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Show THE CITIZEN ACCEPTED The Republican nominee for presi- 4$dent was quick to accept President Wilsons challenge for a referendum on the League of Nations covenant for he knew that the American people would declare for the preservation of nationality. As Senator Harding sees the issue it involves the question of Americanism versus internationalism. He believes that our people will not favor any compact which substantially impairs pur full sovereignty as a nation. He is confident that if there' is to be a League of Nations it must be founded on an international system O which does not compel the United States to surrender any of its sov: ' . ereign rights. The Democrats have adopted varl- ous formulas to express their belief that the Wilson covenant should not be amended. We hear them saying that there must be no reservations that will nullify the treaty or that will impair its essential integrity or that will impair the treaty in any vital particular. The Democrats, moreover, seem to have taken heart of hope because of the compromise plank The Republiadopted at Chicago. cans, they declare, are ' opposed to . : nations. The moral obligation is there ab initio. We can understand the nature of . the moral obligation if we suppose the case of a neighborhood agreement to preserve all the property in a certain block from firebugs. Each citizen in the block takes an oath to fight the firebugs to . prevent the. destruction of any house in the block. Let us suppose that Citizen A sits at his side door with a rifle iir his hands and calmly smokes his pipe while watching an' incendiary set fire to the house next door. In what case. would such a citizen be if, after the destruction of the house, he should argue with his angry neighbors that his oath simply meant that he would submit the question of defense to a congress com-- . posed, of himself and wife whenever there should be an attack by firebugs? Would not his neighbors point out that the bath was a moral obligation which came into existence at the time the oath was taken and that his freedom of decision was. gone from that mo, ment? Viewed from this standpoint, the League, as provided for in the present covenant, is essentially an ' alliance the ratification of the treaty and do for war. As .soon as. a; nation joins the League by ratifying the treaty it of Nations. not want a League ' takes an oath to make war at the beThe Republican platform specifically hest of the Leagues executive committee and it fastens upon the whole states, that the party favors international understandings to preserve .country a moral obligation that no peace and suggests, as did Roosevelt, congress can honorably repudiate. This is the character of League the that the League take the form of an international court of justice rather American people will not accept. They than the form provided for in th? pres- oppose it because it seeks to take ent covenant, a form essentially the away from congress the right to make same as that of the League to Enforce war and peace. They oppose it bePeace, which, with the support of the cause it is a League for war. Carnegie Peace Foundaation, spread its propaganda broadcast long before Some of the difficulties of making there was a. European war. The idea peace have been emphasized within of the League to .Enforce Peace was the last eighteen months. Because as same idea the the fundamentally President Wilson had involved himembodied in the present covenant. The self in a personal treaty agreement vital difference if it can be called with foreign powers the senate finds itvital is that the plan of the League self unable to make peace. to Enforce Peace requires an internaBut, say the Democrats, you must tional army and navy during peace and not nullify the covenant with reserwar whereas the covenant provides vations, you must not impair the confor an international army and navy, tract in any vital particular. If we do or rather an allied army and navy, not impair the compact in more than' 1 case of in war. only one vital particular we shall fasten The plan for a permanent army and upon ourselves an alliance to wage navy as an international police force war and a contract to submit our dowas deftly abandoned at Versailles bemestic affairs to a foreign executive cause the delegates realized that the council. world was not ready for such an exAt this point our Democratic friends periment. The substitute was fundato show symptoms of extreme The nations begin mentally the same. We Aha! they cry, exultation. agreed to preserve one anothers terhave you now. The Republicans not ritories and existing political indedeclare against the present covependence in case of war. Nor is there only nant, but they demand a new kind of any reservation in the covenant th&t league altogether; each nation may decide for itself what It is all a question as to just how is its duty in case of war. True, the bad the present covenant is. Can the A vote of the Council, must be unanicovenant be made safe with reservamous, but before there is any vote tions ?Can its enormous perils be elimi each nation has .bound itself by con- - nated by amendment? Or would the after all the reservations, tract to fight for the preservation : of perils remain, .. menacing to the United States? Would the territorial integrity and existing the moral obligation to wage war at r ", political independence of the member the command of Europe still exist af : By F. P. Gallagher ter a reservation had been framed ex- pressly to extinguish the obligation and give congress the right to decide in any particular case? Would our domestic affairs still be at the mercy of alien verdicts? Would the Monroe doctrine be subject to the interpretation of the League, as some English authorities insist. If reservations cannot cure these defects then the entire covenant, the very form of the League, is Who would not repudiate such a League if our representatives at Washington, in their wisdom, should decide that the treaty still was dangerous to the United States? un-Americ- The other day Mr. Lloyd George, the prime minister of Great Britain, was questioned by members of parliament at a conference on the Polish situation. They asked him why the League of Nations had taken no steps to prevent war between Russia and Poland. He replied that in that very council room the premiers of Great Britain and France had protested against the war to the representatives of Poland. The League of Nations, he added, did not have the soldiers or the means to prevent the war and would not be strong enough to act in such cases unless the United States threw in its men and money, or words of that significance. Here, then, was a statement from one of the chief framers of the treaty that the League was founded on the blood and treasure of the United States. He admitted the contention of the critics of the League in this country. They have pointed out, as The Citizen has frequently pointed out, that the United States was the. last resource of white man power in the world and that Article X was adopted for the express purpose of using American soldiers to fight the battles of Europe, to fight for British empire against attacks from without and revolution from within, to fight for the support of the new nations of Europe established by the treaty aye; and to fight for the preservation of Japans grip on Shantung. . - . i The Republican platform declares for international understandings to preserve peace; the covenant declares for international alliances to wage war, using American men, ships and money in disputes that do not concern us. Do the American people want that kind of a League?. Would it not be preferable to set up such a League as the Republican platform suggests? And, remember this the Republican party proposes the international court of justice only as a suggestion. It does not demand such a form of international understanding or nothing. It does not ask its candidate to become an autocrat and demand that any treaty he may negotiate shall stand unchanged even though the senate may disapprove. On the contrary, the Republican platform has adopted a platform which gives the United States sufficient latitude to arrange for any League of Nations that will preserve peace. True, it points out specifically enough that such, an understanding must be designed to preserve peace. This specific statement was necessary because the president (Continued on Page 18.) - . i ." : ' r , as SAIL? LAKE THEATRE Six days, commencing Monday, June 28 Matinees Friday and Saturday. Ladies only matinee Friday Master Mind of Mystery i. CONUN and company of i (Klnmseflff) presenting a stupendous mystic attraction. ' Oriental magic, Oriental dancing. 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