Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1920-03-12

TcCclNcS lClS Oh SCTul)ulOuS SUPER
Crogltion-listencd to with indilfer
cnt silencc,as such men listen to
what is Il matter of course and Was
not necessary to say.
There can be no objection to
lcgislating again what our cOnsti-
tutional method is and that our
congress alone can declare war or
determine the cause or occasions
for war, and that it alone can author
ize the use of the armed forces OF
the United States on land or sea.
But to make such Il declaration
would certainly be world of SUI
perogation.
Il am sorry 10 say that the res
notice arc almost, without eXcep-
lion, not int arprct;t:iopS OF the ar
ticles' to which i. is proposed to
attach them, but in effect virtual
qualifications Of those articles.
ANY reservation which seeks to
deprive the league Of nations of the
force of Article y cuts at the very
heart and life of the covenant it.
self. Any league of nations which
does not guarantee as matter of
incontestable right the political
independence and integrity of each
of its members might be hardly
more than a futile scrap of paper,
IS Ineffective in operation us the
agreement between Belgium and
Germany which the Germans vio-
lated in 1911. Article X, as writ
ten into the treaty of Versailles,
represents the remuneration by
Great Britain and Japan, which
before the war had begun to find
so many Interests in common in
the Pacific by France; by Italy--by
all the great fighting powers Of the
world of the old prctensions of
political conquest and territorial
ACKNOWLEDGMENT. 1t is 4 new doc
trine in the worlds affairs and
must be recognized or there is no
secure basis for the peace which
the whole world so longingly de-
sircs. If Article X is not adopted and
acted upon, the governments which
reject it will, think, be guilty of
bad faith to their people whom
they induced TO make the sacrifices
of the war by the pledge that they
would be fighting to redeem the
world from the old order of force
and aggression. They will be act
ing also in bad faith to the opinion
of the world at large to which
.hey appealed fer support in a con-
certed stand against the agrees
sions and pretcnsions of Germany.
If We were 10 reject Article X or
so to weaken it as to take its full
force out of it, it would mark us
as desiring to return to the old
order of jealous rivalry and mis-
understanding from which our
gallant soldiers have rescued us.
and it would leave us without any
vision or new conception of Justice
md peace. We would have learn"
cd no lesson from the war, but
gained only the regrct that it had
involved us in its maelstrom of
suffering. If A:nerice has awaken.
ed as the rest of the world has, to
the vision Of a new day in which
the mistakes of the past are to be
corr sctcd, it will welcome the OBJ
portunity TO share the responsible
tiles of Article X.
1T must not be forgotten, Senator
that this article constitutes q renun-
citation of wrong ambition on the
part Of powerful nations with
whom we were associated in the
war. 1t is by no means certain
that without this article any such
remuneration will take place. Mill
tarists ambitions and imperialistic
policies are by 10 means dead
even In the counsels of the nations
whom we most desire TO be associat-
cd in the tasks Of peace. Through
out the sessions of the conference
In Paris, 1t was evident that a mill
tarIstlc party. Under the most in
1luenhad leadership, was seeking
to gain ascendancy in the counsels
OF France. These were defeated
then, but are in control now. The
chit arguments advanced in Paris
In support of the Italian claims
On the Adriatic wera strategic ar
guments. that is to say, military
arguments which had at their back
She thought of naval supremacy
In the sea. For my own part, l
am as intolerant of imperialistic
designs on the part of other nations
as l was Of such decisions on the,
part of Germany.
The choice is btween two
ideals; on the one hand, the ideal
oi democracy, which raw. scnts
the rights Of free pcop!. every
where to govern themselves, an on
INC oiher hacd. the ideal of impcr-
iallsm which seeks TO dominate
iy force and unjust power, an
ideal which is by no means dead
and which is earnestly held in
many quarters still.
Every imperialistic influence in
Europe was hostile TO the embodi-