Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1920-10-19
HISTORY OF LEAGUE OF NATIONS
Confined from page one)


Is still trying to understand.
When the league of nations was the
topic OF senate debate. the defenders
Oh the constitution could only point to
war clouds on the horizon and conjec-
lure what might happen when the ill
starred peoples of Europe should again
De at one another's threats. They
could only say, for instance: "If Po-
land invades Russia and is driven
BACK, we should have to protect Poland
against invasion under article 10. for
roland is member of the league"
what they conjectured has come to
pass. Had the senate not rejected the
presidents demands, American soldiers
TO-DAY would be on call to die on the
Bug and the Vistula. If the senate
had not stood fast, American soldiers
would be in Armenia, not only to de-
TEND Armenia against the Turks, but
10 protect the British oil fields of Mes
opotamia against bolshevist invasion.
Had the senate approved Mr. Will
sons covenant without essential res
ervations," American soldiers would
be on call today to embark for the
danger zones between Italy and Jugo-
Slavia, between Poland and Czecho-
Slovakia, between Greeks, Bulgars and
Turks. Should the Turkish peril be
provoked anew and Islam hammer
again at the gates Of Cairo, American
soldiers would have to be ready to sail
across the seas and defend, not Egypt.
but Great Britain and its Suez canal
against the followers of Mahomet.
Should bolshevism sweep across
Turkestan to threaten India, they
would have to be ready to safeguard
not India, but the British empire. If
crumbling China fails to hold her mill
lions in check and an angry horde
sweep into Shantung or Korea, they
would be obligated, If called to go to
war, not to give freedom to Shantung
or to Korea, but to rivet on them
both the chains of Japanese oppres-
sion.
Could they do this under the consti-
tuition of the United States? No! Not
by twisting, turning, evading, or pre-
tendingi No, thousand times mol
Only to congress have the people of
the United States given the power "to
declare war" ito support armies" "to
provide and maintain a navy" Yet
we would be compromised or commit
ted in all these things-had not the
senate of the United States stood, bold
and firm, against the presidents de-
mands. Or does any one doubt that if
the president had had his way, he
would scruple today to proclaim him
self the supreme interpreter of Ameri-
cas- obligations under the league and
under the pretense of war emergency,
as commandments of the army
and navy of the United States, order
them abroad into any war that he and
the league might choose.
The league of nations is already in
existence. Twenty-Five nations have
accepted the treaty and the covenant
1t did not need to wait for the rati-
fication of the United States. Nor has
it waited 1t came into being when
the allied powers ratified the treaty
But it has been helpless to halt the
new wars that rage in Europe and
Asia. It's counsel" and its advice
have but served to arouse new antipa-
thies and fan new flames of hatred and
revenge. But the league exists and is
at work.
Such, in the light of current events
is the league of nations, whose un-
conditional and unreserved ratification
the president required and still re-
uuires from the senate of the United
States. Such is the price the United
States would have contracted to pay
on demand, in blood and money, to re-
deem the commitments, which under
| the false pretense of a mandate from