The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-06-08

carried his point abroad he brought the
treaty with Germany home and laid it be-
fore the senate.
To the great mass of the American peo-
pie he said; This covenant of the League
of Nations will bring to the world
lasting peace" Everyone desired lasting
peace and without pausing to consider or
even read the covenant, thousands upon
thousands of good people united in the
demand that the senate ratify and take
the league at once and without considera-
ton, just it stood.
The Republicans of the senate. perceiv-
ing the dangers of the league, determined
cost of delaying the treaty of peace with
Germany. They felt that the one thing
necessary was to have the people under
what it meant and what it threatened. So
the long debate began and it has lasted
for more than year.
The masses of the people became articu-
late. Public opinion steadily changed
and today the number of Americans who
would be willing to accO,t the covenant
of the League Of Nations just as the
president brought it back from Europe is
negligible The American people Will never
accept that alliance with foreign nations
proposed by the president The president
meantime has remained inflexible. He is
determined to have the. treaty as he
imperious demand the people will reply
in tones which cannot be misunderstood.
No man who thinks Of America first need
fear the answer.
Inc H.
Mr.. Wilson said in a recent letter to
Senator Hitchcock: For my own part 1
not willing to trust to the counsel of
diplomats the working out of any salvation
of the world from the things which it has
suffered" And he said this in behalf of
an alliance whose representatives will all
be diplomats and politicians. They will
all act in behalf of the interest of their
respective countries and they will have
nothing judicial about them Strip the
league of every clause which involves the
action of political representatives in the
assembly and the council and you leave
but one article in which the diplomats
of the league such will have no power.
That is the famous Article 10. Most of
the league covenant was prepared by Cen
eral SHUTS, of South Africa. but Article
10 was the work of the president of the
United States. IL is true this article is
free from diplomats, but it rests entirely
upon naked force: In that way peace is to
be preserved and the nations freed from
war by multiplying the opportunities for
the use of force Each individual nation
protection of the territorial integrity and
the political independence of every other
nation in the world at the time of sigma
ture; that is. for the protection OF states
some of which are not yet determined or
established, for the protection of boun-
daries which no man can define.
We were to give such n guarantee and
any of the countries in the league in the
event of exterior aggression could have
uemanueu our armed asSlstahce, anu our
soldiers and sailors must then have gone
forth at the command of foreign countries
unless we shattered all hope of world
peace by breaking solemn moral obliga-
ton.
The Republicans Of the senate no mat
ter what their future fate might be, were
that article unmodified should never be
ratified. 1t became every day clearer TO
them that the alliance called League of
Natiors, instead of being guarantee Tor
the worlds peace, was a breeder of war
and an enemy of peace. As we studied 1t
and a majority of senator's desired to
icl1
be a genuine League of Peace-we found
that it dragged us not only into every
the rest of the world but that our soldiers
and sailors might be forced to give their
lives in quarrels not their own at the
bidding of foreign governments.
1t also appeared that our domestic ques
lions, like immigration, could be interfered
with that the Interpretation of the Mon
roe doctrine was TO be left to the decision
of the league. that we were TO be made
participants in the outrageous disposition
of Shantung which robbed a friendly. ma
ton and gave the proceeds of the robbery
to her worst enemy. and that finally we
were to have in the assembly of the
league only one vote to Great Britain's
six.
These provisions were all intolerable.
Reservations were adopted which relieved
us from every obligation under Article y
which took all our domestic questions COM
pleteiy out of the jurisdiction of the
league, which once and for all placed the
Monroe doctrine beyond any interference
ny I2uIObt VI any ApAci5A PpNSA5 anu
which refused our assent to the cruel
wrong of Shantung.
We also made 1t impossible to subject
the United States to the proposed Unequal
ity in voting power, for we profoundly
believed that the United States must never
take part in any council of the nations
where her vote was not equal to that of
any other power represented.
Some of us were deeply convinced that
there ought to be no league at all and that
absolute safety could be obtained in no
other way; others of us, more numerous,
believed that the reservations / have de-
scribed would protect the covenant II we
joined the league.
We were all firmly united in our de-
termination that the league as submitted
by Mr.. Wilson must never pass. We were
also agreed that Mr.. Wilson's league with
what he called ''interpretative reserva-
tons" or with anything those obedient to