Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1920-08-31

blood and the wealth to protect and
to extend European empires, TO keeI
rebellious nations in subsection, to
guarantee forever the crimes of cen
turtles of colonization, and all in the
name of Peace, Liberty and Democ-
racy
Sometimes the proceedings take on
the aspect of a deliberate conspiracy
with foreign powers against the SOW
ereignty of the Unites States. Nor dc
we yet know what secret promises and
hidden pledges may have been given
in the name of this country and still
lie unrevealed in the silent chancel-
laries of Europe. Quite possibly the
refusal of the senate to accept Presi-
dent Wilson's league has cancelled
other pledges than the ones we know
only the future can tell.
Despite the acclaim of the peoples
of Europe, the historian will search
in vain for a trace of heroism in the
labors of President Wilson. There is
no point at which we can find him
defending justice against odds or
championing any high but feeble
cause. If the enemy is weak, he is
stubborn. If the enemy is strong, he
yields. 1t is simple plan-but not
an heroic one.
Consistent only in his inconsistent
cies, words mean nothing to him.
Truth is subservent to expediency. His
action of today bellies his promise of
yesterday. His words tomorrow will
have no relation to what he did today
He says one thing to the Peace cons
ference and another to the people of
the United States and then gives the
senate an explanation which agrees
with neither.
The constitution means nothing to
him, except an obstacle to be circum-
vented. The constitution provides that
he shall ask the senate's advice and
he tries to browbeat the senate into
acceptance of his dictation. Exalted
by the prestige of the United States
its victorious armies and lavish treas
ury, he poses to the starving, war
tired people of Europe as a Messiah
of peace, inflames them against their
and betrays the ideals
he has asked them to support as if
these ideals were mere catchwords to
net applause. He declares his dogma
of elf-determination, inveighs against
letting men pass as chattels from rul-
err to ruler with the shifting of bound
aries, and then he pledges the use of
the army and the navy of the United
States to keep whole peoples in politi-
cal bondage.
He proclaims his League of Nations
as a guarantee of perpetual peace. I'M
new wars spring up in the
silent battlefields, the cannon roar
again over the graves in which sleep
the armies of yesterday, and only the
steadfast patriotism of the American
senate bars the way against his send
ing American soldiers to fight in these
wars and to seal with American blood
his serpentine compact. Often it is
more than difficult to follow him in
hose twistings and turnings, incon-
sistencies and contradictions. How
ior instance, is one going to explain
'acts like this:
In the spring of 1917, the Russian
'evolutionists published, from the ar
;hives of the cars government, the
7arious secret treaties to which Rus
ia had been a party They involved
England. France, Italy, Roumania and
Japan. They parcelled out Europe,
Asia, Africa, and the islands of the
Pacific. They were printed in all the
Neutral newspapers of Europe and fin
lily broke through the lines of our
'wn censorship and were printed in
everal American newspaper and
magazines. They must have been
ent to the State department by our
Embassies and legations in Europe.
let President Wilson solemnly avowed
o the senate committee on foreign I
Citations that he had no knowledge of /
hese secret treaties until he sat down
t the conference table at Versailles.
n January. 1919-almost two years
fter their first publication.
These facts are pertinent because
hey give a picture of the man who
laced himself above the constitution
nd his cause above the government
( the United States. Only in the
ght of these facts can we study this
onflict between the president on the
ne side and the senate of the United
Lates, yes, the very United States it
elf, on the other Only in their light
an we interpret the long struggle
-hich is not vet at an end
Ito Be Continued)