Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1920 — SENATOR WATSON’S THEORY [ARTICLE]

SENATOR WATSON’S THEORY

It has remained for Senator Watson to discover that this government never “officially” declared war against Germany. W<% it is said, “by resolution said that a state of war exists.” Having done that we can, it seems, “by resolution, say that the state of war no longer exists.” This is certainly very sub- ' tie. Germany understood that we had declared war on her. The rest of the world was left in no cJ OU bt on the subject. If we never declareu war on Germany, neither did we on Spain, for the', two resolutions are very much alike. In 1838, congress adopted a resolution in which it said “that war be, and the same is hereby declared to .exist.” In 1917 congress passed a resolution saying that “the state of war between the United States and the imperial Ger-

man government which lias been thrust upon the United States Is hereby formally declared.” What Is the difference between declaring war, and declaring a state of war? We do not believe that history will be rewritten to make it- fit in with the views of Senator Watson. It is true that “Germany has never declared war on us,” but this was only because, if congress spoke the truth in its declaration of war, she made war on us without declaring it. But the senator is "In favor of making a separate peace with Germany,” and he sees "nothing dishonorable about that.” He differs from Senator Lodge—though it must be said that Lodge now differs from himself —who . said on one occasion, that is now historic, that to make peace apart from our allies would brand us with everlasting shame and dishonor. Of course he was right. That, we believe, is the feeling of the country. What sort of peace this would be, the senator has not seen fit to inform us. Of course it woulu be for Germany to say whether she would accept the conditions —if there were any—that we might choose to suggest. It is not understood that we are to apply force, or to send an army abroad to enforce our rights. We should have to deal with Germany on terms of perfect equality, and abandon the role of victor in the great war. The whole program is as fantastic as it is dishonorable. We are asked by a candidate for the senate to pull apart from France and Great Britain at the very time when it is absolutely necessary to the safety of the world that the three powers should stand unitedly together. Bolshevik Russia is even now seeking an understanding with Germany that will enable her to make war on France, and later on Great Britain and the United States. Senator Harding, and now Senator Watson, have re-

pudiated that very treaty which highly placed Germans have said : would never be carried out. These | men have long looked forward to a separate peace with the United States, which is known to be favored by the pro-Germans in this country, j Any one who will fairly consider the present situation must admit, as ■ was said in a Washington dispatch to the News of yesterday, that “the real world question is whether the ! allies and the United States can J and will hold together in the face J of the German-Russian menace,” and I that “the leagiie of nations is the only plan presented for holding them ! together.” Yet it is under such ter- ' rible conditions as these that Senator Watson would absolutely reject j the Versailles treaty, out of which I Germany has been trying to squirm, iand make a separate peace with Gerj many, and thus line up with that power and Bolshevik Russia against j our associates in the war, to whom , we must look for protection against one of the most terrible menace? that civilization has ever faced. — Indianapolis New® (Rep.).