Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-09-22
PROBLEM NOW
TO PREVENT WAR
Taggart Talks on League at
Democratic Club.

''The only way to make payment Tor
the bloodshed and lives lost In the world
war is to prevent a repetition of it." said
Thomas Taggart, Democratic candidate
for United States Senator, addressing
precinct and ward committeeman Of Ma
rion County, at a meeting last night at
the Indiana Democratic Club.
1 1.-THE chief benefit the United States
got out of the war was experience" said
Mr.. Taggart, "and that is not benefit,
unless we profit by it.
I'VE ought to make it a resource and
think the people Of the United States
want to profit by It by making war In
the future as nearly impossible as they
can
The meeting was held for the purpose
of instructing the committeeman in most
effective ways Of getting a 100 per cent
registration of Democratic votes on the
last registration day, Oct. 4.
Mr.. Taggart based his address on the
League of Nations as the most effective
way to prevent future wars.
"You remember the great Chicago IRE
was started by Widow OLeary's COW
kicking over kerosene lamp" Mr.. Tag
CART said.
THAT is what started 1t and the con-
ditions were favorable for the big fire
that followed.
''The late war was started by some
body down in Serbia killing the Austrian
Crown Prince.
LESSON LEARNED
FROM CHICAGO FIRE.
"The conditions were favorable for
trouble and the world was set on fire.
1.-THE Chicago fire taught most people
to keep kerosene lamps away from cows.
Eve have a similar problem in the pre-
vention Of war; for I think everybody
is agreed on the desirabillty' Of preven-
ton.
1.-THE only question is as to the mode
Of prevention.
Representatives Of all the civilized ns-
tons of the earth met at Versailles, and
after five months of careful study of the
subject, agreed on the League of Nations
to Enforce Peace.
"Thlrty-fo Of these nations have rati-
fed that treaty. and it is now in full
force
The question is whether we shall Join,
and give it a trial.
There is no escape from that issue.
Senator Lodge. Elihu Root and Sena-
tor Harding have all declared absolutely
for refusing to join, and for starting .
new project
They say they want to patch up
The Hague tribunal and substitute that
for the League of Nations.
They say the league already has been
proved impotent, on account OF the fight
ing that is going on in the regions of
Poland, the Balkans, and about the Black
Sea
IF that objection were founded on
fact; it would be more forcibly applied
TO the Hague Tribunal, for we have been
trying that for twenty years. and it pre-
vented none Of the wars Of that period
But it is not based on fact, because
the present disturbances in Europe are
not new wars.
They are the remains Of the great
world war, which was never finally ended
The people in those regions have kept
on fighting without regard to armistice
or treaty.
( IIARDIN.5'S PLAN GOES
BACK TO OLD ISSUE
ut IS just like great FIRE that keeps
breaking out for days after the main
blaze is stopped; and the problem pre-
sented By them is not one of preventing
new fires, but Of putting out the old one.
at is generally agreed that the chief
defect of The Hague tribunal was the lack
of authority.
las Senator Harding puts IT, it did not
have any teeth, and he says he Is in IA
vor of giving it teeth
IF that means anything at all, 1t
means that we will agree to &c to war
to enforce the decisions Of the tribunal
and that brings you right back to the
proposition which has been so shocking
to Senator's Watson and New, and others,
/ of sending our forces abroad to settle
foreign controversies.
THAT does not worry me at ali, be-
cause it is a waste of time to talk about
enforcing any kind of law unless you
have, and use, the necessary power to en-
force il.
"But there is another objection to this
proposition of Mr.. Roots which Senator'S
4 Lodge and Harding are so ready to &C
cept without even seeing formal state
ment of it,
mfr. Root has said repeatedly that he
/ proposed to limit the authority OF the
/ tribunal to what he calls jusiciable
cases and that means the kind of cases
that nations are ordinarily willing to
settle by arbitration, such as money
claims and disputes about boundary
lines
my legal friends tell me that "Jus-
ticiable cases are those which the Law
provides for trying in courts; and I
suppose Mr.. Root means that general
kind OF cases.
1.-THE only way to stop wars is to
have a tribunal to decide questions that
have not been considered justifable.
"If hot-headed or lawless persons Of
one nation do something that affronts
another nation, instead of rushing into
war about it there should be an honest
effort to settle the wrong peaceably-
Fighting does not decide who is right
and who is wrong.
at only decides who is the stronger.
There ought to be some way Of decid-
ing peaceably any international dispute
And If any nation refuses to take
that way, and insists on lighting, Is
should be understood that every other
nation will be against it.
THAT is only applying the same prin-
ciple to national disputes that we apply
to private disputes in every civilized
country on earth.
1--WE have in every community in this
State an equivalent to the League OF
Nations.
APPLIES RULE To
EVERYDAY AFFAIRS.
"If people were engaged in any viola
tIon of law, and the police: or the sheriff.
or any other peace officer, is not able to
stop them, he has the right to call on
every able bodied man In the community
to help him.
And any man he calls on is bound to
help him, and is subject to a penalty IL
! he refuses