Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1919 — THE PRESIDENT BEFORE THE SENATE [ARTICLE]

THE PRESIDENT BEFORE THE SENATE

President Wilson was under no constitutional command and bound by no moral obligation to explain or defend before the senate his course in the peace conference or his part in creating the league of nations. Neither was there need, as he told the senators, to report to them what was attempted and done at Paris. Yet, he has given to the senate—and through the senate to the people—an eloquent and convincing argument and justification for this country’s continuance in an interational partnership to preserve the peace that has been won after four years of sacrifices, starvation and slaughter. If, as his critics contend, he said nothing new upon his. subject, certainly all that he 'uttered was true.

The business of keeping the peace belongs to every nation whose interests and safety will be threatened by war; that is, to every nation of the world, And in fulfilling this duty the nations can have hereafter no more success, acting severally, than they have had heretofore. They must be brought into concert; into a coalition that wilt pledge their moral and material resources to the common task of safe-guarding themeelves by protecting their neighbors. The president was under no necessity of proving the obvious. The senate knows that a league of nations is imperative; that it is an inherent, inseparable part of the arrangement and maintenance of peace. There are those who are opposing the league in spite of their knowledge. They pretend to see in it obstacles and perils. It was doubtless to such that the president addressed at least one sentence of his address: “Statesmen might see difficulties but the people could see none and could brook no denial.” If Republican objectors and cavillers have not been enlightened by what President Wilsbn has said it is only because they have closed their eyes to the light. The people understand bis language and share his hopes and approve his purposes. They demand the league of nations. The senate cannot deny them.