OCR Text |
Show JOHNSON ASSAILS I s j Gigantic War Trust Is California Senator's Assertion. CHAINS OF TYRANNY Binds Millions of People to Unjust and Wicked 1 Rule. WASHINGTON, June 2 Assailing the league of nations as a combination I of armed powers "in a gigantic war trust," Senator Johnson. Republican, 1 of California, told the senate today (that the Pari-, conferenct dared no1 amend the league covenants so tnat ihe declaration of future war would be decided, not by established rulers, but by a popular vote of the peoples concerned. con-cerned. "It is not a league of nations to pre ent war," he asserted "In its very creation, it has been stripped of every I idealistic purpose it ever had. It contains con-tains within itself the germs of many wars, and worse than that it rivets, as in the Shantung decision, the chains Ol tyrannj upon millions of people and ' ements for all time unjust and wicked r-nnexations It is a great world economic eco-nomic trust, wherein a few men, silling sil-ling In secret, may control the econom ic destin es of peoples It is not a league of peoples, nor does it any-v any-v here concern itself with peoples instead of coming closer to tho3e about concerned, the men and women for whom governments shonl.l r-vist ihe league goes a step farther from' them. The representatives of rul.ng sit war away in secret. If those who wrote this document really wanted to prevent war, they would hae permit 1 ted the men and women who mus? hear the burdens of war. to determine by their votes whether or not there1 should he w ar. "The answer is this is not a league. !o promote peace, but to protect power. pow-er. Those who advocate it dare not amend it so that the issue of war shall be made by the men and women who must fight and die for it." I rging adoption of his resolution asking tbe state department for the full text of the peace treaty, Senator 1 Johnson read into the record ihe oft-1 quoted utterances of President Wilson j regarding "open diplomacy." "1 pon covenants, openly arrived at,"! continued the Benator, "are now a by word and a poke. Their mention brings but a cynical smile. 'When you remember that England frankly says her treaties are et in ex if), nee, her offensive and defensive1 alliance with Japan vet controlling. 1 and then you observe the I'nited states making some sort of engagement, engage-ment, the knowledge of which for the present we are denied, you will have some conception of what the league cf nations is intended to do." The levised covenant, Mr Johnson continued, far from preserving the Monroe, doctrine, would mean Its destruction. de-struction. He declared the league would be a partnership between the world's one great "going concern" and bankrupt nations, an.j charged that go.ernment propaganda was discrediting discredit-ing league opponents By the Paris negotiation.-, he said, the United St.ues has made many powerful enemies. ene-mies. "It is rare Indeed." he asserted, "that any speech is made in favor of the league which docs not bitterly condemn con-demn Americans who think of their own country first. For the first time-in time-in oui history, the jealous guarding of our own, the love of our traditions, and our institutions, the passion for our land and our liberty have become enlal sins. "We hae learned In the last two vears a new thine in our national lilc, I national propaganda The propaganda, paid for by the people 1 hem-elves.. has been devoted to deceiving the people to glorifying those who by a people's grace have been raised to a high po- j sition This perverting process has been one of the powerful agencies for preventing people from knowinc the possibilities of the league of nationr, "On the 11th of November, America, as no nation on earth ever had been before, was respected, revered and be loved After six months of meddling and muddling in European and Asiatic controversies and contests over territory, terri-tory, the end of the peace conference finds Italy detesting us, France secretly secret-ly despising us, England using us and Japan bluffing us." "They are all willing and anxious that we should have our league of na lions and willing and anxious becau Of the same spirit which has rulet them in the peace conference. Tin-one Tin-one going solvent concern national Is about to enter into partnership with certain national bankrupts We gv( of our assets, both moral and material, and assume ,, p,,rt of their liabilities "Gladly will we do what duty commands, com-mands, and humanity an.; civilisation may require, but that dut; can be bet ter done, our obligation to humanity and civilization better fulfilled In th. high position of the world's great ' democracy than in the subordinate position po-sition of the le.it consequential 01 a quintuple alliam e ' Recalling in detail the abuses whicn followed the holy alliance, the California Cali-fornia senator said it was organized for the same declared purposes and in the same "etheral and celestial lan guage," as the league now proposed He quoted article 10 of the league covenant, cov-enant, in which member nation- 1 un dertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the ter ritorial integritv" of all the members I and continued : "The league of nations comes to us after us principal member? have been gorged with territory, with their boundaries boun-daries and their limits increased be-j be-j ond the wildest dreams The one going solvent national concern on earth undertakes by Ann ie X to guar cntee forever these extraordinary territorial ter-ritorial limits. This league of nations na-tions with the men who really wrote in, wag iiieam iu uuuwn peace uiny in- , sofar as peace maintained forever inviolate in-violate their territories and their sub , ject people." The Monroe Doctrine Quoting the Monroe doctrine amendment amend-ment to the league covenant, Senator, Johnson continued. "If an American villi th purpose in view ot protecting protect-ing the Monroe Doctrine wrote this ir title, his affection for it was tepid : and his allegiance feeble. It could not have bet D wi itt.-n with any other pur- ; pose than the destruction of the Monroe Mon-roe Doctrine. The amendment simply 1 says 'the validity of regional understandings under-standings for securing the maintenance mainten-ance of peace," shall not be main-tained main-tained In other woids, lfthe Monroe Mon-roe Doctrine is to be administered it Wil be within the jurisdiction of the 1 , league of nations to administer it. "The blackest pago in all our his tory was wriuen wnen our name signed to tbe treaty delivering Shantung Shan-tung to Japan V- have not onl j committed the crime, in the first in-J stance, but wc have gained the crime for all time. We give by the peace, treaty Shantung to Japan ami bv the league ot nations, part, of the same document v.e guarantee Shantung to Japan and guarantee it with our treasure treas-ure and our blood. "It is absolutely clear that questions like immigration there arising from the alien land lw f California and j -imilar matters will be within the jur Isdlctlon of the league Remember that there is In existence an offensive and defensivi alliance between Japan and Gieal Britain and that when the: question of Shantung re. , nth was up. Britain very frankly said this treaty alliance still existed. As a Californ-lan, Californ-lan, I am not ready to submit any race problems we may have to the juris-, diction of the coun II pi the League of nations, or to the , igue ii self. "I am unwilling thai either bodj should pass upon po- ably the gravest question that confronts us. You gen-1 tlemen from the south would resent I Ihe suggestion that a race problem of' yours should be decided by nations bound to the race affected by secret treaties " no |