The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-10-18

amendment. Neither the macn1nery
 nor the bylaws are of vital conse-
 suence, we could have a League Of Nations without either.
 "The important things are the
 promises If we promise to do bad ! thing, then we ought to Kill the whole thing or make a speclhc reser-
 vation as to that particular thing, put l if these promises are to do a good thing we ought to adopt them.
 What are the promises? I propose
 I think you will agree with me that | all of them are good and some Of
 them superlatively good.
 ! First a definition of the League: i The League of Nations IS scheme or | a plan by which sovereign nations can l act unanimously more expeditiously
 than they otherwise could. That is | all there is to it. The two important
 words to remember are sovereign and | unanimous. Not a single nation that | loses it's sovereignty by entering this 1 League, Senator. Harding and all the 1 others to the contrary nowithstand- | ing. Senator Harding has said the is- sue is Covenant versus Constitution. l challenge him or any other man to | point out a single article in the 1 American Constitution that is violated | by the Covenant, or to point out 1 single one of the 26 articles in the | Covenant that violates the const1tu- 1 tion. If there is such an article he 1 ought to be impeached, because as a | Senator of the United States he voted | for the treaty with the Lodge reser- | vations and not one of the Lodge i reservations makes the claim that the I Covenant violates the constitution. | Those Senators took an oath of office | to defend the constitution and if they I voted for anything that violates the | constitution, they are. deserving of | impeachment. The Covenant doesn't l violate the constitution or every one ] of those 96 Senators would have ! bounced on it like cat on a mouse
 All this talk about the Covenant yer
 sus the Constitution, super-sover- l eighty is addressed to people who | haven't read the Covenant, I defy anybody to point out where the Cove | enant violates the constitution.
 ! Here are the promises, all of them. 1. The nations agree that war or
 the threat of war is the concern of
 all.
 I 'Is that sound or is it not? When 1 Serbia started this war, was it or was 1 it not the concern of all? When an other war was started by some little nation that is likely to involve the world into a confiagration. will it or r&$t of us? This last war was the first in which entire peoples fought. There isn't a person in this room who ! wasn't in this war and who didn't do a whole nation isfighting a whole na- | tion and finds that the only way it can win is by killing the entire pop l ulation of the other nation, will they | hesitate to asphyxiate whole city l like Paris or New York?
 | '2. They reserve the right to take
 any action deemed necessary to main
 tain the peace of the world.
 1 Does anybody object to that? | a. They pledge that making war
 contrary to the Covenant shall be
 construed as an act of war.
 An act of war is not necessarily war. That simply means when you | have a League of Nations with rules,
 and somebody breaks the rules, then i the other members have the right to
 consider than an act of war.
 | A. They undertake to respect and
 preserve each others territorial integ-
 irty and political independence.
 l "If they had stopped right there am inclined to think I might desire a | reservation on Article Se ut that Ar
 tic1e doesn't stop there I have pur- posely omitted the three most impor-
 tantsswords in Article x. The entire lsentehce reads: The memb bers of the | League undertake to respect and pre-
 serve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of the mem bers of the League As against exter- nal aggression. In that one respect
 only. There is nothing in Article X to prevent change of boundaries or
 Independence by peaceable means such as by treaty or by revolution by I IEeldnu, the Hn1lpplneS, korea or any
 other portion of the world Revolu- tion is perimtted so far as the League is concerned. But no nation can com-
 init aggression and take away an- What happens if the attempt is made to commit aggression? The League
 prevents it. How? It first exerts economic pressure and if that is not
 shall be done. Senator Borah is very
 much exercised for fear the blood thirsty Swiss might take it into their heads to attack the British Empire over to save England from those wicked Swiss. He seems to think
 that we are bound to send troops
 under Article x. Not at all! Sup pose Mexico makes trouble. Tho
 Council will not recommend that Eng
 land or Italy clean it up, but they
 will choose the nearest nation. If it
 happens to be Italy, France might be the trouble got bigger more might he
 called in. If the whole world is on
 fire we might come in. and in that
 case we would be forced in whether
 there is a. League or not.
 All we agree to is that we won't
 allow external aggression to be per
 petuaIly sanctif1ed. We don't say
 when we will act, but we do say it
 of the council. if we don't agree with
 the others, the council can make nc recommendauon and We are not compelled to act. If our Congress
 decides that under all the circum- stances we are under a moral obIi- gation to declare war, they will pass the necessary law; if they don't , think so, they won't. That is all
 there is to it. The council can only Irecommend. It advises or suggests Tt never commands, it never insists 1t never orders. I would be perfect ly willing to leave it to any woman In this room, and I'm sure she can understand, even if United States Senators cannot, that there is a diff ) ference between an order or com r mand and recommendation or pro poSal.
 8 international law is no further 3 advanced than private law was in the twelfth century. If in the twelfth