The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, September 9, 1919, Page 3

TUESDAY, SEPT. '9,.1919. — Se What Would WASHINGTON What would SAY What would JEFFERSON 9 LINCOLN SAY e SAY IF ASKED to surrender to a League of European and Asiatic Nations the right of final decision uRon matters auotaae the life, liberty and happiness of _, the American people? errs An Rae srt i ; IF ASKED to subordinate to aupediaricy tlibee principles of human liberty for which Washington suffered at Valley Forge, which Jefferson wrote into the Declaration of Independence, and which Lincoln extended to the black man? BISMARCK DAILY TRIBUNE tcooanarcmigat carte nr Their Answer Would Be That Which Is In the Heart of the American Peo le Foday God Grant That the Senate May Hear and Understand that Answer! When President Wilson went abroad to carry into effect his fourteen points, he went with the ideals of Washington, of Jefferson and of Lincoln upon his lips; in matchless phrase he had voiced the right of all peoples to self-determination, to choose the form of government under which they desired to live. He went with a challenge upon his-lips for any nation which might seek to rule another nation by military force. He went, the spokesman for open diplomacy, carrying with him the hopes of humanity. He met, according to his own statement, secret agreements and secret treaties which had previously been consummated by European and Asiatic Powers; he went into executive session and the Peace Conference became a secret committee of four men. The ideals of the United States of America were in a minority of one! To use his own phrase, “Old entanglements of every kind stood in the way—promises which governments had made to one another in the days when might and right were confused and the power of the victor was without restraint.” —Address of President Wilson before the United States Senate, July. 10th, 1919... He came back bringing with him not the Wilson plan for a League of Naitons but a British plan presented as a substitute for the Wilson plan and adopted in lieu thereof. He came back stating that the proposed Cove- nant of the League of Nations is not all that he desired it to be, but, in ef- fect, that it was the best he could get. Where Principle and Expediency Conflicted, the Result Was Compromise! And that is the proposed League which is now before the Senate for acceptance or rejection. Already the Italian: Government which assented to it has fallen. Already the man who is known as the maker of governments in Italy is denouncing it in.unmeasured terms. Already, with a keenness following centuries of persecution, the Irish among our citizenship have awakened to the fact that American institu- tions are threatened; that participation in such a League as proposed would mean partnership between the United States of America and the tyrant Empires of Europe and Asia,. with the European and Asiatic part- ners the sole beneficiaries; that the boys now in primary schools over the length and breadth of this land must be.prepared to march at future day to safeguard the territorial integrity of Empires which are none of our con- cern; that if the League goes into effect, the. United tSates of America ‘no longer continues a benefactor of peoples struggling for liberty, but be- comes an international policeman, or is relegated to the position of the dissenting minority. It Washington or Jefferson or Lincoln Could But Speak To-day! The Ideal Survives! Voice It! PUBLISHED FROM THE IRISH VICTORY FUND ZUN DER THE AUSPICES OF FRIENDS OF IRISH FREEDOM and ASSOCIATED SOCIETIES See next announcement: in: Bismarck Tribune staniie Js deah eae oes saeeeraa teak Seciack :f bceet rng vonesnaney Sed iit | Ls a Ll Lee tii tty ttt