TAFT COMES LEAGUE PLAN Puts It Into Plain Language Free From Legal and Diplomatic Verbiage, in Response to Re quest. MANY ARE CONFUSED BY PRESENT DEBATE Danger That People Will Lose Sight of Basic Principles Dur ing Discussion of Complicated Details and Technicalities. (By ex-President William H. Taft.) The plan for a League of Na tions is l»ased on a few simple principles, which are not hard to understand when lifted out of (he morass of technical discus sion and freed from legal and diplomatic language. As the one authority best able to pre sent these points without par tisan bias, ex-President Taft has been asked to put the league idea into a few plain words for the benefit of millions of Americans who desire a bet ter understanding of the plan but find themselves confused by the debate in the .United States Senate. In response to this le quest he has written the follow ing article. Purpose of the League. The chief purpose of the League of Nations is to keep the world in a state of peace. Another way of ex pressing it is to say that the league is designed to prevent wars. We have just finished the greatest, which is to say the most horrible, of all conflicts between nations. We have won a glorious victory. But that victory will be wasted unless this war has made the nations ready to put aside their differences and co operate to end war forever. It is not enough, however, to pro vide for the prevention of wars and the settlement of disputes after they have arisen. We must foresee causes of trouble and remove them before they have reached an acute stage. 'Hence there must be provision for fre quent consultations of members of the league for exchange of information, for agreement on common policies and for the gradual formation of rules of international law which at present are uncertain and incomplete. The representatives of the great free nations which won the war have met at Paris and, after long consulta tion, have drawn an agreement which they believe will accomplish these ends. At the very least it will set in motion great changes which will re sult In universal benefit to all man kind. This agreement is called the Covenant of the League of Nations and it is a part of the peace treaty. There will be 110 league worth talk ing about, however, unless the United States is a member. The decision as to whether the United States shall join rests with our Senate. The Sena tors, chosen by the people, will in the end vote as the people desire. For this reason the people themselves will decide whether or not the United States will join the league. In this question every citizen should have a voice. He or she can express opinion either by writing direct to Senators, by letters to the newspapers, by speeches in his lodge or local union or In conversation with friends. Methods of Maintaining Peace. Since the prime object of the League of Nations is to preserve peace —and to reap the benefits of peace— let us see how the league will operate to accomplish that purpose. In the first place it will seek to re mote the main causes of war. By tile formation of an international court It will create a means for the peaceful settlement of disputes between na tions. Then it will seek to compel the nations to make use of this court. This is nothing more nor less than an application of the rules and customs governing private individuals in civil ized communities to the relations be tween nations. Secondly, the League will seek If re move a great temptation to war by the general agreement to reduce the size of armies and navies. This will halt the race for military and naval supremacy which was largely respon sible for the war just ended. The amount of armament any nation may maintain will be strictly defined. Thus it will be impossible for one country to overwhelm its neighbor by unexpected attack, in the way that Germany crushed Belgium and would have crushed France"had not the other democratic nations gone to her aid. The idea Is that each country may k*ep an army and navy large enough to en able it to fulfil its responsibilities as a member of the League, but no larger. The United States, for example, prob ably would be expected to keep a check on Mexico and the state of con stant turmoil in that country would be taken into consideration in deciding how large an army we should need. The third important safeguard which the League will set up is a sys tem of penalties. This will make an outlaw of any nation or group of na tions which goes to war in violation of the rules of the League. The out- lawed nation will be boycotted by all the other members of the League and will find itself cut off from both busi ness and social communication with the rest of the world. How It Will Prevent Wars. It is not claimed that the League of Nations will do away with war alto gether. Every possible provision that human intelligence can devise will be made to settle international disp ~es peaceably. Hut should all these meas ures fail and two nations go to war, this is what will happen: If both parties to the dispute have observed the rules of the League, the other nations will stand back and let them fight it out. War under such circumstances is difficult to imagine, however, because before the angry na tions will be allowed to fight in ac cordance with the rules of the League, so much time must elapse that in all probability their anger will cool and they will reach an amicable under standing. What we have to fear is that some nation will go to war in defiance of i i;e League, HIMI every precaution has been taken to suppress such a nation by the immediate use of the united jMjwer of the other nations. If inter national boycott failed to bring her to terms she would have to face a combined international army and navy. The founders of