Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-07
CONTINUED from First Page.) Z

thing to do with either of US.
This plan would not only be a piece
of bungling diplomacy. but plain, I'M
adulterated dishonesty, as we'll
No less an authority than Senator
Lodge said, before the heat of recent
controversy. that to make peace eX-
cept in company with the allies would
brand us everlastingly with dlshohor
and bring ruin to us
Pence Project
~InternationaI BOssism."
And then after peace is made with
Germany, Senator Harding would, he
says, hopefully approach the ma
lions of Europe and of the earth.
proposing that understanding which
makes US a willing participant IN the
conservation of nations to a new re-
1ationShip.
In short, America. refusing to enter
the league of nations (now already
established by twenty-nine natlons)
and bearing and deserving the con-
tempt of the world. would submit an
entirely new project. This act would
either be regarded as arrant mad
ness or attempted international boss
ism.
The plain truth is that the repub-
lican leaders. obsessed with de,
termination to win the presidential
election. have attempted to satisfy too
many divergent views. inconsistencies,
inevitable under the circumstances,
rise to haunt them on every shand.
and they find themselves arrayed in
public thought at least against
great principle. More than that. their
conduct is opposed to the idealism
upon which their party prospered IN
other days.
Illustrating these observations by
concrete facts, let it be remembered
that those now inveighing against
an interest in affairs outside OF
America criticised President Wilson
in unmeasured terms for not resent
ing the invasion of Belgium in 1914.
They term the league of nations
military alliance, which, except for
their opposition, would envelop our
country, when, as a matter OF truth,
the subject of league of nations has
claimed the best thought of Amer
lea for years. and the league to en-
force peace. was presided over by so
distinguished a republican as EX-
President Taft, who, before audiences
in every section, advocated the prin-
ciple and the plan of the present
league. They charge experimental
precedent the Monroe doctrine. which
10 the very essence of article x of the
Versailles covenant Skeptics viewed
Monroe's mandate with alarm, pre-
Central and South American states,
whose guardians they alleged we
need not be. And yet not a shot
has been fired in almost one hum
years in preserving sovereign rights
on this hemisphere. They hyprocriti-
caIly claim that the league Of nations
will result in our boys being drawn
into military service, but they fail
to realize that every high school
youngster in the land knows that no
treaty can override our Constitution,
which reserves to Congress, and to
Congress alone, the power to declare
war. They preach Americanism with
a meaning of their own invention, and
artfully appeal to a selfish and prov
incial spirit. forgetting that Lincoln
fought war over. the purely moral
question of slavery, and that Nc
Kinley broke the letters of our
boundary lines, spoke the freedom
of Cuba, and carried the torch of
American idealism to the ben;shted
Philippines. They lose memory of
Garfields prophecy that America, un-
der the blessings of God-given oppor-
tunity, would by her moral leadership
and cooperation become a Messiah
among the nations Of the earth.
Definite Duty for
Organized Government.
These are fatefulstimes Organized
government has a definite duty all
over the~World- The house of civ
ilization is to be put in order The
supreme issue of the century is be-
fore US and the nation that halts
and delays is playing with fire. The
finest impulses of humanity. rising
above national lines, merely seek to
make another horrible war impossi-
BILE Under the old order of jhterna-
tional anarchy war came overnight,
and the world was on fire before we
knew it. 1t sickens our senses to
think of another. We saw one con-
fiict into which modern science
brought new forms of destruction in
great guns. submarines. airships and
poison gases 1t is no secret that our
chemists had perfected. when the
contest came to a precipitate close
gases SO deadly that whole cities
could be wiped cut armies destroyed.
and the crews of battleships smoth-
cred. The public prints are filled
with the opinions of military men
that in future wars the method. more
effective than gases or bombs, will be
the employment of the germs of dis
eases. carryin pestilence and de-
struction. Any nation prepared I'M
der these conditions. as Germany was
equipped in 1914. could conquer the
world in a year
1t is planned now to make this
agreed upon. The league of nations
is in operation A very important
work. under its control just COM
pleted. was participated in by the
Hon Elihu Root. Secretary of State
under the Roosevelt administra ton.
At meeting of the council of the
league of nations. February H. an
organizing committee of twelve of
the most eminent jurists in the world
was selected. The duty of this group
was to devise a plan for the estab-
lishment of a permanent court of in
ternational justice, as a branch of
the league. This assignment has
been concluded by unanimous action
This augurs well for world progress
The question is whether we shall or
shall not join in this practical and
humane movement President Wilson,
as our representative at the peace
table, entered the league in our name
in so far as the executive authority
permitted. Senator Harding. as the
republican candidate for the presi-
dency. proposes in plain words that
We remain out of it. AS the demo-
Let us anaiyze Senator Harding's
plan of making German-American
peace and then calling for '-'new
relationship. among nations" as
sunling for the purpose of argument
only. that the perfidious hand that
dealt with Germany would possess
the power or influence to draw TWEEN
ty-nin< nations away from a plan al
ready at work. and induce them to
retrace every step and make a new
beginning. This would entail our
appointing another commission to as
other powers. With the Versailles
instrument discarded. the whole sub
ject of partitions and divisions of ter
ritory on new lines would be re-
opened The difficulties in this re-
gard. as any fair mind appreciates.
the peace session. and we must not
attempt to convince ourselves that