Evening star., 1938-11-25
Politics DepIored in
Our Foreign Policies
Says Partisan Consideration
Wrecked Wilson's
Peace Plans
To the Editor OF The Star:

Peace Plans
To the Editor Of The Star:
There Is today widespread belief
throughout the United States that the
rejection of President Wilson's concep-
ton of a League of Nations and World
Court resulted from a conscientious
study by great American statesman
pursued in the cold light of truth and
guided by pure patriotism. Only by
analogy can we of this day and genera
ton decide If that belief has any sub
stantial foundation in fact.
The following facts in American his
tory give us the measure of values
we seek:
Early in the century we rejected an
offer Of the Colombian government to
grant us the canal rights through
Panama for s15,0OO0O0. The residents
of the Isthmus of Panama were infuri-
ated at the prospect of an impasse and
revolted. Within few hours after their
declaration of rebellion, and before the
which to check the revolt, the new Re-
public of Panama was recognized by the
United States and canal rights were
acquired by us for $4,000 900, the price
which had been rejected by the Bogota
Congress-. Within a few months Presi-
dent Theodore Roosevelt announced to
the World-and to particularly atten-
tive Latin America-that the rights
which he had refused to acquire from
their rightful owner would have been
cheap at 500 0000,00O." South Amer
lea looked upon our spoliation of Co.
lombia as an act of sheer brigandage.
Thirty years later it was to be cited by
Japan as precedent for setting up a
puppet state in Manchuria. At the ter
mination Of the Great War, Woodrow
Wilson thought the time had come for
the performance of a simple act of
justice. Already our sharp practice in
the matter OF the canal rights had cost
in loss Of South American trade many
times the paltry 100000 between. Co.
lombia's asking price and what we had
offered-and paid-to Panama. Already,
every country of Europe stood higher in
the estimation of the Latin republics
than did we, the big brother" of the
north. That was water over the dam"
but we might still save something from
the wreck of confidence and good will,
President Wilson thought.
So the Wilson administration put a
bill through the House of Representa-
tives appropriating $4,000 900 as a sola-
tium for Colombia. The measure then
went before the Senate. Henry Cabot
Lodge. the leader of the Republican
majority, opposed the measure. We
were, he said, under no legal or moral
obligation to Colombia. The bill was an
attempted robbery of the United States
Treasury, prompted by no higher motive
than vile personal jealousy of the fame
OF dead man, Theodore Roosevelt. The
bill was buried in committee.
A few months later, Warren Harding
became President of the United States.
The need for the restoration Of good
will toward the United States among
our southern neighbors was just as
pressing as it had been during the pre-
vious administration. The buried bill
was reSurrected and at word from his
titular leader, the Senator from Massa-
chusetts expressed his warm approval
OF the measure. and it was passed!
Those who entertain the belief that
the Wilson plan for world peace" was
considered and decided upon its merits
should ask themselves-in the light of
Lodges behavior in the Colombian mat
ter-what would have been the fate of
the plan had Lodge, who more than any
other individual was responsible for its
defeat, and his associates been Demo-
Gratis, or if Wilson had been a Repub-
lican?
We have not yet reached stage where
we can contemplate the abolition of
Federal criminal courts upon the ground
that the National Government should
not concern itself (meddle is the word,
perhaps) in quarrels between thieves and
honest citizens. After all, 1t is a very
small world. The shrieks Of anguish from
the widow and little children of the
murdered Chancellor Dollfuss in Vienna
were plainly heard in Washington and,
today, our ears-and our hearts-are
pierced with the cries from the victims
of the crimes of an entire people-crimes
far more revolving than those of that St.
Bartholomew day of 1874. For the
assassins Of that far-of day could have
pleaded religious fervor and fanaticism.
The murderous German has no religion
save that ethnocentrism of the Digger
Indian, which tells him that his race
alone is worthy of existence. A faith
shared only by the lowest types of
mankind HOWARD PITCHER OKIE.
November II.