundred percent Americans. But when we
take sides in a purely foreign controversy-ike that
between Italy and Jugo- -Slava Ffume-We put
our adopted citizens a severe test Though they
NAV be thoroughly American in their sentiments, IT
is hut human that they should retain some senti-
ment for the land where their boyhood played.
What then, must be their feelings when America
gratuitously casts its moral physical weight
against their native land in questions that concern
America not at all? Can blame the Italians of
Amerca-thousands of whom went to France, not
as Italians but Americans-for feeling dlaappon-
ed in an administration that proclaimed to the world
that Fiume must be Slavic? Or If President wilson
had decided otherwise could have been surprised
had the slav- born citizens of the United States felt
bitter?
We do not question the wisdom Of the presidents
choice as between Italy and Jugo-S -Sava, for the sim
pe reason that we do not know all the hlstorlcai,
geographical and ethnoogical factors in the prob
lem Even experts are perplexed over the probiem'
The objection is, not to how the president
decided but that he decided at all. The contro-
yersy was not an American one--Ameriean liberty
and American honor were in no way involved
That the world is fast coming to regard the
limited States as sort of Citizen Fixit" to borrow
comic supplement character was clearly eVl-
denced recently by the appeal of MISS Mary Mac
Swney addressed to the people of the United States
asking whether we could not our government
to bring about the release of her brother, Terence
Macswney lord mayor of Cork, ireland who is on
a hunger-strike in a London prison. Miss Mac
swiney generously added that she did not ask the
with England, but merely wished to exert "eco-
nomic pressure" upon friendly nation that a
single Irishman might be released Miss MacSwiney
failed to realize apparently that human mind
can predict the result to which economic war
NAV lead; she forgot that most have been
the result of economic greed or economic pressure
we have no more right to interfere with Great
Brtains handling of her Irish question than Great
britain has to dictate policy toward the Philip
pines 1t is safe to say that there would be
marked leytation of the good old American dander
should England offer us a suggestion regarding
the solution of our Indian problem We would re-
sent and Justly resent, England's "meddng abroad
In its final analysis, then, Senator Harding =
warning is merely the application of the golden rule
to international affairs.
But there is more than merely abstract ethca
principle involved-although that in itself would be
sufficient "Meddng abroad lose for us ths
friendship and the respect of the world and event
ually must plunge us into unnecessary war
When a question involving Italia Irredenta OF
lingo -Savia or Anatolia the Hottentots is pre-
sented to us, before espousing the cause of either
side let us ask ourselves:
"What's Hecuba to us we to Hecuba?"