Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1920-10-14
banning Analysis
CONTINUED from Pace One)

banning Analysis
Continued from Page one)
So long as you confine yourself to the |
League on paper and dwell in a world |
of rhetoric everything seems well.
But when you get down to the actual
workings of the sLeague it seem
harsh and autocratic and altogether
When they tell us that
the League will bring peace. every
body wants peace and SO fAvors the
League. But when you turn from
theory to facts and see it obligates
US to send our boys across the sea,
our army and navy. it creates an up
roar of disapproval and hastens ex-
plantations and denials. Yet that is
precisely what the League in its prac-
teal workings means.
Autocracy Based on Force
There are two things stated in the
speech President Wilson put out as
authoritative which sustain every
charge we have every made against
this gigantic autocracy based on
follows: And back of that lies the
fundamental and important fact that
when the decisions are made the AL
lied and associated powers guarantee
to maintain them
How are you going to maintain
them except by sending the army
and navy across the sea? We have
first the solemn guarantee of the AL
lied and associated powers to main
tain all decisions and ali boundaries.
Az to how we are going to do this
in another place in the same speech
in which he says: If any covenants
Of this settlement are not observed
the United States will send her ar
mics and navies to see that they are
observed. sssssss We must not close
our eyes to the fact that in the last
analysis the military and naval
strength Of the great powers will be
the final guarantee Of the peace Of
the world
The Moral Obligation
when the President was before
the foreign relations committee.
Suppose that it is perfectly obvious
that there is an external aggression
against some power and suppose it
is perfectly obvious and accepted
that 1t cannot be repealed except by
force of arms. would we be under
any legal obligation to participate"
The President replied to this: No,
Sir. but we would be under an alb
solutely compelling moral obligation
II take it that it will not make
very much difference to the Ameri-
can people, to the sons and mothers
Of America. whether you call it le-
gal obligation or a moral obligation
or what you call it, it is an obliga-
ton absolutely compelling and from
which there is no escape. Is it not
perfectly plain that we guarantee
the settlements and the boundaries
Of Europe and that il there is an
actual disturbance Of these bound
aries, we are under an absolutely
compelling moral obligation to send
our armies and our navies across the
sea? Is it not equally plain that we
are carrying out the decisions Of
these men representing the whole
world, the divisions which they
made, the boundaries which they es-
tablished, and that we are doing SO
by the blood and treasure of
America?
At Europs's Beck and Call
It is a startling proposition that
the American people should be
asked to send boys to Europe to re-
store every boundary line which the
intrigues and imperialistic schemes
of Europe may disturb. But it is
still more startling that we should
be under an absolutely compelling
moral obligation to send our army
and our navy to fight back into SUBJ
lection every subject people who in
their struggle for liberty may enlist
the sympathy of some humane peo-
pie. II people. fighting for liberty,
are fortunate enough to have some
one come to their aid, or il the
boundary line Of any nation is brok-
en-. we are under an absolutely COM
pelling moral obligation to og into
action and to transport our navy and
| Out tiEuAy " AOLCiSh ShOECS "
foreign seas there to suffer and die
in q cause which may not represent
anything in the world except the i'm
perialistic ambitions Of some uncon-
scioDable power.
| Nine Autocrats
| But that is not the worst of il.
These interpretations taken in connec-
ton with Article X and Article xI
and with the power which is conferred
/ upon teh council, disclose that We
guarantee the decisions OF this coun-
Gil: they disclose that nine men rep
resenting the Inhabitants OF the earth
may make decision relative to the
invasion or boundary lines which we
are under an absolutely compelling
moral obligation to sustain At the
| top Of this scheme are nine autocrats
| vested with such power AZ men were
| never vested with before and from
? whose decision there is no appeal pro-
| vided for. Atthe base Of this scheme
are the countless millions OF people
| who may be under completely and
absolutely compelling moral obliga-