The Delta independent., 1920-06-11

senate in that form. The president
returned to Europe with this warn.
ing before him and before the world.
He admitted few slight changes in
the covenant, for the most part un-
important, and some of which made
the second draft worse than the
first. He forced the allied and as.
sociated powers to yield to his de.
mand that the covenant of the
league should be interviewer with
the treaty Of peace. To accomplish
this he surrendered the principle of
that may have been-to Great Brit.
ain. and he made promises and con
cessions to France-not yet fulfilled
which brought him the French
support. Having thus carried his
point abroad he brought the treaty
with Germany home and laid it be-
fore the senate. To the great mass
of the American people he said:
This covenant of the league of
nations will bring to the world a
lasting peace" Everyone desired
lasting peace and without pausing to
consider or even to read the cove
nant, thousands upon thousands of
good people united in the demand
that the senate ratify and take the
league at once and without consid-
GRAFTON. just as it stood. The Re-
publicans of the senate, perceiving
the dangers of the league, deter-
mined to resist Mr. Wilson's demand.
even at the cost of delaying the
treaty of peace with Germany. They
felt that the one thing necessary
was to have the people understand
the treaty, that they might realize
what it meant and what it threat
ened. So the long debate began and
1t has lasted for more than year.
At the outset that portion of the
people who wished an instantaneous
and unqualified acceptance of cove
nant which most of them had never
read had possession in large meas
ure of the press and other methods
of obtaining publicity and thus were
able to keep up a continual cry for
ratification. The vocal
part of the community felt almost
as they listened to each
others voices, that the whole coun-
try was with them. but they forgot
the great inarticulate masses of the
people who went silently about their
work and their business. who did
not write letters to the newspapers
or publish circulars or spend mil
lions in spreading their views
through powerful organs and active
associations, but who simply loved
their country and thought first of
the interests of America. The de.
bate in the senate spread to them.
They read the speeches, they listened
to the arguments. and, what was far
more important. they began to read
and discuss the covenant of the
league themselves, in the street, by
the firesides, wherever men and wo-
men meet together They began to
understand the league. They began
to know what it meant They saw
1t was an alliance and not a league
for peace. They saw that 1t did not
mention The Hague conventions
Whi,h VIC Oil uCSlTcu IL nave re-
stored as foundations for further ex-
tensions, did nothing for the devef-
opment of international law, nothing
for a world court and judicial deci-
sions. and nothing. looking towards
an agreement as to dealing with
non-justiciable questions. These real
advances toward promoting peace,
fhann OF n
disregarded and the only court mem
toned was pushed into an obscure
corner. The people began to per-
ceive with an intense clearness that
this alliance, silent as to, real peace
agreements, contained clauses which
threatened the very existence of the
United States as an independent
power-threatened its sovereignty,
threatened its peace, threatened its
Llife. The masses of the people be-
came articulate. Public opinion
steadily changed and today the num-
ber of Americans who would be will
ing to accept the covenant of the
league of nations Just as the pres
ident brought 1t back from Europe
is negligible. The American people
will never accept that alliance with
foreign nations proposed by the
president. The president meantime
has remained inflexible. He is de.
termined to have that treaty as he
brought 1t back, or nothing, and to
that imperious demand the people
will reply in tones which cannot be