Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-08-26
Are We Cowards 8
From the New York World.

No great state paper has ever been
subjected to more downright mendacity
than the covenant of the League of Ma
tons, and no other provision of that
covenant has been the object of so much
| deliberate falsehood AS Article Y.
The language of Article Y is plain and
| the meaning of ii Is clear to anybody who
is not trying to pervert it: The members
| of the league undertake to respect and
| preserve as against external aggression
| the territorial integrity and existing po-
| litical independence of all members Of
| the league. In case Of any such aggres-
| sion or in case of any threat or danger of
such aggression, the council shall advise
upon the means by which this obligation
shall be fulfilled.
The Republicans who are opposed 70
the league, and In particular the Republi-
can Senators, insist that under the terms
OF this article the Council Of the league
can order the United States into war and
send our troops wherever it pleases. They
are the only people IN the world who SO
construe il.
Senator Harding continues to talk
about "a foreign Council commanding
the United States to go to war and Con-
gress being obliged to submit That is
not only demagogic nonsense but Senator
Harding knows that IT is demagogic nom
sense Even so illiterate candidate as he
cannot be so ignorant as he appears.
Lloyd George, defining In q speech In
the House of Commons q few davs ego
the responsibilities of Great Britain
said: I'VE have entered into a covenant,
with the nations who signed the peace
treaty to have recourse to other methods
than the brutal methods of war for the
purpose OF settling international disputes,
and the whole governing and root idea
of that covenant, as | understand il,
does not contemplate, necessarily, mill
tary action in support of an imperilled
nation; it contemplates economic action
and pressure. 1t contemplates sup
port of the struggling people, and when it
IS sald that If you give any support at all
TO Poland it involves great war with
conscription and all the mechanism Of war
with which we have been so painfully
acquainted during the last few years, that
Is inconsistent with the whole theory OF
the covenant into which we have entered.
It contemplates other methods of bringing
pressure to bear upon recalcitrant nations
which are guilty of acts Of aggression
against their neighbors snd endanger THEN
independence.
That is substantially President Will
sops Interpretation of it, 1t is the in
depreciation of all the statesmen who
framed the covenent, all Of them repre-
senting constitutional governments in
which the war-making power is solely in
the hands of the legislative department
Article X gives the Council no authority
whatever. 1t can only "advise," and
that advice must be unanimous in order
to be ofhcial The whole machinery of
the league is designed TO prevent war,
and Article X is the Magma Charta of the
small notions. IT was not inserted for
the benefit of Great Britain and the United
States, which can protect their own terri
torial and political integrity from foreign
aggression, but for the security of the little
countries. 1t is the pledge of the civilized
world that the rights of the weak are not
TO be overridden by the strong.
There was little opposition to this
article IN Republican circles until the
Senators discovered that President Will
son was the author of it. Since that time
they have centred their attacks upon it,
regardless of truth or even decency.
Twenty-nlne other nations have ac-
cepted Article X without question, TWEEN
ty-nine other nations that arc quite as
anxious to preserve their nationality un-
impaired as the United States and quite
as scrupulous about keeping their treaty
obligations. None of them is afraid that
"a foreign Council" as Senator Harding
calls it, can order it to make war against
its will or send its troops to fight on alien
soil
OF the thirty nations Immediately con-
cerned with the league, only the United
States is acting the part of coward, and
the responsibility for that cowardice rests
entirely upon the Republican Senators,
including Warren G. Harding