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Show THE CITIZEN 7 THE LEA GUE FOR PEA CE language, beautiful for its precision of statement, the Republican nominee for president has indicated why the League of Nations failed and what must now be done to establish a society of nations which shall be a league of peace rather than a league for war. When Lloyd George said that it was impossible to send an international army to Poland because the European nations could not furnish the troops and the United States had withdrawn he sealed the doom from of the war league. After such a statement it was impossible, that Great Britain ever would be able to ask for the assistance of an international army in her own hour of need. At the very first test the League of Nations failed to keep its obligation to preserve the territorial integrity of a Although the league was in existence and supposed to be functioning it neither intervened for peace nor declared for war. Thus it left a member nation to its own devices and apparently abandoned to destruction. Had it not been for the military genius of the French officers and the heroism of a people who saw their liberty about to be wrested from them the enemy would have triumphed and the failure of the league as an instrumentality to. protect its members would have been more impressive, though no more obvious, than it is today. member nation. new-foun- d The whole aim and tenor of the league was that of an offensive and defensive alliance. Sometimes it was described as a league to enforce peace, and it was. As a substitute for such a military alliance of powerful nations to hold all the rest of the world in subjection the Republican party would establish a society of nations committed to international relationships that make for peace. That even the threat of an international army had no potency to keep the Bolsheviki from war was illus- trated by the front which the Bolshe-vik- i made against all the armies, including our own, that were sent against them in European Russia and in Siberia. With the restless hordes of Asia once again moved by titanic impulses for the first time in hundreds of years the Bolsheviki were inspired to defy the power of the league. And when they first challenged the league to battle in the Polish war it refused to fight. Why? Because it did not have the men and money of the United States. It is not necessarily a disparage-mon- t of Great Britain to say that the war league was designed chiefly to shield her ' interests. Lloyd George, true to world-wid- e British imperiali- sm, wanted a society of nations which would furnish an international army and navy to protect the British empire. That the United States was the only member nation which could furnish such an army and navy was a matter for rejoicing in England because, for the most part, the people were of the same basic stocks and spoke the same language. It seemed as if the scheme for an Anglo-Saxo- n dominion over the world had succeeded. But the United States senate detected the secret and hastened to point out the perils. It proved that the league was designed for war, that it established a supreme, aristocratic council of the chief nations to awe the league, that it reserved the right to interfere in all domestic questions relating to war and peace, that it interfered with our Monroe doctrine and that it established as its principal aim the preservation of the territories and existing independence of the league nations. Had such a league existed when the American colonies were fighting for freedom France would have been attacked by most of the nations of Europe as soon as she attempted to aid the colonies to throw off the yoke of British imperialism. Sometimes, now Democrats of taunt, the by way paraphrase the famous Pershing speech, Lafayette we are here, by saying, Lafayette we have quit, but had article X existed in the days of Lafayette he could not even have started at the head of an army, to aid America. A little later England helped establish a Holy Alliance with an article X in it, but soon found that the alliance was working for the benefit of her enemies and it was one of her statesmen, Canning, who proposed to the United States, the Monroe doctrine to prevent Englands enemies from preserving the power of Spain. Had the League of Nations existed when Spain was oppressing the Cabans we could not have fought to free Cuba; and if, in despite of our obligations to the league we had attacked Spain, we would have been by Europe and an army and navy from Asia. The history of the world tells us that most nations have obtained their outside aggression, freedom by which Senator Harding understood I am opposed this when he said: to the very thought of our republic becoming a party to such a great outrage upon peoples who have as good a right to seek their political freedom as we had in 1776. set-upo- The question of Ireland is so acute now that few can discuss it with dispassionate judgment, but let us take an example nearer home. Let us suppose that the present generation of the British people has passed away, but that the league still exists. Let us suppose that the United States is a member and that the people of Canada wish to obtain their political independence. If the English should object and should attempt to grapto them with ple the Canadians hoops of steel, the United States would be expected to send millions of men across the border as soon as the Canadians, assisted by any outside power should attempt to disturb the existing political independence of the British empire. The covenant which provides g liberty-lovinpeoagainst the revolt of ples is meticulous in the measures it contains to make sure that subject peoples may not escape from their thralldom. The covenant limits the private manufacture of arms in the name of disarmament, but the aim is to prevent subject peoples from obtaining the weapons with which to attain their liberty. .Even when the covenant directly, provides for disarmament it says that the council must take account of the geographical situation and circumstances of each state, which means that Great Britain must always be conceded the biggest navy and that freedom of the seas must continue to be a dream. n These are some of the reasons why the league has failed and why a peace league, founded on the Hage tribunal, must be substituted for it. Some may be found to argue that if teeth' are put in the tribunal it will not greatly differ from the League of Nations, especially if, as Senator Harding says, the nations will be ready and willing to uphold the decisions of the Hague tribunal. In point of fact, the differences between the two are so vital that they will be manifest on a moments consideration. The league covenant is founded on force, the Hague tribunal on justice. The heart of the league is an article which binds all the members by contract to employ force when a supreme council decides that force is necessary. Every congress and every parliament is bound by this obligation of honor. The Hague tribunal doubtless would render decisions which all nations would desire to enforce even to the point of waging war, but each congress and parliament, that is to say, each people, would have a right to make its own decision without any prior contract which would take away freedom of decision. well-meanin- By F. P. Gallagher its sovereign power in a double sense. It will preserve its sovereign .power as 'a nation and its sovereign power as a moral influence in the affairs of humanity. As the years pass it will have no regrets. It will not look back upon years of utter selfishness and tyranny when it fought the battles of the strong against the weak; when it rallied to the support of empires and crushed peoples seeking political freedom as we sought it at the cannons mouth in 1776. The United States will thus retain the moral leadership of the world. It will keep that leadership by repudiating an unholy alliance of nations founded on war. It will keep it by maintaining the principles of liberty which the founders of the republic loved and which have spread freedom over all the world. It will keep it by being true to itself and the spirit of America true to the spirit of Lexington, Bunker Hill and Yorktown, to the spirit of Washington and Lafayette, to the spirit of Lincoln, who refused to surrender the nations sovereignty and who ended human slavery; true to the spirit of the war on Spain, true to Dewey fighting an ancient despotism in Manila Bay, true to San Juan Hill and Theodore Roosevelt, true to Chateau Thierry and the Marne, but true above all else to the golden rule of good will among men everywhere. Mashie I hear that Niblick and his wife are going to separate. Putter Yes, I know; she cant stand it. Hes always beating her. Mashie Beating her? Terrible! Putter No! Just golf! Passing Show. g The nations of civilization should desire a league that is founded on justice rather than on force. The present, or rather the late lamented league, might well have adopted as its cry, The League of Nations, may she always be right, but, right or wrong, the league. If the Republican party wins we shall have an association of nations for peace. The United States will then be able to fulfill all its obligations to civilization without surrendering any of its nationality. It will preserve not only its nationality, but 0 The Beaute Shope NAN C. DOBB 622-23-2- 4 McIntyre Building Was. 9481 |