the League be lieve that the mere possibility of such a situation will prevent any nation from violating its agreement. Does anyone think that Germany would have begun war five years ago if she had known that nearly all the other srreat powers would combine against | lier? Doing the World's Work. In addition to settling international disputes peaceably the League of Nations will provide means for doing much of the world's work more sys tematically and effectively than can be done now when each nation is working only for itself. The people you know best and like best are those who work with you on the same job. 11 will be the same way with the nations of the future. The more they work together, the soone'r they will come to understand and like each other. For example, the League will estab lish an international organization for the bettering of labor conditions in different countries, for the protection of women and children and the native inhabitants of civilized and semi-civil ized countries. One of Germany's greatest crimes has been her barba rous treatment of the helpless people in some of her colonies. One of the i chief tasks of the League will be to look after peoples that are not strong enough to protect themselves. The League will appoint commis ' sions to take charge of various inter national undertakings so that they I may be carried on, not for the benefit I of any one nation, but for the benefit !of the whole world. Provision will be made for promotion of fair and equal | trade conditions. These are only a few of the benefits , the world will derive from the League. 1 As time goes on we sliali find more and more tasks at which the nations can work in common and a greater number of opportunities to remove causes which stir up jealousies and animosities between races and peoples. Objections Answered. Of course we cannot hope to make the great changes such as the League of Nations will bring about without opposition. Fortunately the war lias taught us the great advantages of international co-operation. It was only by good team work that the free liberty loving nations were able to whip Germany. The treaty which the United States Senate is debating obligates the mem bers of the proposed League to pro tect one another against attack from enemies outside their own boundaries bent upon conquest. Although this agreement (Article X of the Cove nant) is vital to any arrangement which seeks to prevent war, it has been attacked on the ground that it would draw the United States into wars in various parts of the world and force us to send our boys to fight in quarrels which did not concern us. We should remember, however, that the main purpose of Article X is to frighten nations tempted to wars of conquest from yielding to the tempta tion, by the certainty that they will be crushed if they begin such a war by a universal boycott and a union of forces of the world against them. If a big war breaks out again, the United States will be forced to take part in it whether we have a League of Nations or not. We tried hard enough to keep out of the war with Germany but found we couldn't. A little war contrary to the League rules could be handled by the powers Close at hand. Certainly it would not be necessary to send American troops to suppress an uprising in the Balkans when prompt action by the armies of Italy or some other nearby powerful nation could suppress the fracas be fore American troops could even get started. Great Gain for Small Loss. We had to make many sacrifices to win the last war and we made them willingly because we knew they were worth while. It will be the same In a smaller degree with a League of Nations. When men form a business partnership each one has to make concessions to the views and opinions of the other members of the firm. When we enter the League of Nations we may have to give up cer tain privileges, but the losses will be small compared with the profits. The United States will not have to sacrifice her independence or right to make her own decisions. The council, the chief governing body of the League, cannot take action without unanimous decision of its members and since the "United Stati will have u representative in the Council our interest will be pro tected there. We hear it said that the League is formed for the benefit of Great Britain or Japan or some other one nation. This is not true. All the nations will gain by it, not only the great nations such as the United States, Great Britain, France, Japan and Italy, but the lirtle nations which in the past have been oppressed by their big neighbors. The international court will give an opportunity for the settlement of old grievances which have long troubled the peoples of the world. It has been said that the League will interfere with the Monroe Doc trine, but the League Covenant ex pressly protects this Doctrine. In fact, through the Covenant the Monroe Doc trine receives recognition throughout the world and its principles become forever established. WOMEN DEMAND WARS SHALL END Peace League Means More to Them Than It Can Mean to Men. DR. SHAW'S STIRRING PLEA. (By the Late Dr. Anna Howard Shaw.) Seven million one hundred thousand men who had laid down their lives in the great war. Think of it! Seven | million, one hundred thousand young \ men had died on the field of battle! What does that mean to the women of the world? It means that seven million one hundred thousand women walked day by day with their faces toward an open grave that tliey might give life to a son. It means that j seven million one hundred thousand , little children lay in the arms of a i mother whose had made them j face even the terrors of death that ! they might become the mothers of • men. It means that year after year these | women had put up their