The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-06-29

E-HERALD, TUESDAY, . , and. at times. close to the point of death. He had been physically wound ed just as surely as were Garfield and
 Mckinley and Lincoln, for, it is but a difference of degree between fanatics and psrtisans. The Congress, during all this period. when the whole heart | oe America ought to have been flowing
 ou.. in love and sympathy. did ont
 find time, amid their bickerings. to
 pass one resolution of generous i'm port or extend one kindly inquiry as | to the fate of the President of their
 own country.
 l And what was his offense? Merely
 this-that he strove to redeem the
 word that America had given to the
 world; that he sought to save future generation from the agony through
 which this generation had passed that he had taken seriously the promises l that all nations had made that they would unite at the. end of the war in a | compact to preserve the peace of the | world, and that he relied upon the good | faith of his own people. If tfere was ' any mistake, it was that he made too I generous estimate of mankind, that he
 ] believed that the idealism which had
 IT ade the war a great spiritual victory, could be relied upon to secure the le- ] s:timate fruit of the war-the reign or
 universal peace.
 | Tn one sense it is quite inmate what people say about the President.
 Nothing we can say can add or detract | from the fame that will flow down the intending channels of history. Gener- atlons yet unborn will look back to this ! era and pay their tribute of honor to 1 the man who led a people through troublous ways out of the valleys or l seifishness up to the mountain tops Of achievement and honor, and there showed them the promised land of freedom and safety and fraternity. Whether history records that they en- tered in or turned their backs upon the vision. it is all one with him--he is inn mortal.
 REQUIREMENTS OF HONOR There are men who seem to be an- noyed when we suggest that American honor is bound up in this contest, and that good faith requires that we should enter the League of Nations. The whole republican case is based upon the the- ory that we may, with honor, do as we please about this matter and that we have made no promises which 1t is our duty to redeem Let us turn again to the record.
 Nf' in 1916 had declared for a world court, fer the pacific settlement of interna- tinnal disputes" The progressive party in 1912 and in 1916 had likewise de- cla red for an arrangement between na- tions to make peace permanent. Ihe dem ocratic party in 1916 had likeWlse declared for an arrangement between nations to make peace permanent. The democratic party in 1916 had specifl- caily declared in favor of the esta6- lishment of a League of Nations. The Serate itself. On August 2S, 19l6 by unanimous vote, passed measure re- auesting the President to take the lead io such world movement. On December 1S 1916 the President addressed an identical note to the na- t;ons at war, requesting them to state the terms upon which they would deem i. possible to make peace. In this note he proposed the creation of a Lea que of Nations. saying:
 .In the measures to be taken to se- cure the future peace of the world, the people and government of the United States are as vitally and directly inter- ested as the governments now at war ls They stand ready and even eager to cooperate in the accomplish ment of these ends when the war IS over with every influence and resource at their commando
 This was four months before Amer lea entered the war.
 To this identic note. the central DOW CTS answered evasively, but the allies, in their reply dated at Paris, January 10 1917. declared;
 Their whole -hearted agreement with the proposal to create a League or Ma tions which shall assure peace and Jus thro1fChout tbp wOrld.' On January 22, 1917. the President addressed the Senate with reference to these replies. and said:
 "In evesv dserssion of the peace that must eEd this war. it is taken for granted that the peace must be fol- lowed by some definite concert or power which shall make it virtually impossible that any such catastrophe shal, overWhe'm us again." Speaking of the League of Peace which was to follow the war he said: 'Tf the peace presently to be made Is tc endure. it must be peace made secure by the organized major force of mank;Ed.'
 Acting upon these proposals. both the French and the British govern
 ments appointed committees to study the prohlcm while tke war was still in progress.
 On April ?. 1917. the President de- lvered his famouT war message to Congress. and thrilled the heart of the country anew by his announced pur- rose to make the contest "a war against waf." High above all of our other aims. he placed
 "a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.'
 Following this message. the Con- gress. by resolution passed April 6, 1917, recognized the state of war. On January s. 1918, the President went before Congress and set forth his famous fourteen points. The four teensh point, which is practically identical in language with the provi- siens Of Article 10 of the covenant, provided tha.
 "a general association of nations must be formed under specific cove nants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political inde- pe'iderce and territorial integrity to great and small states alike" Senator Lodge himself, before the exigencies of politics forced him to take the other side. saids that an att tempt to make separate beace would brand us with everlasting dishonor" and that "the intent of the Congress