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Show THE CITIZEN 4 powers which will be represented on the executive council is Japan, a heathen despotism which, by the terms of the treaty, is given possession of one of the richest provinces of the Republic of China. At this very rime when the advocates of the league are asking the United States Senate to ratify the treaty, Japan is engaged in persecuting with every refinement of cruelty the people of Korea, a country which they occupied when at war with Russia, a country they pledged themselves to return to the Koreans but which they annexed and are now holding with fire and sword while the world shudders our reason to use ; let us not defile it by resort to the ancient methods which swept argument aside by revoking the vengeance of a deity that existed only in the imagination of zealots. . - THE HUGHES PLAN THAT the plan outlined by Charles Evans Hughes for the of the treaty with, reservations will be followed in the Senate seems likely. The plan, as we understand it, is simply this: The Senate will The report of the Presbyterian missionaries regarding the Japthe reservations by a majority vote. The reservations will be adopt anese autocracys rule in Korea shows us what may be expected in incorporated in the ratifying resolution and then the question of ratification will be put to the Senate. The advocates of the league Shantung. In Korea the Japanese, following the example of all despotic will thus be called upon to vote ratification with reservations. If nations which have sought to rule conquered nations, abolished the they vote against the ratification resolution upon them will rest the Korean schools so that the children might grow up in an ignorance responsibility for rejecting the treaty, if, as Mr. Hughes says, the that would fit them only to be slaves. The Japanese police and sol- reservations are reasonable. If the Senate, by the required two-thirdiery destroyed private libraries that might enlighten the people as vote, ratifies the treaty the President must give his assent before the to the history of their own country. ratification is complete. If he refuses assent the responsibility for the When revolution broke out Japan, our colleague on a supreme treatys failure will be his. council which is supposed to preserve peace arid justice throughout the The reservations proposed by Mr. Hughes are perhaps more efworld, perpetrated a series of atrocities the horrors of which the world fective than any which have been suggested. Most important of all is is just beginning to hear. Patriots were ridden down by the soldiery, the reservation bearing on Article X. The gist of this reservation is that the United States will beaten, bayonetted, mutilated. Torture in hideous forms was resorted to. Prisoners were hung up by the fingers until the joints assume no military or naval obligation under the article unless and pulled apart. They, were branded with red. hot irons, their until the Congress of the United States, as required by the constituears were cut off, their limbs were mutilated. And for what reason? tion, shall give its authorization. The reservation concludes with That the prisoners, in their agonies, might accuse the missionaries these words: which has exclusive authority to declare and thus give the Japanese rulers an excuse for driving out Christian war or to determine for the United States whether there is any oblteaching of all kinds. Nameless humiliations were heaped upon men igation on its part under said article and the means of action by which and women in a studied campaign to rid the land of Christianity and such obligation shall be fulfilled. It thus free the tyrants from alien observation. Christian Koreans were Apparently, therefore, the reservation is comprehensive. driven into a church, the edifice was fired and when the victims atcovers not only military and naval action but all action which the executive council of the league may propose such, for example, as tempted to escape they were mowed down by machine guns. an economic boycott. The Tokio government suavely admits that some excesses ocIf the Congress of the United States reserves the right to decide curred in Korea and promises to introduce reforms in the Korean what this countrys obligation shall be there is not so much reason administration. It is not surprising that the Tokio government, wishing the United States Senate to ratify the treaty, should employ fair for fearing that we shall become involved in unjust wars. If Congress and soothing words to appease American indignation and lull us into reserves the right to withhold our support it is inconceivable that we a belief that there will be no more atrocities, but it is surprising that would ever wage war to maintain Japans position in Shantung as Americans, even though they be blind devotees of the Wilson league, against the rightful owner China. But what are we to do about the Shantung provisions of the should put faith in these blandishments. Despotism which promises the official treaty? Are we to ignore them and rely upon the reservation to fair cannot keep its promises. However spokesmen for a despotism may be they can give no assurance that Article X? Should we expressly reject the Shantung award? Every consideration of American tradition and principle impels tyranny will ever conduct itself long with the mildness of a free us to repudiate the Shantung compact. If we take such action, howgovernment. It will not suffice to tell us that President Wilson was a divine ever, the treaty must go back to the peace table for amendment, for instrument when he consented to the Shantung infamy, when he gave our action would be more than a reservation, it would be a positive a Republican country into the hands of a monarchy while declaring rejection of an entire section of the treaty. it his purpose to make the world safe for democracy. Christianty cannot condone Japanese greed, injustice and hypocrisy and Chairman BERGER'S BLINDNESS Cummings or whoever else it may be that tries to picture the League of. Nations as a covenant inspired by heaven is employing the threadBURGER continues to show us why lie could not he!r VICTOR bare devices of superstitution in an effort to cow the spirits of free a traitor. and enlightened men. Will the American people, who repudiated the Testifying before the special committee investigating his right to same superstitution when it was used by the slaveholders of the south a scat in the House, he said : to shield an indefensible institution, bow down before such an idol? The I. W. W. is better than the American Federation of Labor because it at least has the class instinct. By Article X of the league covenant Americans would bind themThat is the very reason why it is worse. selves not merely to ratify the theft of Shantung but to enforce it. Our republic is founded on the ideal of equal opportunity for all, By that article we would bind ourselves to preserve the territorial special privileges for none. That maxim is of recent invention, but integrity of the Japanese empire, including all the lands acquired during the war and through the treaty, against outside aggression. If it aptly sets forth the basic principle of our republic. ' In the constitution of nearly every state there is a provision Shantung revolted and called upon China to help her we should be confronted by a case clearly within the purview of Article X. against class legislation. Supreme courts scrutinize laws carefully to The Americans who won their freedom in the revolution by detect legislation favoring or repressing a class. If the flaw is four,, throwing off a similar despotism, who wiped out human slavery, who the law is declared unconstitutional. Victor Berger, the German socialist, who asks to be a lawfreed the peoples of Cuba and Porto Rico, would be called upon to aid Japan in keeping fast the fetters upon the limbs of 36,000,000 people. maker for the nation, believes in an irreconcilable conflict between Will anyone dare, in the face of such a conspiracy, to talk to the classes and seeks td set one class above another. He would make the American people about the divinity of the covenant? God gave us worker, not merely coequal with the capitalist, but his master and at their atrocities. ds kind-heart- ed |