lives into the j lives of their sons until they had rear |ed them to be men. For what? In j the hope that these sons of theirs could i give to the world the things for which [ women dream, the things for which j women hope and pray and long. These were the things that the women had In their hearts when they gave birth ! to their sons. But who can estimate the value of seven million one hundred thousand dead sons of the women of the world? Who can estimate the price which the women have paid for this war; what it has cost them, not only in the death of their sons, because that is a phase of our war to which we look. The Courage of Women. We hear our orators tell us of the courage of our men. How they went across the sea. Very few of them re member to tell us of the courage of our women, who also went across the sea; of the women who died nursing the sick and wounded; the women who died in the hospitals, where the terrible bombs came and drove them almost to madness. They tell us nothing of the forty thousand English women who went to work back of the trenches in France. They tell us nothing of the thou sands upon thousands upon thousands of women who not only toiled and worked and slaved in order that the war might be successful, but we do not hear of the thousands of women, not alone in Armenia, not alone in Montenegro, not alone in itarbia, but in Flanders, in Belgium, to Rumania, in Russia—the thousands of women who lie in graves today, murdered, so horribly murdered that men dare not speak of it. And yet we women are asked what we know about the League of Na tions ; asked what we can understand about a League of Nations. Oh men! the horrible deaths; the horrible lives of thousands upon thousands of wo men today in all these nations, who must live, and who must look in the faces of children unwelcomed, unde sired —of little children —and know that these are the result of war. And then ask women why they should be interested in a league of peace? Women Suffer Most From War. If there is any body of citizens In the world who ought to be interested In a league to ultimately bring to the world peace It is the mothers of men, and the women who suffered as only women can suffer in the war and in devastated countries. And we call upon them, we women of the world call upon the men who have been fighting all these battles of the years, the men who have led armies, and led armies close to their deaths. We are now calling upon the men of the world to in some way or an other find a passage out of the sea of death. We are asking them to form a league which will bring hope to the women of the future. If women are to bear sons only that they may die, if women may not have hope and aspirations for their children, if women may not dream the dreams that have in them the hope of the highest civilizations, the highest moral and spiritual life of the people—if wo men may not have these in their hearts as the mothers of men, then women will cease to desire to be the mothers of men. And why should they not? Why should they not? 2? X * <| A Double || H Re-Union l\ II II l<s vl 11 By CECILL2 LANGDON (Copyright, 1919, by the Western News paper Union.) "But it was only a harmless little tiff." said Kitty Willis. "I was petu lant, he was impatient, and we parted as if we were utter strangers," and the final tones quavered and broke. "No 'tiff.' as you call it. is harmless, my dear," replied the soothing voice of Mrs. Mayhew, the housekeeper, to whom Kitty always carried her little troubles. "Once 1 hud a husband and a home. Both are gone now. And all through my unjust suspicion and will ful ways. My husband was a man of ea'sy ways, and often his persistent silence when I scolded and his refusal to quarrel with me led my wayward tongue to utter bitter things. He had been a musician, and whenever a com pany of strolling players came to town lie delighted in hobnobbing with them. One night with some old actor friends he was gone hall the night. I re proached him cruelly, and in the morn ing when he announced to me that somehow be had lost his pocketbook containing lii-s monthly .salary I ac cused him of squandering it in gam bling and drove him from the house. He did not come back that day nor the next, but after that from another town 1 received a letter. It inclosed the salary which a friend had found. He wrote a very brief note. He said that evidently we could not get on to gether and that maybe all he was good for was to blow a cornet, and I've never seen him since, and to the end of my life I shall regret the bad temper that has lost me a husband I really loved. * "Perhaps Norman is really quite angry with me and will not come to hglp me entertain the little ones at the children's party this evening," mourned Kitty contritely. "Oh, yes he will," soothed Mrs. May hew, fondly caressing the sobbing penitent. Norman Blair at that very hour brought his automobile to a halt be side a lonely country road, his usually pleasant face wearing a dissatisfied expression. Of Kitty ke was thinking and of their petty tiff. He longed to see her and make up, but pride ami stubbornness led him to draw back. If he could only find some plausible excuse for visiting the Willis home! It was presented, strangely, ama::ingly, at that moment! The echo of a pro digious groan drew his glance to a little thicket. There stood an aston ishing figure—that of a man with big staring eyes and bulging cheeks and paunch, rotund grotesque, and wearing the eosturhe of the conventional circus clown. Such a presentment in that quiet spot completely mystified Nor man. He had to smile. As if all ready made up for the sawdust ring, the stranger's face was powdered and tinted; he wore the fool's cap, his face was newly painted. Suddenly he no ticed Norman and came