Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1919 — CHAOS OF WORLD DEEPENED [ARTICLE]

CHAOS OF WORLD DEEPENED

Page Deplores Defeat of the Treaty by Senate. I >eonsider defeat of the peace treaty as an Immeasurable mfsfortune. Those who defeated ilt have assumed the most terrible responsibility which any men have assumed in bur time. Its effect must be to plunge Europe into even deeper chaos, from which America can hardly escape entirely. Those who were most against the treaty and the league of nations were the Germans, the extreme Sinn Feiners, the I. W. W. and the Bolshevists. Those who have just killed the treaty, however sincere their motives, have given these cause for great rejoicing. None maintains that the treaty or the league was perfect.. But every one knows in his heart that it was a better treaty and sanction than was hoped for one year ago. Just one year ago and a little more, America and the world were holding their breath at what was happening In France. We were vowing to God that if peace were vouchsafed, that thing which was destroying the world and had already swept away so many millions of men should never come again. The ruins of France and Italy still were smoking. Our men were dying by thousands in< the Argonne and along the other fronts to save the world and It was saved. I was present when David Lloyd George laid the treaty of peace on the table of the house of commons and declared that the league of nations was the only means of future safety in sight, and that he could not Imagine how any sensible man could oppose it being fully tried out. Since that time the treaty has been approved by all the allies.

But the senate of the United States has rejected alike the treaty and the league of. nations. Thus the United States and China stand out alone against the treaty and the league. China may have a defensible reason, but what reason have we? If the treaty did not pro-' tect America, then human intelligence has no sound basis. Europe is in a condition bordering on chaos and this is not likely

to bring order there- The first thing will be Germany's relief from the exactions of the treaty. Can it be that she now will put forth her efforts to pay the great reparation amount Imposed upon her unless, indeed, she recognizes that the present situation offers the unexpected chance for her to conquer the world once more commercially? If not this then the result must And probably will be, in any event, reestablishment of great armaments. The league of nations, having been repudiated by us, the result to us is clear. It means we must Inaugurate here a great armament. We, Germany and China alone stand outside of the league, which at present constitutes a sort of inchoate alliance of those who have entered it. The present situation, as I see it, is that we have had a chance to escape from being overwhelmed in what threatened to be a universal deluge and the senate has thrown it away. We must now find some other ark of safety. The chief builder of the ark that promised us rescue worked himself nearly to death to save us. And it looks as if those who were not called in to help build the ark have sunk it. What will they give us in its place?—Thomas Nelson Page, former ambassador to Italy.