Connecticut western news., 1922-11-16

were tired of the war; tired of it's language, tired of it's problems, tired 1 ct it's management, tired oI IS e. operation and it's sacrifice, yes, sad t. l say. tired of its ideals which We had dCne so much to set up. For a time
 we had gloriously forgotten ourselves
 in the abandon with which we threw
 ourselves into the struggle, but now
 we began to regain self-conscious-
 ness. We looked at our late enthu- siasm with a startled surprise and called it madness, we had violated
 our sacred tradition of mo foreign
 entanglements" and we became very
 prudent. Our talk about humanity
 was replaced with talk about "Ameri-
 ca first" and lone hundred per cent Americanism." Not to continue the
 characterization, we repudiated our political leadership of the war and
 relinquished moral leadership
 which we had unhesitatingly assumed
 and which all the world had greeted
 with enthusiasm. Unimpoverished
 by the war, confident in our proven
 power and prestige we abandoned the
 job we had assumed, in spite of our
 boast, i've won't come back till it's
 over over there" Leaving the
 world to wonder that a ntaion that
 could be so glorious in self giving in
 war, could be so complacent and
 self absorbed in wars aftermath.
 And here we sit today as another
 anniversary of the armistice comes
 round, a nation aloof, like Reuben of
 old beside his watercourses, listening
 to the pipings of our own prosperity,
 congratulating ourselves upon our
 prudence, nursing the delusion that
 the world can get along we'll enough
 without us and if not, well we can get along by ourselves.
 Meanwhile how fares it with the world that we once girded ourselves in our might to serve? Bereft of
 our active cooperation in the stub
 born problems which waited for solution, deprived even of the weight
 of our moral influence in such so- Futions as our Allies could bring about, there has been delay and mis-
 understanding, faltering and sus- picion. A league of nations which America did much to inspire but which subsequently, for political req sons she refused to enter, has maln- tained a struggling existence, when with our wholesouled participation 1t might have been moulded into an in- strument more to our liking and become, I dare to affirm, veritable right arm of righteousness in inter national relations.
 And what of the great humanitari- an object of the world struggle to lay forever the ugly spectre of war? MT. Fred B. Smith, but recently re- turned from a world wide mission Tn the interests of international friend ship has declared during the week just past, before the annual meeting of the Woman's Board of Missions, at Pittsfeld, that on his tour he visi- ted some nineteen nations and hay ing access to those in official circles he learned that in seventeen of these, l definite preparations for another war were going on. From secret sources there come to our ears also, ugly ru- mors of diabolical machines designed | for the work of destruction which | are bound to make any future clash 1 of the nations ten fold more terrible | than the last. Europe is thinking war, talking war, expecting war.
 And what of the Near East. Once | more that proverbial outlaw among the nations, whose atrocities have made the pages of history black with crime and outrage wherever the do- main of his sovereignty has, extend ed, the erstwhile "sick man" has be- come anew the mad man" of Eur ope. Reduced to a state of virtual in the late war by the allies who swore by their sacred dead that never again should he perpetrare his foul outrages upon helpelss hu- manity, he has profted by indecision, and international jealousy. Abetted by the actual intrigue of France, and inspired by his native religious fan atheism he has added another hor- rble chapter to his inglorious record, in the burning and the footing of the ancient city of Smyrna. Add to this the fact that the terms of a peace which seems likely of adjustment with Turkey, contemplate the turn ing over to Turkish jurisdiction, of other considerable sections, where helpless Armenian Christians still and we have a situation which ought to deny the balm of sleep to every Christian in America till the situation largely created by our neutral attitude is remedied.
 In a peculiar way America bears a terrible responsibility in this situ- ation. America was asked, even after we declined to enter the league of Nations, to take mandate in the Near East. Our own Commission of the Harboard Com reported that it would take some millions of dollars and possibly