The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-08

1 in the senate prevails as that of the
 party. In short. principle. as avowed
 in support of the Lodge reservations.
 or of the so-called mild reservations,
 has been surrendered to expediency. NEW POLICY PLEDGE Senator Harding makes this new pledge of policy in behalf of his party:
 'I promise you formal and effective peace so quickly as a republican Con-
 gress can pass it's declaration for a republican executive to sign"
 This means but one thing-a sepa- rate peace with Germany!
 This would be the most dis henrtening event in civilization since the Russians mades their separate peace with Germany, and infinitely more unworthy our part than it was on that of the Russians.
 They were. threatened with starva-
 tion and revolution had swept their country. Our soldiers fought side by side with the Allies. So complete was the coalition of strength and purpose that General Foch was given supreme command, and every soldier in the allied cause. no matter what flag he followed. recognized him as his chief. We fought the war together, and now before the thing Is through it is pro- posed to enter into a separate peace with Germany! In good faith we pledged our strength with our asso- ciates for the enforcement of terms upon offending powers, and now it is suggested that this be withdrawn. suppose Germany, recognizing the first break in the Allies, proposes something we cannot accept. Does senator Harding intend to send an army to Germany to press her to our terms? Certainly the allied army could not be expected to render aid If, on. the other hand Germany should accept the chance we <offered of , breaking the bond it would be for the express purpose of insuring a Ger man American alliance. recognizing
 that the Allies-in fact no nation in good standing-would have anything to do with either of us
 PLAIN DISHONESTY
 This plan would not only be . piece of bungling diplomacy, but plain, unadulternted dishonesty, as well.
 No less an authority than Senator
 Lodge said. before the heat of recent
 controversy. that to make peace ex- cept in company with the Allies would
 brand us everlastingly with dishonor
 and bring ruin to us."
 And then after peace is made with Ger
 many, Senator Harding would, he says, hopefully approach the nations of Eu- rope and of the earth. proposing that understanding which makes us willing participant in the conservation of na- tions to a new relationship.
 In short, America refusing to enter the League of Nations (now already estab- lished by twenty-nine nations) and bear ing and deserving the contempt of the world, would submit an entirely new project. This act would either be re- garded as arrant madness or attempted international bossism.
 The plain truth is that the republican leaders, obsessed with a determinat ton to win the presidential election, have attempted to satisfy too many divergent views. Inconsistencies, rise to haunt them on every hand and they find them selves arrayed in public thought at least against great principle. More than that, their conduct is opposed to the idealism upon which their party pros- pered in other days
 CONCRETE ILLUSTRATIONS Illustrating these observations by con- crete facts, let 1t be remembered that those now inveighing against an interest in affairs outside of America, criticized President Wilson in unmeasured terms for not resenting the invasion of Bel | gium in 1914. They term the League of Nations a military alliance which, ex- cept for their opposition. would enveiop our country when, as a matter of truth, the subject of League of Nations has | claimed the best thought of America for years and the League to Enforce Peace was presided over by so distinguished a republican as Ex-President Taft, who, before audiences in every section advo- cated the principles and the plan of the present league. They charge experiment. Vrtho hau ct {Aa lsrHr | cedent the Monroe Doctrine, which is the very essence of Article x of the Yer sailles covenant. Skeptics viewed Mon- roes mandate with alarm, predicting re- current wars in defense of Central and | South American states, whose guardians they alleged we need not be. And yet. not a shot has been fired in almost 100 years in preserving sovereign rights on this hemisphere. They hypocritically claim that the League of Nations will l result in our boys being drawn into mill 1 itary service. but they fail to realize that | every high school youngster in the land knows that no treaty can override our Constitution. which reserves to Congress, ! and to Congress alone. the power to de- clare war. They preach Americanism with a meaning of their own invention
 anL artfully appeal to selfish and pro-
 vincial spirit, forgetting that Lincoln fought war over the purely moral question of slavery and that Mckinley broke the letters of our boundary lines, spoke the freedom of Cuba and carried 1 the torch of American idealism to the be- nighted Philippines They lose memory
 Of Garfields prophecy that America. under the blessings of God-given oppor- tunity, would by her moral leadership
 and cooperation become a Messiah
 among the nations of the earth.
 SUPREME ISSUE
 | These are fateful times. Organized government has a definite duty all over
 the world. The house, of civilization Is
 to be put in order. The supreme issue
 of the century Is before us and the nation that halts and delays is< play
 ling with fire. The finest impulses oi
 1 humanity. rising above national lines
 { merely seek to make another horrible
 war impossible. Under the old order
 of-international anarchy war came
 overnight. and the world was on fire
 before we knew it. It sickens our
 senses to think.of another. We saw one
 lconflict into which modern science
 brought new forms of destruction IT
 great guhs, submarines, airships and
 poison gases. It is no secret that oui
 chemists had perfected, when the con 1 test came to a precipitate close, gases
 so deadly that whole cities could De | wiped out, armies destroyed, and tne
 lcrews of battleships smothered. The
 lpublic prints are filled with the opin
 ions of military men that in future
 wars the method. more effective tnat
 gases or bombs, will be the employ
 ment of the germs of diseases, carry
 ling pestilence and destruction. An,
 nation prepared under these condi