Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1920-09-28
HISTORY OF LEAGUE OF NATIONS
Confined from page one)

of France in case of unprovoked at
tack by Germany, thus merely hasten
ing the action to which we should
be bound by the covenant of the
league of nations"
If in that cablegram, President Will
son had quibbled about the obligation
and had written morally bound" the
French government would have made
immediate and justifiable protest. On
this point Senator Lodge said in thu
senate, May II:
There is to me no distinction what
ever in a treaty between what some
persons are pleased to call legal and
moral obligations. A treaty rests and
must rest, except where it is imposed
under duress and securities and host
ages are taken for its fulfillmeat upon
moral obligations. No doubt a great
power, impossible of coercion, can
cast aside a moral obligation if it sees
fit and escape from the performance
of the duty which it promises. The
pathway of dishonor is always open.
/, for one, however, can not conceive
, of voting for a clause which l disap-
prove, because | know it can be es-
capped in that way
1.-THE broad fact remains that if any
member of the league. suffering from
external aggression, should appeal di-
rectly to the United States for support
the United States would be bound to
give that support in its own capacity
and without reference to the action of
any other powers because the United
States itself is bound, and l hope the
day will never come when the United
States will not carry out it's prom
ises. If that day should come and the
United States or any other great coun-
try should refuse, no matter how spec
ious the reasons, to fulfill both in let
ter and spirit every obligation of this
covenant, the United States would be
dishonored and the league would
crumble into dust, leaving behind it
legacy of wars. If China should rise
up and attack Japan in an effort to
undo the great wrong of the cession
of the control of Shantung to that
power, we should be bound under the
terms of article 10 to sustain Japan
against China, and a guaranty of that
sort is never invoked except when the
question has passed beyond the stage
of negotiation and has become a ques-
ton for the application of force
There is no question that the pres
ervation of state against external
aggression can contemplate but war"
Only second in importance to the
reservation on Article 10 is the arti-
Gle by which the senate sought to
safeguard the Monroe Doctrine. In
the revision of the original "consti-
tuition" President Wilson had written
into the covenant, the following ar
ticle 81:
Nothing in this covenant shall be
deemed to affect the validity of inter-
national engagements, such as treaties
of arbitration or regional understand
ings like the Monroe Doctrine, for Sc
curing the maintenance of peace"
The republican senator's, as we'll as
large number of democrats, took the
position that this article was totally
inadequate to preserve the Monroe
Doctrine against Europe. The whole
language of the article was vague
and appeared Intentionally ambigu-
Gus. 1t was the first time that the
Monroe Doctrine had been designated
either as a regional understanding"
VI dS an lubeTUdIlOndl engagement
for securing the maintenance of
peace" The republican senator's saw
in this an attempt on the part of the
peace conference to make the purely
American Monroe Doctrine subject to
the league, and to leave to other ma
tions the decision on questions that
might arise under ii. President Will
son sought to prove that Article 81.
the Monroe Doctrine by
securing for it recognition by the
European governments. He said in
San Francisco, September IT:
This is the first time In the his
tory of international diplomacy that
any great government has acknowl-
edged the validity of the Monroe Doc
trine. Now for the first time all the
great fighting powers of the world
except Germany. which for the time
being has ceased to be a great fight
ing power, acknowledge the validity
Of the Monroe Doctrine and acknowl-
edge it as part of the international