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Show THE PEACE TREATIES. President Wilson has signified his desire that the peace treaties be ratified rati-fied at this sOBsion, and the senate foreign for-eign relations committee has been notified noti-fied through Secretary Bryan. The world is ripe for the signing of such treaties, and if everlasting peace can be brought about through the instrumentality instrumen-tality of the United States, the glory of the country will not be effaced so long as the world shall last and men and women call themselves Christians. Tt may be that the treaties will bo objectionable in some particulars, and that before the great nations finally agree upon them the wording may be changed, but the statesman or man occupying oc-cupying an office usually filled by a statesman who stands in the way or attempts at-tempts to block the progress of a movement move-ment of this kind, is an enemy of society so-ciety and worse than a heathen. His relegation to private life should be midden and swift. There never was any excuse for war, for both nations party to it, for the simple reason that one side or the other, the one blamable, could have averted it. Men have been compelled to fight for freedom since the world began, or at least as far back as the records go, but the oppressors compelled the appeal ap-peal to arms and their action has al-! al-! ways been held to be inexcusable. This being so, there is no valid reason why the nations should not sit in judgment when the peace of the world is threatened threat-ened by hostilities between two of their number and useless slaughter prevented. pre-vented. The workingmen of Europe are groaning groan-ing under the heavy burden of taxation placed upon them on account of past wars and others yet to come, unless some such arrangement as that proposed W tha TTni A,q fitotoa ia TiPrf PPt.Prl . Thfl old saying that the laboring man of Europe goes to work with a soldier upon hie back, is absolutely true, and the wonder is they have been so patient under the yoke. Why should they be i compelled to work like galley slaves all their lives in times of peace or be forced onto the battlefield and killed or maimed in a war that could have been prevented? It may be that the present effort for world-wide peace will fail; that those who abhor war must wait a little longer. The time is close at hand, however, when the great work will be accomplished accom-plished and the world freed from an appalling ap-palling amount of misery and suffering. suffer-ing. Politicians may delay the dawn of the glad era, but they cannot prevent pre-vent it. Xo one cau blame the present administration for seeking early action, for the question is not political, but one in which all parties and all nations have a deep and abiding interest. If the treaties are not correctly worded or if the interests of the country are not sufficiently safeguarded, let them be amended. Then take the first step in the settlement of the most important question ever placed before the nations iu the history of the world. |