Hammond Times, Volume 14, Number 105, Hammond, Lake County, 20 October 1920 — Page 6

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DRAMATIC . CITY LIFE AND SOCIETY

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American A

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1320

,000 AMERICAN DEAD.

NOUGH!

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EB8HIS cartoon stirs the imagination and sadder

tne neart. Ueneatn every cross an American soldier lies, and the crosses stretch far and wide wide like the trees in a forest, THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND of them. Even more impressive than this cartoon

i - a i.-"' uj.i4mi jiiuiui ui lllCBB graves. I In that photograph you see the crosses

crowded so closely together that thev Innk

like a picket fence. They stretch to the horizon and to the left End to the right and disappear in unbroken lines in all directions. Here lie some of the Americans that never came back. Their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters never saw them again after bidding farewell as they left in their khaki suits, to be packed into Bteamers and carried without light over the ocean through the submarine zone. Those nen went and died willingly. For the errand that took them to their death was the errand OF THE UNITED STATES. The nation had declared war, and they died to prove that the United States is a nation that wages only just wars, and wins them always. Sad enough is this graveyard, this forest of crosses and of corpses. The League of Nations, with the vicious Article Ten, would multiply these graves of Americans in Europe by ten and by a hundred. Under the League of Nations, which Mr. Cos and the Democratic administration advocate, this country would be bound, in honor and in" law, if any European nation attacked another member of the league, to send men to be killed abroad whenever a foreign council ordered it. You will be told that the league really has no meaning, that while Article Ten SAYS that members of the league must do whatever the foreign council says to defend other members, that really isn't so. Don't be deceived. Of all men, who knows best what the league means? Is not that man President Wilson? Read and tell your reighbors what he said about Article Ten and its power to Senator Knox of Pennsylvania. When he spoke to Senator Knox the President was anxious to make the Republican Senators accept his treaty and league. Fortunately he failed. Had they obeyed the President's order, consented to put aside the Constitution of the United States, and allowed the President alone to make treaties, you would before long see photographs of other American graveyards in Europe so vast as to make the one in thi3 picture seem a mere sample. Those that attempt to defend the vicious un-American League of Nation,?, and the criminal provisions in Article Ten, Eeek to represent the obligation of the United States under the league to fight for other countries as merely a "moral obligation." Read the question that Senator Knox of Pennsyvania put to the President and the President's answer. Remember that you are not reading what somebody SAID that the President said, or anything that the President could possibly deny. The words quoted here were given out officially, from stenographic reports, by the President's own secretary, after Senator Knox had interviewed the President. Senator Knox to the President: "Mr. President, allow me to ask this question: Suppose that it is perfectly, obvious and accepted that there is an external aggression against some Poirer, and cappose it is perfectly obvious and accepted that it cannot be repelled except by force of arms, icould ue be under

Here you see the last resting place of 35,000 American soldiers, buried in one single plot of ground at Romagne, across the ocean. This powerful cartoon is a reproduction of a photograph with the figures of Uncle Sam and Columbia added by the artist. There is unfortunately no imagination in the long lines of graves and crosses. Only a few of the 35,000 dead tire visible in the picture. Are there not ENOUGH American dead planted in Europe? These men at least went abroad on an errand that con-

any legal obligation to participate?" You understand clearly Senator Knox's question. He had read the Covenant of the League of Nations carefully. He had read especially Article Ten, which read: "The members of the League undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all members of the League. In case of any such aggression or in case of any threat or danger of such aggression the Council shall advise upon the means by which this obligation shall be fulfilled:' Senator Knox's question, put in another way, mean3 this: Suppose Russia should attack France, would America be obliged to go over and fight for France if the council of the League of Nations ordered it? Or suppose Spain, sympathizing with the troubles of the Irish, should, by force of arms, help Ireland to gain freedom from England, attacking England in so doing. Should we be obliged to go over and help England to fight Spain and Ireland? The truthful answer is YES. Japan is one of the Allies. Suppose Russia for any reason should attack Japan, for instance, because Japan was seizing Russian lands in Siberia, should we be obliged to send our men across the Pacific to help the Japanese crush the Russians, always our friends in the past, and our associates rn this war? The answer again is YES. If any country should attack the Japanese, regardless of what the Japanese did to provoke it, and the council of foreign nations should give us the order, we should be bound to send our men, under the League of Nations rules, across the Pacific Ocean to fight for Japan. And then you would be able to see in Japan a graveyard for American soldiers perhaps five times as big as this picture of the American burying ground at Romagne. 4 Please read over again the question that Senator Knox put to President Wilson, asking him whether or not the League of Nations would make us fight. You have rtad it? Now read the answer that President Wilson made, an answer given out by his secretary from stenographic note3. THE PRESIDENT SAID: "So, sir; but we would be under AN ABSOLUTELY COMPELLING MORAL OBLIGATION." The ablest minds in this country, the best informed international authorities on treaties, declare that iftwe went into the League of Nations this nation would be LEGALLY, as well as MORALLY, bound to send its men to fight whenever one of those European or Asiatic nations got mixed up in war, and wherever the foreign council ordered us to go. The President says: "We would be under an absolutely com-

cerned the United States. Do you want to multiply this European graveyard for AMERICAN soldiers by ten, and then by a hundred? The League of Nations and Article Ten WOULD DO IT. 35ooo more Americans, and thirty-five hundred thousand would go and gladly die for THIS country. But they must not be sent to die in the quarrels of foreign nations for which they are not responsible. VOTE AGAINST THE WAR LEAGUE OF NA TION3 THAT WOULD MULTIPLY BY A HUNDRED THESE GRAVES OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN EUROPEAN SOIL.

