Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1920 — AMERICA AND THE WORLD [ARTICLE]

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

The most disheartentaig feature of the present situation is not so imruch the attitude of the senate toward the peace treaty as its uter inability to see that there is ■any obligaion resting on this country to co-operate with other nations in the work of reorganizing and stabilizing the world. Be? fore the signing of the armistice ■there were few men who did not feel this obligation, and take pride in the fact that a great opportunity for service was offered to this nation. A nobly altruistic spirit was reflected in practically everything that was written or spoken in those days. We liked to think that we had gone into the war as crusaders, and we saw in the war a struggle for a new and better world, dedicated to freedom, and safeguarded against wars of aggression. Halving hehped to save the world, the general feeling was that we should do everything in our power to keep it safe, and to up-j hold those ideals that had tri-1 umphed. This was the feeling even of Senator Lodge, as is proved by a speech which he delivered in the senate. In the months that have gone by a great change has come, and it is a change for the worse. No sooner was the armistice signed than men began to demand that we should get out of the war, though the war was not over. It was difficult to hold enough troops in Europe to conduct the various jilebescites that had been ordered. We demanded a free and independent Armenia, yet were unwilling

to afford it even temporary protection. We even criticised Great Britain for withdrawing her troops, though they had been fighting for more than four years. This burden, and all other of a like character, should, we insisted, be borne by the war-worn nations of Europe. From the very beginning of the consideration of the treaty, the senate has been trying to find out, not how much this country could do consistently with loyalty to the constitution, but how little it would permit to be done. * It Ihas been interested, as far as it has been interested at all, not in .the maximum but the minimum/ of service. Its point of view has been narrow, parochial and selfish. From the start all the /presumptions have been against the treaty. This has gone so far that it is even proposed to withdraw from the president at least one power that has for more than a century been wielded by the executive without question—namely, to use the military and naval forces as they were used in China, against the Barbary pirates, and often in Central America, without the consent Of congress.

This, of course, is a very sad fall. The need for our help and co-operation is as great as it was u year ago. Our duty now is as riear as it was then. Everything that has happened has served to make it clearer. The great and noble vision—which was a true vision—has been dimmed and obscured. We are crusading today, not in behalf of stricken and helpless humanity, but for the presidency. The head of a hateful partisanship is beginning to rear itself, and our leaders are thinking, not of the starving Armenians, Viennese and Poles, not of the perilously unstable political and social conditions in Europe, but of delegates. Yet we do not believethat the people have forgotten, much less that they are unwilling to do their full part, and to do it bravely and self-sacrificingly. They know that a league of 'nations can be created that will bw a mighty power for good, and that we can enter it without giving up our independence and national' sovereignty. And that is what they want. President Hayes once said: “He serves his party best who serves his country best.” Today he serves his country best who serves the world best. That at any rate was the feeling of the 1 American people when the advance ,of Pershing’s great army was I stopped by the armistice within a I stone’s throw of Sedan. —-Indianap- ' olis News (Rep.)