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Show LEAGUE OF NATIONS IS A CONTRACT TO FIGHT THIS IS THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF EIGHT ...ARTICLES ...AR-TICLES BY AMERICA'S ACE OF ACES CAP-TAIN CAP-TAIN EDDIE RICKENBACKER. THE ARTICLES PORTRAY A SOLDIER'S VIEWPOINT OF THE LEAGUE. OF NATIONS AND CAPTAIN RICKENBACKER RICK-ENBACKER HAS A NATION-WIDE ACQUAINTANCE ACQUAINT-ANCE AMONG THE SOLDIERS OF THE WORLD WAR. CHAPTER ONE For a soldier, the League ot Nations Na-tions has just one meaning War. It Is a contract to fight., If wo Join the League, wo agreo to fight when called In to do so. In-, I tt'i national luwjers and diplomatist may argue this point. Some say .that wo may sign the league coven- nnt and still not fight unless we want to. They argue that, after our allies call on us, wo still are at liberty to go in or stay out. " j The soldier does not look at tho L I league covenant in thta way. He docs not bother with the law ofdl-plomacy,' ofdl-plomacy,' We sign a contract; ' wo must keep It. Wo give a promise; wo must redeem' it.- He does not even think about whether His moral pr law that binds us. Ho only knows that If we give a pledgo we are gy-' gy-' , ing to stand by it. ' I Take for Instance Article 10, tho war article of tho leaguo. Tho soldier sol-dier reads there that tho members of tho leaguo "Undertakes to respect and preserve against external aggression, aggres-sion, The territory and Indopendenco ot all other members." That is thu language of the covenant. The soldier sol-dier translates that language in his I mind In the United States. He then I would put the pledge it signed by the United States in about this form: I "Tho United States undertakes to I respect and preserve against external Jk aggression." The territory ot al 0h members ot the league. Add to this fM& that to the soldier "external aggea- H slon" la merely a polite name for H war and you hare article X as he H sees it. Everything else Is to him just camouflage. We giro our word to stand ready to fight, on call, for any other nation In the league that I Is suffering from a case ot "exter- nal aggression.' Onco given wo H havo to keep it, I Tho trouble might come in China, H or Slam, Greece, India or Egypt. We. I might bo called to fight to keep B 36,000 Chinese in Shantung under I Japanese rule ,or to hold India in the H Drltlsh empire; we might not like the Job; we might even sympathlzo I with the Chinese, or Hindus, but wo should have given our word In a I plain contract, and we should hare I to Keep It. &tf That Is tho way .a plain soldier m looks at tho leaguo contract, and il nlnety-flve In a hundred soldiers do not like it. They havo soon foreign nations and know they aro foreign o us. They Ttnow that every foreign H nation, In war n8 In peace, acts first H and last for Itself. H If a foreign nation gets into war rj wlillo acting In 11b own Interests they Mt do not bco why they should bo H shipped to Europo or Asia to holp H it. Thoy do not understand Ameri- S can blood Bhould bo shed to build fU. up any foreign nation. Therefore, H they aro against taking the pledge, B they are against artlclo X. Thoy aro i against the covenant "To fight In war is the solemnest business on earth." Those who havo fought know this better than anybody else, and they are against fighting for any country except the Vr.!M Stales. If article ten mesm win' b ras, It mean's war moio war than tho United States ever had before. If wo pledgo ourselves to preserve "against external aggression" every other member of the league, we havo got to fight or break our won!. "If we aro going to fight, we must get ready tor fight. That means a great deal. Only the man who was in the war knows how much. Wo can't contract for that lot of war by signing Article X and then not preparo tor It. i Tho United Slatos are fine fighting men, none finer. Every soldier who was in Franco knows this. And when they got into the war these men wero warlike enough. But they nover felt that war was a regular business with them. As tho peoplo In Europo understand It, thoy were not military professionals. And tho American people aro not professionals. profession-als. They are a fighting people, when called out, but In poace thoy refuse to bo military. Wo went Into the war unprepared and wero protected by our allies while we made preparations. We wore In the war nineteen months and we came out stilt unprepared. Yet ws spent 120,006,000,000. We had only 196 airplanes at tho front In France at the end ot the war and not ono of them was a fighting plane, Yet wo spent more than a billion dollars for aircraft. Tho soldier sol-dier of the air knowa that. Wo did not mako our own gas though wo tried. Wo did not uso our own grenades. Wo did not have any American tanks. Tho soldier of tho lino knows that. And he knows tho thousands of lives theso failures fail-ures cost. Wo cannot afford to go into another war thus unprepared. It would coBt too many Uvea and too much monoy. If we contract for wars all over tho world, wo havo got to prepare or suffer the awful losses. A soldier who was In Europo during the war realizes what a burden a policy of militarism would put on the American peoplo. Ho understands un-derstands how terrible would be tho losses, under Article X, If a policy pol-icy of military preparation wero not adopted The soldier Is against bringing European militarism to America ana ho Is against sacrificing, American flesh and blood In the conflicts for which wo aro not prepared. If wo go Into tho leaguo of nations ns wo would havo to choose preparation or punishment. Ho knows it. That Is why ho does not want this country coun-try to go in under Artlclo X. That li why ho Is against the League of Nations. |