The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 31, 1919, Page 6

; ?//// ”/’2 . /1///// 7 4 % 7 % U, 'é,, % onpartisan Teader Official Magazine of the National Nonpartisan League—Every Week Entered as second-class matter September 3, 1915, at the postoffice at St. Paul, Minnesota, under the Act of March -3, 1879, : OLIVER 8. MORRIS, Editor E. B. Fussell and A. B. Gilbert, Associate Editors B. O. Foss, Art Editor Subscription, one year, in advance, $2.50; six months, $1.50. e do not make checks, drafts nor money orders payable to indi- viduals. Address all letters and make all remittances to The Nonpartisan Leader, Box 575, St. Paul, Minn. e MEMBER OF AUDIT. BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS THE S. C. BECKWITH SPECIAL AGENCY, Advertising Representatives, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City. : Advertising rates on application. 1.50 Pleu: Quack, fraudulent and irresponsible firms are not knowingly advertised, and we will o take it as a favor if any readers will advise us promptly should they have occasion to doubt or question the. reliability of any firm which patronizes our a®vertising columns. A STATESMAN IN WASHINGTON - = CITIZEN of the state of Washington wrote to Acting Gov- ernor Hart of that state to ask about the Nonpartisan league. He received the following from the acting governor: From the convictions had in numerous courts and from well- authenticated reports from agents of the department of justice of the ) United States, I have no hesitancy in saying that the leaders and . many of the organizers of the so-called National Nonpartisan league are disloyal and their preachings seditious. ] y By way of evidence to back up this remarkable assertion, Act- ing Governor Hart said: . All three of the large news agencies of the United States have given much publicity to the disloyalty and. seditious acts of the or- ganizers and managers of the so-called Nonpartisan league, a sedi- tious organization, strongly pro-German and appealing to well-mean- ing people under the guise of a misnamed political party. ‘ Mr. Hart has a mind, or something that passes for a mind, like many people. He reads something in the papers—most likely P EXTROA— ALe only the headlines—and gets an impression, which is the impres- sion that editors of papers with a sinister purpose want him to get. His impression is that the League is disloyal. He has no evidence on which to base his impression and doesn’t even remember what the papers said. But this is enough on which to construct con- temptible charges against loyal and patriotic citizens about whose work and purposes he knows absolutely nothing. The department of justice, of course, has never reported any person connected with the League as disloyal, and no person di- . rectly or indirectly connected with the League has been convicted of disloyalty by the federal courts. If it wasn’t for men like Act- ing Governor Hart the designing press would have nothing to work upon. He plays the part of a gaping, credulous bumpkin, who gets his money’s worth out of his favorite penny-thriller newspaper by having cold chills run up his back. : THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS HE opposition to the league of nations comes from four. - sources: The extreme Socialists and radical revolutionists who look on all measures devised by governments as at pres- ent constituted as “capitalistic” and as “bourgeois makeshifts”; from conservatives who consider any change as dangerous and revolutionary; from Republican party leaders who want to make political capital against Wilson, a Democrat, and from those whe believe in an extreme nationalism and who feel that any inter- ‘national agreement will curb America’s nationalistic aspirations. None of these groups of opponents of the league of nations de- serves much attention, except perhaps the last mentioned. even doubtful whether, with the example before us of what ex- treme nationalism leads to, the last mentioned class requires an - extended answer. We have never had anything except nationalism, and its perfect flower was the culminating shame of all history, the terrible and bloody war through which we have just passed. But the nationalistic argument against: the league of nations is one calculated to sway the most people.” It derives its force / : | S It is’ PAGE SIX ; 7 Y, % ok Y als 4 / é]/]///‘ /& '//fl il from patriotism; not a well-considered, true patriotism, but a sort of chauvinism. There is probably no emotion with a greater mov- ing force than patriotism, and the extreme nationalistic opponents of the league of nations are now trying to use this force to prevent the greatest step forward in civilization that has been taken in- centuries. The argument runs something like this: We: are a great and prosperous nation, with a splendid history and tradition. We are . God’s chosen people. We are powerful enough to take care of our- selves. We can lick anybody if we want to or have to. We, as a nation, have nothing to gain by entangling alliances with other nations, but we may lose something. Our nationalistic aspirations will have to be passed upon and will perhaps be balked by a league of nations in which we will have only a minority voice. We are boss of Mexico and South America. The league will be boss if we go into this. Instead of being independent in our international re- DOWN W/TH TH' LEAGUE OF NATIONS lations, we will be subject to dictation by foreigners, and foreigners are persons who do not speak our language, follow our customs and eat the same food as we do. George Washington said that we should avoid entangling foreign alliances. What if our capitalists, who have invested in Mexico or Peru, get a raw deal from the gov- ernments of those countries? We can’t send an army into those countries and force the. dirty greasers to be good. We've got to take it up through the league of nations. Away with an alliance that hampers our development into the greatest nation in the world! : Down with the league of nations! The Leader is not satisfied with the constitution of the league of nations as at present drawn up. It has many features we dis- approve, and omits much we think it should contain. But as con- ditions shaped up at the peace conference it was impossible for President Wilson to get into the league constitution all he wanted to and to keep out all he thought should be kept out. He did the best he could. The peace conference has presented a constitution . for the league which is the best that we can expect at this time to come out of conflicting national ambitions. If this constitution is adopted, it will not be permanent in its present form. It can be amended from time to time. The big point is that it is a first step toward an international agreement that will remove the causes of war, and once that step is taken the world is committed to a policy which in-the years to come can be developed into all that we be- lieve a league of nations should be. Nothing else has been advanced as insurance for the peoples of the world against another war, an- other mad destruction and slaughter. Those who oppose the league of nations advance no other plan, except plans before tried and found inadequate, to preserve the peace of the world. In the name of civilization and humanity, let us not let slip this opportunity to at least try out an international agreement which seéms, how- ever faintly some may think, to promise an end to the insanity and butchery of war. ; e The independence of the United States is not threatened by the league of nations to any greater extent than your or my inde- pendence as citizens is threatened by laws against theft and mur: der. No legitimate nationalistic ambition of the United States can CONSTITUTION OF THE - LEAGUE . OF NWRATIONS be balked. If we want to live with our neighbors in peace and quiet and on terms of friendliness, granting them their legitimate rights and insisting on our own, then we have nothing to fear from the league. If we want to be a bully, if we want to force our civiliza- ‘tion and culture on other peoples, extend our territory at the ex- pense of our neighbors, force other nations to give us preference in trade, and exploit the world for our benefit and the world’s loss—if that is our desire we do not want to join a league of na- tions. We will then want a big standing army, a great navy and universal compulsory military training. We will then have to be- come a second Rome under the Caesars, a second France under Louis: XIV. or Napoleon, or a second Germany under the kaiser.