The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1920-10-15

one who concerns himself not with
the question whether we ought TO as
sumo an obligation which may require
resort to war to fulfill 1t, but with
the question whether under our con-
stitutional system such drastic full
fillment may be avoided by the refu-
sal of congress to provide means for
carrying 1t into effect.
1--WE do not need to imagine cases.
We have one Immediately in point.
Poland is a member Of the league.
Poland was invaded by Russia, her
territorial integrity therefore violat-
ed by external aggression and the
precise case contemplated by Article
10, was presented to Great Britain.
But England cid not furnish aid to
people opposed it. |, for one, would
look with no satisfaction upon simt-
lar action by my countrymen If we
were a party to the league. If we
promise, we must keep faith. The
difficulty, the hardship, the tragic
consequences are all matters to be
considered before We sign, not after
wards.
"The case of Poland may be repeat
ed many times in the long future
which is before, us under all sorts Of
conditions and affected by degrees OF
justification, ranging from none at
all to that OF compelling righteous
ness. Under tins provision we shall
no longer be free to choose those who
may be worthy of our knightly SER
vice. We shall be pledged to the
preservation Of the, territory of the
despot as well as the territory of the
weak and sore beset. We shall not
a n tn oil ~ IN q
test of righteousness to the problem
as we ourselves applied it in the case
Of Cuba; we shall be bound by the
letter Of the bond, and limited to the
single inquiry whether the territory
or political. independence Of a mem
Der OF the league has been assailed
from the outside. Our young men may
be called upon to die in unwilling JUS
LITIGATION of the rape of Shantung by
assisting Japan TO repel a Chinese in
vasion, as well as to give their lives
in order to prevent the devastation
of another Belgium at the hands Of
some future autocrat drunken with
power and mad with ambition.
Trust In America.
During the past one forty odd
years of our national existence, there
have been many wars in Europe, some
of them falling within the precise
conditions set forth in Article X But
in all that time we have felt justified
only in the. case of the late world war,
in sending our young sons overseas
to meet the tragedy of battle. And
We sent them then, not because the
territory Of foreign country had been
invaded, but because our own rights
had been assailed and we ourselves
Fin jeopardy. do not call to mind any
other European war in all that CEN
fury and half of time in which we
should have participated as we par
ticipated In this war. War is
raging in Europe now. / do not think
anyone would favor our participation
in that welfare. Surely it is equally
important not to bind the American
people to compact which may oblige
them to participate in future wars
which the American conscience may
or may not approve. Oh. no, my
countrymen, the American heart lis
sympathetic and the American head
is sound, ana We may rely upon them
both, and trust ourselves. in the future
as we have in the past, to follow the
path of Righteousness through the
contentious of Europe without the
compulsion of bond which might
press us in a direction We should not
care to 60.