Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1919 — MR. KNOX'S ENMITY [ARTICLE]

MR. KNOX'S ENMITY

It remains for Senator Knox, former attorney-general and former secretary of state of the United States, so assure some 4,000,000 of American soldiers and Sailors that the sacrifices they "’made in overthrowing German autocracy and militarism have resulted in “a. cruel peace.” Senator Knox’s late speech against the league of nations, advocating, as it did, the rejection of the pending treaty and the substitution of a new and independent pact (between Germany and this country, is susceptible of no ’ other interpretation. From the premise 'that this peace —which American blood and valor made possible—is harsh and indefensible, Sneator Knox argued to the conclusion that we should cancel the present treaty and make another which will relieve Germany of the obligations and limitations upon the enforcement of which alone the world can be insured against a second barbaric outbreak upon her part. We have been harsh, says Senator Knox, to the ’Germany that concocted and proseouted the most ferocious attack ■ever made upon civilzation. We have no right to bind the hands of this monster of militarism, he tells us, in effect, and contends that to guarantee Germany’s willing acceptance of her defeat we should treat her like a victor. Is the reconstitution of Belgium an act of rharshness on the part of the allies, Including the United States, and a cruelty’ to Germany? Is the restitution of Alsace-Lorraine •to France an injustice to the Prussian aggressors who took it as the spoils of war? Is the rehabilitation of Poland, which the imperial

ancestor of Kaiser Wilhefrn 11.

helped to parcel among his contemporary autocrats in Austria and Russia, an infringement of German rights? Is the guarantee of autonomous government for SchleswigHolstein, raped from inoffensive and helpless Denmark, an outrage upon German sovereignty? Is France’s temporary control of the Saar mines as a measure of compensation for the destruction of cathedrals, schools, hospitals, mines, vineyards, forests, fields and homes in a fifth of the French domain which was overrun by a ruthless Prussian horde, a wrongful deprivation of German proprietorship? Is the establishment of the new European states —the liberation of small nations from the despotism of the German and AustroHungarian empires a crime against Prussian superiority? Well, these are some of the fruits of American participation in the war—a few of the benefactions which the pending treaty purposes to guarantee and perpetuate, at the expense of Germany, true enough, but for the advantage of a dozen other peoiples. To undertake now to negotiate a new treaty with Germany—if the American nation would for a moment contemplate so preposterous an adventure — would be to alienate ourselves from our former associates in the war; to deal with a foe grown ten months stronger than when he laid down his arms, and to face the alternative of surrendering most of what we now stand posessed or of fighting alone to enforce our claims for more.

Let the New York Tribune, an inveterate Republican organ and persistent opponent of the league of nations, estimate the intent and effect of Senator Knox’s speech. After pointing out that it is now the mission of German propaganda to beget the impression that Germany has been despoiled, the Tribune says: “It is not agreeable to have it possible for Germany, as she labors to create sympathy for herself, able to quote the words of one of our best American public men in support of her claims of mistreatment.’’ If a partisan spokesman of Mr. Lodge’s Republican allies in attacks upon the treaty and the league of (nations ventures that close to an indictment of Senator Knox’s Americanism, what will our 4,000,000 veterans say?