The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1920-08-26
KELLOGG ON LEAGUE
Senator Says Article X Constitutes
an Agreement by Nations to
Engage in Warfare.
Satisfied That Action of U. S. Senate
Saved American Nation From
Dire Calamity.

Senator Frank B. Kellogg has just
returned from a tour IN Europe. He
interviewed some of the leading states
men in England and France and makes
the following comments in regard to
the present status of the league of ma
tons in Europe:
"If anything is needed to convince
one that the republican senate was
wise in refusing to ratify the league
and the treaty without reservations, a
trip to Europe will do it.
II am more than ever convinced that
the republicans saved the country from
a calamity. If we had ratified the
treaty without reservations, with Arti-
Gle X in force guaranteeing the terri
torial integrity and political indepen-
dence of all members of the league,
we would today either be violating our
treaty or sending troops and money
to protect Poland in its war with Rus
STA, and before this war is over quite
likely we would be called upon to send
troops and money to protect other bor-
der states.
Look at the situation today; Po-
land was created by the treaty of Yer
sailles, its boundaries defined, and by
Article X its political independence
and territorial integrity were guaran-
teed by all members of the league
against external aggression.
''The red army of Russia now is in
vading its territory and threatening it's
political extinction. The government
of Poland has called on the British en-
pire, France, Italy, Japan, in fact on
all Of the members Of the league, to
carry out its specific guarantee. And
what has happened? Not one single
country has responded The league of
nations and all of the individual ma
tons have abandoned Article x; they
have violated their agreement.
eve on the other hand saw fit by a
reservation to relieve us of the bind
ing obligation of Article X; we knew
that the United States could not, and
ought not to go to war even to prevent
the tragedy of Poland, except by the
judgment of the American people
through its congress, and that any
agreement in any treaty to do so
would, unless it met with the approval
of the American people, be violated
exactly as it has been by the great
democracies across the water.
'How much better it is to leave
those questions to be met when the oc-
casion arises, rather than to make a
binding guarantee to be violated.
when I was in England I was told
by every public man whom l met that
it was a political impossibility for
Great Britain togo to war for Poland,
yet no one underestimate the menace
Of the onward march of the bolshevik
army in eastern Europe; no one under
estimated the effect on western civil
ization of the imposition of soviet
tyranny, crimes and destruction upon
the people Of the border states, and
yet no army has been raised to stay
this menace.
Il learned another thing in Europe
and that is that it is the consensus of
the opinion in France and ENGLAND
that the socalled military alliance of
Article X is entirely impracticable;
that Article X will remain dead let
ter or be eliminated from the league.
that there was not the slightest doubt
that the reservation adopted by the
republican senate would have been ac-
cepted by every member who had rati-
fed the treaty.
II talked with leading public men in
both countries and there was no hest
fancy whatever in expressing this
opinion. This we believed to be GER
tain when the reservations were adopt
ed. It is therefore incomprehensible
to me that the president and his party
in the senate should have refused to
have accepted these reservations pro-
tecting American sovereignty and in
terest, which every other nation was
willing to accept, especially reserva-
tons which were adopted by prac-
t1cally two-thirds majority of the
senate"