The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1920-10-15
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League This alone would almost Ger
tainly be enough to stop any nation
IN future from ineurring such a PEN
atty. But suppose that some crazy
Kaiser Of the future should defy this,
then it would be @the duty OF the
Council to recommend what force
should be used by the member nations
to stop the outlaw Had the Kaiser
known IN 1914 that he would at once
have arrayed against him the power
Of all. the great nations of the world
the moment he invaded Belgium, even
he, we believe, would have paused It
is not likely that any other nation
will defy such. moral and physical
power. The threat will be sufficient.
The Monroe Doctrine has been in ef-
feet and has been respected for more
than a century, not because this COM
try has had to fight for it, but be-
cause all the world knew we could
fight. If necessary, to maintain it.
The League Of Nations is sort Of
gloriffed Monroe Doctrine applied to
the world.
1t should be noted that the only po-
wer of the Council in case of war is
Ito recommend to member nations
what military and naval force each
should employ. All the nonsense
about the League having power TO
send our boys to fight the battles Of
foreign nations" is not only false, but
those who talk it know full well that
lit is false. For the Council to recon-
mend our using force the vote must
/ be unanimous; that is, it must have
the assent of our representative in the
Council. Even then we are not bound
by the recommendation unless Con-
gress approves it and declares war,
for all the provisions are subject to
our Constitution. We would not be
bound to take part On any foreign
war" but the American people would
hardly want to be a Stacker" in fight
ing il necessary to keep the peace of
the world.
Nor would we lose our nationality
Tor our sovereignty, or our liberty Of
action, or become 'internationalized !"
France and Great Britain and Spain
and Italy and Brazil and Switzerland
and Japan and the others have not
feared any of these things for them
selves. Why should a simple agree
ment to join IN an effort to keep the
peace be dangerous to the United
states aloneg
One Of the great things about the
League is the agreement that small
nations shall be protected and treated
with justice and not be. the prey for
powerful national bandits as hereto
fore. And there are other agreements,
such as that labor be given a fair
show in all the nations and that the
public health Of. the world be as far
as possible safeguarded so that cpl
denies are prevented from travelling
from one country to another, and the
like.
The organization of the League
consists Of an assembly of one repre-
sentative from each of the member
nations and a Council of nine Under
the terms of the treaty i've nations
are to have one representative each
permanently in the Council the Unit
ed States, France, Great Britain,
Italy and Japan. The other four ma
tions represented at present are Bel
gium, Brazil, Spain and Greece; but
from time to time other national rep
resentatives may be chosen to take
4 the places of these four by the AS
sembly The question OF majorities
does not figure much, as on al i'm
Eportant matters the decisions Of both
the Council and the Assembly must be
unanimous. Ali the nonsense about
Great Britain outvoting other coun-
tries is mere buncombe. The League
will have headquarters in Geneva,
and a secretary and staff and the
League. bodies will meet once a year
at least.
i We have attempted to give some Of
the main points of the League, but we
ask nobody to take our word for it.
Read the League covenant itself-it
is comparatively short and can be
read carefully and understandingIy in
half an hour. We wish every man,
woman and child in America would
read it carefully several times. If
they would do this, all the smoke
screen of malicious misrepresentation
which has been thrown around it by
the personal and partisan enemies OF
the President would be dissipated
and there would be no danger that
this country, where the League was
conceived many years ago, would take
its place with Mexico Turkey and
Germany outside of it. Even Germany
will join as soon as it is allowed to