pelling moral obligation." That means that you, your son, your brother, every man in this country would be under a "compelling moral obligation" to do, what? 0 To cross the sea again, fight, and, if necessary, to die in war that we did not start. Assume that the statement of the President tells the whole truth, which it does not. Assume that there is only a "MORAL" obligation for us to fight for Japan against Russia, cr for England against Spain and Ireland, or for Serbia against Turkey, WILL YOU VOTE TO PUT YOUR NATION UNDER ANY SUCH MORAL OBLIGATION? To the honest man or the honest nation, a MORAL obligation is even stronger than a LEGAL obligation. But as it happens in the case of the League of Nations, if we signed it, and put ourselves at the mercy of a foreign council, controlled by the British Empire, we should be bound both by LEGAL obligation and MORAL obligation to send more men, and start more American graveyards across the ocean, whenever that foreign council ordered it.

Even if we had no objection to planting fresh graveyards for American soldiers in Europe, if we cared nothing for the lives of our young men and for the right of this nation to manage its own affairs, do we not at least want the right to say just WHEN and WHY our men shall fight, for WHOM they shall die, in whaU CAUSE new European or Asiatic graveyards for Americans shall be started? Haven't we had enough of sending men up to Siberia to ba frozen and shot because some American fools lent to the Ccar money that the Russian revolution refuses to pay? Will you vote for the League of Nations that, according to the President of the United States himself, would put us under "an absolutely compelling moral obligation" to send men to Europe and fight in quarrels not started by us? A month from now Finland may be fighting Sweden, concerning the Aland Islands. Sweden has a right to those islands, they formerly belonged to her, they are necessary to her. They were taken from her by Russia and then went, accidentally, to Finland. Suppose arbitration should give the islands to Sweden and Finland should start fighting Sweden? You know what would happen if we were foolish enough to enter the Leaerue cf Nations. The English workmen would tell Lloyd George once more "We've had enough of fighting." The French workmen, who control their government, would say to their Prime Minister, "We don't intend to fight up in the North to protect any Swedish islands. -

Tie forelsra. conacil vrould gay uamatTzcxis'.y "let ti-o Americans da tMa fig-litinc." You don't want &sy League of tlon.3 that would impose upon you eitter a loyal cr 'a atsol-xlely compelUmj moral'' otlis-ation, or "both, to sti fresli graveyards for American soldier in Asia, or Europe or Africa. Ton do not u-aat to fee told thii a foreign coux.cU decides that your son must ro to Europe to Carfct in Mesopotamia, cr Bessarabia, or to keep tne Sas3iana out cf British India, or for tiiy other purpos3 vritli wnicc tills country lias ftotJiiajj to do and for widen it Las no reiponil'bility.

A convincing picture liia tee one oa tills pace has more influence than sucibMIas' la words. You see her on griffantlc graveyard CUcd witU the bodies of American ycun; men across the ocean. .That cse 13 ENOUGH, you are not anxious for mere. You do not Intend that any foreign council of the Leag-ue of Nations shall tell you when more graveyards for Americans shall be started. Tho most patriotic men and the most intelligent have warned you from the beclnnin? against this lnfajnous Xea. g"ue of Nations. Senator Hiram Johnson Is a great an.d powerful American. Be has the absolute confidence of a great etae. He Is one of the ablest In the United States senate. He has no object la deceiving you. Ee knows that Japan 'would like to extend her colonization schemes to our Pacific coast and then farther East. He knows that the Leayue of Nations would put us in a position where ye would be compeUed to ask England and a foreif-n council for leave to deal wlh Japan and her colonizing. Senator Eorah of Idaho is a flat fight, in? type of the real American. He has tcld you what the league of Nations means. Such men do not seek to deceive their feUov7 countrymen . They are sincere, plain, earnest Americans. They have trained minds, they know the meaning of words and of treaties. Take their warning- against the Xea. gue cf Nations and VOTE AGAINST IT. Many millions of Americans have vo. ted for William J. Bryan for president cf the TTnted Stages. Other millions do not cgree with his views. But nobody questions his rincerity. You know that he has been for yean the ler.der cf the democratic party in the Unl'ed States. And you observe that he has NOT MADE ONE SPEECH roE cox or roa THE democratic TARTY THIS YEAR. And he will not epeak for his party, because he knows, and he has said, that the X.eagus of Nations would take from the oongrers of the United States the (Continued on rasa seven!) "

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