Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1945-06-21
Il Might Be.
|WrOng--But
P. G. STROMBERG

JUST TWENTY-SIX years ago
this country was witnessing
the greatest national mistake of
her history. 1t was the early
part of the campaign of Presi-
dent Wilson to have the Senate
approve the Covenant of the
League of Nations. The fight
was bitter, partisan, and long.
The fight of President Wilson
to have adopted
Sen. Lodge a well-thought-
versus out ideal for
Pres. Wilson prevention of
future world
war was losing ground. While
millions of Americans stood
steadfastly by the League more
millions were swayed by argu-
ments of the group of contem-
porary isolationists. Led by
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, of
Massachusetts,, this group of
1919 isolationists let it be known
that they would support the
Treaty of Versailles only if all
pledges of U. S. cooperation
with the League of Nations
were neutralized. President Will
son knew that he was losing
support in the Senate and finally
carried the campaign for ratifi-
cation before the American peo-
pie.
So strenuous was the task
and so overweight the Presi-
dents physical endurance that
he was stricken before She tour
was completed. And then the
little group of willful men,,
headed by Senator Lodge,
pressed their opposition to the
point that the League Covenant
was defeated. And this action,
more than any other factor in
the past. quarter of century
more than Nazism, more than
Fascism, more than Hitler or
Mussolini-was the direct cause
of the present world conflict.
Every normal being desires to
be favorably known to posterity.
1t is worse than tragic for any
man or set of men to hate with
such depth that the latter buries
the former. Yet
Lodge Won; such was the
But Our case with the
Country Lost late Senator
Lodge whose
name will ever be known to
Americans as the man who so
deeply hated President Wilson
that his thinking and actions
killed any chance of his name
being revered. Time alone de-
termines the place men enjoy in
history and Father Time, after
only one generation, places the
name of Woodrow Wilson ever
higher and higher while the
names of those who killed the
effort to prevent future wars to
something worse than being un-
known for being unknown means
merely that one failed to leave
footprints on the sands of time.
Recalling conditions of 1919
now is for the purpose of i'm
pressing my reader with
the seriousness of what is about
to take place today. The San
Francisco Conference has devel-
oped a program for the main
tenance of world security. That
there are men in the United
States Senate who will be the
Senator Lodges of 1916 is evil
dent. 1t is for every citizen to
make known to his Senator that
support of the effort TO outlaw
war is the primary objective of
the sacrificed lives in this war.
1t is for these Senators to study
the record of the Senate debates
of 1919 and the years following
to understand that time will hold
them responsible for any mis-
carriage of the noble effort
being developed. 1t is for them
to understand
Let's Not that any imper-
Follow The fections in the
Lodges Again San Francisco
charter can be
corrected in future years and
that such imperfeetions should
not be the reason for scrapping
the entire plan.
Woodrow Wilson stated slight
ly more than twenty years ago
that the present war was inevita-
bic and that it would cost many
times the lives of the First
World War and many times the