Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-06-15

Spain of all of her insular posses
sions, we paid that nation twenty
five millions for her islands, and
! gave Cuba her freedom under Amer
can protection and friendly direction,
and we will do likewise for the
others when their people are ready
for autonomy, and can sustain them
selves against powers eager for their
acquisition.
When the claims against China
growing out of the Boxer uprising
were settled and the United States
! was awarded some twenty-five mill
lion of dollars this country out of
that sum paid the expenses of main
! tanning our soldiers there during the
occupation, amounting to about half
Of that received by the United States,
and with the rest established a trust
! fund for the education of Chinese
students in western culture in the
universities of America
! Ours was the only world power to
/ enter the World war for purely I'M
i selfish purposes, and the only ma
! ton not seeking to derive any mate
rial gain out of that struggle. Amer
lea entered that war to save western
civilization and free institutions-to
make the world safe for such, and
that permanent peace be planted on
the tested foundations of political
| liberty.
| When Phyrrus, king of Epirus was
congratulated on his victory over the
| Romans at ba g.
other such a victory and we are
ruined" Those who should know tell
us that the world cannot survive
another such conflict as closed in
1918. But if that titanic struggle
shall have forever ended the reign
of war and militarism-if permanent,
universal peace, understanding and
good will among all peoples Of earth,
shall yet result from the awful cata-
clysm and carnage, then the sacri-
flces of the brave men and women
of America who followed the flag be-
yond the seas and those who served
as valiantly at home, and the out
pouring of the nations untold treas
urer and the ten or more billions
OF dollars which seem forever be-
yond recovery, may not have been
in vain.
Victor Hugo once said: I'm the
twentieth century war will be dead,
the scaffold will be dead, hatred
will be dead, frontier boundaries
will be dead, dogmas will be dead.
Man will live. He will possess some
thing higher than all these-a great
country, the whole earth-a great
nope, the whole heaven" Since his
words were uttered, the world has
oeen shaken and torn by the most
tar-reaching and destructive wars
of history, and his vision seems far
from fulfillment even now. Hugo
was leader of the masses who had !
long felt the iron heel of war and
oppression, and who hoped for
time when the settlement of differ
ences between governments and ma
tions by sworn and cannon, would
yield to the mandates of a firmly
established international tribunal
arising from the people, in which
righteous law and justice would pre-
vail. He presided over. a great con-
ference in Paris in 1S49, with such
an end in view.
This was one of the many express |
sions of peoples in war-torn world !
of a great hope, long entertained by
humanity to do away with the hid
eousness and destruction of war
among nations. The establishment
of the world court may yet be a
realization of that noble ideal to
which all mankind now turns. Amer |
ic has already lent invaluable aid
to that tribunal, for some of her
most distinguished and honored
statesmen, scholars and jurisconsults i
have successfully directed measures
for the establishment of that court, |
when failure seemed imminent Amer
lea will never yield an iota Of her
sovereignty, nor permit her standards
or ideals to be lowered or compro-
missed, in any court or convention.
But a great international tribunal
forever removed from the dire in
fluence and intrigue of monarchy
and foreign offices, a court ordained
by the peoples of the world, pre-
sided over by the best in statesman
ship, scholarship and integrity of hte
nations of the earth-a court in which
righteousness, justice and law shall
prevail in the settlement of interna-
tional difficulties, in which the peace
and good will of the whole world
will be conserved; in which delbera-
ton and discussion VIII avert the
calamity of war will have the sane
ton of the American flag. g
Such is something for which our
wondrous banner stands.
when I think of. the flag" said