The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-10-21

| - SAsSS<&-
 position of studied isolation, leaving
 the world to chaos and inviting a re- 1 currence of agworld war into which
 America will be drawn as inevitably ! as it was drawn into this war? Shall ! that great light of hope which famed | from Hberty-1oving America upon the
 troubled and desperate peoples of the | arth be darkened forever?
 The covenant of the League of Ma tions has been embodied in the Trea- i ty of Peace adopted by nearly 40 na- | tions. Is America alone of all the
 civilized nations of the world to re- | to be trailed in the dust because one third of the Senate would prefer to thWart the purposes. of the Adminis- tration, even at the cost of humtliat- ing America in the sight of the | world =
 In 1899, when the Treaty with Spain was under consideration, Sena- tor Lodge said: "We must either rati- fly the treaty or reject it. Suppose Let us look at it practically. We con- | tinue the staee of war, and every sen- s1ble man in the country, every busi- ness interest, desires the re-establish- ! ment of peace in law as well as in fact. At the same time we repudiate
 the President and his action before | the whole world, and the repudiation of the President is such matter as this is. to my mind, the humiliation of the United States in the eyes of civilized mankind and brands us as a people incapable of great affairs or of taking rank where we belong as one of the greatest of the world powers" Again on January 24, 1899, speak ing of the Spanish treaty. Senator Lodge said: "The President cannot be sent back across the Atlantic in na nf iCCi "a In hand, to say to Spain with bated breath, 'I am here in obedience to the mandate of 8 minority of one-third of the Senate to tell you that we have been too victorious, and that you have yielded us too much and that I am very sorry that took the Philippines from you" do not think any American President would do that, or that any American would wish him to-"
 Are we not justified in asserting that the present opposition is based upon partisan motives supplemented by indifference to American honor?
 Senator Borah, in discussing the proposed League, said: "It is the most gigantic scheme for an uncon- trolled and uncomfortable autocracy that was ever submitted to a free people, One hundred and thirty years ago our forefathers were dis cussing the establishment of our Con- stitution. There were gloomy pro-
 
 discouraged ancestors was so appalled, by the proposed Constitution that he said: "It is a fragrant, audacious conspiracy against the liberties of free people," One of our pessimistic forefathers used this expression: "I see it entails wretchedness on my pos terity, slavery on my children" An other said: "It is a monster. It originates in mystery and must ter minate in despotism." And again: ''The evil genius of darkness presided at it's birth" One hectic imagination evolved this: s'Darkness, dupicity through the whole" And another said: "As it now stands. but very few individuals do or ever will under stand it.'' And yet American consti- | ica's destiny has been safely guided
 through all these years under its | terms. It carries with it the bene- | diction of Washington and Franklin. When the history of another genera ! ton is written, the opponents of the League of Nations will be remem- bered only as ungenerous critics of limited vision who placed obstacles in the path of the progress of the world | toward peace and settled justice. l Similar assertions have been ad- | vanced against all the great docu-
 ments of history. If President Will
 obey the Ten Commandments, learned | senators would argue they are too vague to be understood and are cer- | tain to lead America into trouble; and l tremble to think what would hap | pen to the Lords Prayer if it were
 submitted to the Senate for ratifica- 1 ton.
 | There are some who so1emnly as- 1 sert that the League would embroil | us in the affairs of Europe and force | America into future wars. America was forced into this war. No League | of Peace existed when we entered this greatest of all wars and we acted, fduring the period of hostilities under
 a. sort of League of Friendship, held
 together by common necessity. If such a result can be achieved by | an informal and temporary associa- | ton, why should it not be continued
 so that the world will not lose the tremendous asset which it has gained | thereby?
 Until the opponents of the League offer a better plan for preserving the peace of the world, they are not en- | titled to one moments consideration. Are we se1fishly to withhold our as-
 sent to this contract of honor? Are
 we to leave America's task to others? :? Let us join the League of Nations and lend our strength to it's noble purpose. If it is not now made secure, it may
 remain forever an unreal!zed dream: We make this appeal in the name of the endless debt which has been piled upon the back of stricken world, in the name of shattered villages and desolated fields, in the name of seven million dead, in the name of the widows and orphans of all lands, in the name of fourteen million fellow creatures who must creep brokenly through a shattered life, in the name of the pitifu1 and unnumbered thou sands whose darkened eyes will never
 gaze nron the sun again, and who
 will recognize the faces of loved ones
 ouIy thI ough the touch of rrop'E g tingers-the only vision of ;he blIn1.
 We ask # in the name of our common
 huns1illy, and in the name of Justice.
 in the name of tho-e who love
 America and her form of freedom
 and who would rid the world forever
 of the haunting dread that the poison
 distilled in Russia will creep into the
 veins of all society everywhere.
 God give us peace-a just and en-
 during peace, supported and main
 tained by the covenants of civiliza-
 tion.