Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1919 — The World’s Next Step [ARTICLE]

The World’s Next Step

NO. • National VaaltT and <h. of Nations

By CLARXNCX U 8P«»D (Written for nod Approved by the Illinois Branch of Lea<ue to Enforce Peace.) It Is a strange thing that In America, a nation thal consistently bus shown it has no desire to oppress the weak or rob its neighbors, there should be any opposition at cli to a league of nations designed to prevent others from doing the things which the overwhelming majority of us recognise as wrong. The honest, law-abiding citizen does not object to state or national laws against murder or theft because he thinks that at some time he might be sufficiently enraged or be reduced to such poverty as to desire to commit these crimes. Instead he lends his Influence toward having laws passed which will provide restraint for the murderer and give care to the poverty stricken. Yet we find people even in the United States asking such questions as, "Are we going to permit anybody to tell us when we can or cannot go to"war to protect our rights?" or “Are we going to send our troops across the ocean to die in Europe or Asia at the behest of some power superior to our government?” This is national vanity, pure and simple. We are going to do Just those things whether we want to or not. We have just got through sending our troops to Europe to die in a war that we did not want It was forced on us against our will by Germany. Our men died and our treasure was expended to an extent wholly unnecessary Just because “we minded our own business or sat around acting, as we fondly imagined, on our own initiative. As a result we went to war when our enemy was ready and we were not, and we sacrificed thousands of lives and billions of dollars which might have been saved had there been anything like a league of nations in existence in 1914. Let’s go back to the outbreak of the European war and study that a little. Germany was in direct alliance with Austria and Italy. England, France and Russia had an "understanding." Germany wanted war. She thought the time had come when she could risk battle with France and Russia at the same time. She knew Austria was with her and thought Italy was safely on her side. Her diplomats told her that England would not fight She did not dream that the struggle would even last long enough to drag the United States into it. Japan, Canada, China, Australia, Greece, Brazil she diyonnted. Serbia and Belgium she >ifflt seemed quite certain to the Germans that they could accomplish their purpose. • Now suppose there bad been Jn existence at that time a league of nations. Assume, for the sake of argument, that Germany had corrupted Austria to the point where she knew that Austria would be with her. But suppose Germany had known that England, the United States, Italy, Japan, Brazil and China and all the other nations would have taken sides against her, not one by one but all at once and with all their power, do you think for a moment that Germany would have dared to start the world war?

And suppose again that Germany had been insane enough to start a war, even knowing that all the world might come In, don’t you think that the United States, If It had been a member of the league of nations, and with the approval of that body had voluntarily Joined In the war the day the German' troops crossed the Belgian frontier, would have saved thousand® of American Ilves and billions of American dollars by Its prompt cooperation? What hope would Germany have had If all the nations ’ which finally were dragged In agaipst her one at a time had combined on the first day to coerce her into behaving like a civilized state? The war would probably have been over In four months Instead of four years. And though we got from this league of our own creation a summons to attack Germany the first day she misbehaved, and compiled with It, we would have been acting with just as much freedom of action as we finally did. We had to go to war whether we wanted to or not. We could not protect our legitimate Interests nor could we keep our self-respect and stay out. And when that international community Is one that we ourselves have helped to create and that is doing our will, why should we want to refuse its summons?

You will hardly find a patriotic American citizen today who regrets that we entered the war, in spite of all it cost. You will find thousands upon thousands who regret that we did not enter sooner. And yet at the same time you will find thousands of patriotic Americans —many who think they are the most patriotic of all — who cannot abide the idea that there should be any organization higher than our own government, which could tell us when we ought to go to war—as if, in these days of the Interdependence of the whole world, we had any choice in the matter. National' vanity which causes opposition to a league of nations is a good deal like individual vanity which would make a man resent the presence of a policeman on the street because that policeman might prevent him from doing something he didn’t want fanyhow. or direct him to do something 'he was just about to do of his own '(accord. ' .