Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-21
STRONGLY URGES U. S.
TO STAY OUT OF COURT
Senator Hiram w. johnson Assails Body
r. as Part of the League of
E Nations.

/ court by deciding cases brought to it
! by peoples interested. but also as a
| political arm of the League, rendering
| to the League, at its demand, advisory
| opinions of possible far-reaching con-
! sequences. All iurists concede the evil
| of these advisory opinions, and until
now there has been substantial una
nimity against the United States, with
out our consent being in any wise a
| part of them.
Compared to Spiders Web.
The Senate, in plain and unequivocal
language. stated that the League of Ma
tons Court could not entertain even a
request for an advisory opinion in which
our country has or claims an interest
without the consent of the United
States. When Mr.. Root, with Sir Cecil
Hurst of England, had finished with the
Senate reservation they agreed, and
the President accepts their agreement,
that the United States would join the
court, and thereafter if advisory opin-
ions were sought in which the United
States claimed an interest, a protest
might be filed, which, if unavailing and
still persisted in, might entitle the
United States to withdraw from the
court without any imputation of I'M
friendliness or unwillingness to cooper
ate generally for peace or good WILL
If advisory opinions are as vicious
as they have been represented to be by
practically all jurists, and particularly
by friends of the court; If the United
States in 1926 could not safely join
the court unless in advance 1t were
agreed that no request for an advisory
opinion IN which the United States has
or claims an interest could be enter
tanned; if the Senate and President
Coolidge were right in our former deci-
sion, the present suggested solution is
ulSlngenuouS, and is no solution at all.
The argument that is now iterated and
reiterated, that the United States after
Joining could withdraw if controversy
arose concerning advisory opinions, is
the European diplomatic invitation of
the spider to the fly. Once we're in this
court, any endeavor to withdraw-and
Who would make it or how it would be
made, no one knows-would be met with
such storm of protest all over the
world, and particularly from our own
internationalist organizations, which are
constantly seeking to take us into Eu-
rope, that withdrawal would be utterly
impossible If we attempted to with
draw, the same internationalistS and
the same lnternationalist press that so
loudly proclaim they express the senti-
ment of the country, would, with the
same propaganda now showered on US
prevent our withdrawal But beyond
this, for enc who believes in America,
proud of her long record of interna-
tlonal fair dealing and good faith, de-
termlned to maintain world position of
candor and amity and justice, TO forego
what we know safeguards us, and accent
instead humiliating permission to run,
Is SO repellant as to be unthinkable.
Substitute Reservation Ambiguous.
Remember, that the important. and
perhaps the most important act of the
court is the rendition of advisory
opinions. Remember, too, that they are
rendered upon the request of the League
OF Nations, and that they form part
OF the League of Nations procedure.
Up TO the end of 1929, there had been
~ Judgments rendered by the court,
ana 10 advisory opinions upon the re-
quest OF the Council of the League of
Nations. No defender of the court has
mus far defended advisory opinions.
All nave sought to have this country
avoid them. We did by the Senate
resolution safeguard ourselves. We do
not by the Root-Sir Cecil Hurst for
mula protect our country from them.
The Senate reservation is plain, brief
ana unambiguous. The substitute for it
is wrapped in words, lengthy, involved
ana dislngenuous. InternationaliSts as
ssrt the substitute does just what the
senate did. And yet these same inter-
nationalist denounced the Senate in
unmeaSured terms when the Senate
reservation was adopted. Now with
beautiful language, soft and sweet, in
sldlously they say they offer us the same
thing. The ordinary man in perplexitv
asks, II both are alike, what need is
there for any substitute at all?
Those who know little of the genesis
or the constitution of the court, who
have no conception of its possibilities
and who have an obsession our Ma
tlon can only play its part in the world
by joining the League of Nations in
slStentiy implore us, in the sacred
name of peace, to become a part of the
League of Nations court and yield our
cherished views and alter what has
ever been our national policy. Every
body believes in peace. There are none
who would not contribute to the utmost
to prevent another World War cata-
clysm. We have, however, peculiarly
in our country a class of people who
look upon patriotism as a sin and love
of country as an outgroWn heresy. This
class have constituted themselves the
monopoliSts of international amity and
have become mere poseurs for peace,
who forget the lessons of the past of
this Nation, its present position in the
world and its future welfare. These
poseurs for peace, with their organized
propaganda, would force us into any
European combination. They forever
pirate of what we might do for foreign
nations, while decrying any effort to
protect and safeguard their own.
InternatiOnalism Begins at Home.
They are aptly described by Theodore
Roosevelt in his book THE Great Ad-
venture" thus: THE professed inter-
nationalist usually sneers at national
ism, at patriotism and at what we call
Americanism. He bids us forswear our
love Of country in the name of love Of
the world at large. We nationalists
answer that he has begun at the wrong
end; We say that, as the world now is,
it is only the man who ardently loves
his country first who in actual practice
can help any other country at all"
Joining the court would not contrib
uate to world peace or better under
standing among the nations of the
world. On the contrary, miSInderstand-
ing would be certain to result and
strained relations to follow. The very
position we occupy today, unless we
are blind TO passing events and deaf to
the opinion so often expressed of us,
makes it imperative that we do our