toward him. " "Don't stare so, don't laugh!" he ut tered complainingly, "but tell me what to do." "Why, what is the matter?" in quired Norman, lost in wonderment. "Ruined! homeless! doomed to face a cold, cheerless world in this outland ish garb! I'm the clown of a Humpty Dumpty company. We had to steal away from Watertown with our prop erties, all but busted. We halted in the woods here to rehearse our enter tainment at Mayville. I strolled off to take a snooze. When I woke up my comrades and the property wagon were gone. The landlord of the hotel at Watertown had pursued us and had seized our wagon and wardrobes, and my po<?r friends were visible half a mile up on yonder hill, in hock and without money and prospects. That had to come eventually." ,A quick light came to the eyes of Norman Blair. "I say, my friend," he spoke rapidly, "if 1 agree to provide you with a good sum of money to re place your wardrobe will you sell me your professional services for two hours late this afternoon?" "You're a life-saver!" almost shout ed the other. "Then get into my auto. A friend of mine is to give a cYldren's lawn party. When it's over you shall have a liberal compensation. And driving later to the Willis home with his odd companion, the grand ex cuse Norman had for showing up there was readily approved by Kitty, and the tiff of the preceding even forgiven and forgotten with a loving kiss. WTiat a rollicking, roystering time the little ones had! What a rare, jolly, funny, engaging clown held them spell bound with his comic antics! Then at last as he produced a trick mouse and feigned desperate fear, he pressed the air vent of his false front and col lapsed into a flat, ordinary human be ing amid the delirious shouts of hi» appreciative audienc^. Norman escorted his new friend into the house where he could wash the paint and powder fremi his face, pur suant to taking him to town to be re habilitated in every-day attire. As the clown came outside again there was a shriek. "Abner! my husband!" shrieked Mrs. M* yhew, and tiew to his side and threw her arms about his neck, and fainted there, while her husband, gaz ing tenderly into her colorless face, leaned over and kissed her, while Kit ty, in happy tears, blessed her loyal lover for having brought about this double reunioa. EASY TO TALK TOO MUCH One Must Admit There Is Much Truth in the Sage Reflections of Mr. Goslingtcn. "It is my opinion," said Mr. Gosling ton. "that beggars talk too much. For instance. this morning I met a man who asked me for a nickel with which to buy a cup of coffee. As I wa» reaching for the nickel he kept right on talking, telling me among other things that he hadn't had anything to eat for three days, which I knew of course was false, aud which detracted very much from my pleasure in giving. "I am an easy mark. Perhaps as I grow older I shall grow harder, but as I feel about it now I would rather give to a dozen frauds than take a chance of missing one man who was hungry. Still I don't like the fraud to be too obvious; and I am sure there must »e many prospective givers who, when the beggar keeps on with that sur plus talk, rescind their original deter mination to give and keep their monev n their pocket. Surely you would think the beggar would learn wisdom and talk less, wouldn't you? "But the beggar is not the only man. How often do we hear it said of some banquet speaker that he is a good talker but be talks too much! This may seem a harsh way of put ting it, but that's what people say. This speaker starts ingagingly and talks for a time to the pleasure of ev erybody, wandering on then intermi nably to the complete obliteration of the first favorable impression. Here the only result is the tiring of the speaker's hearers; but talking too much might have a far more serious result in the case of, say, a man ap plying for a job. "Many n man has talked himself out of a prospective job. He goes to the employer with what he wants to say clearly laid out in his mind, he says this clearly and simply, and the employer has practically made up his mind to take him; but then the appli cant keeps on talking, to bis own un doing. As lie talks he reveals himself in a light less favorable; he discloses perhaps some peculiarity that may no 1 really be a detriment but that strikes the employer not agreeably; and so this job that at first the applicant had felt perfectly sure of slips away front him entirely and without his realizing just how it all came about. "The beggar is far from being alone in overtasking. There are many men in many walks who lack the fine gift of knowing when to stop." Fascination of a Helmet. The Hun helmet possesses a strong i fascination for the American soldier. I Apparently he is not able to resist the | temptation to capture one whenever ior wherever he sees it. A news story from the Rhine country tells us that German policemen of the towns oc cupied by the American troops have given up wearing helmets. Many of the policemen gave them up because they had none to wear. Others dis ! continued their use because the Amer | ican officers made the discontinuance a request. The American soldiers, It is explained, couldn't resist the im pulse to capture them. The. German policemen were rushed all along the Rhine and deftly *nbonneted. It all shows tjiat the primitive instinct that urges a victor to take from the con quered some symbol of his submission continues strong in the warrior breast. —Cleveland Plain Dealer. Old Mexican God Unearthed. A statue of "Xochlpllli," Aztec god of flowers, has been discovered by Wil liam Nivan, an American archeologist who has been in Mexico recently. The statue, the representation of the god known to have been discovered in ; virtually a perfect state of preserva tion in modern times, was dug up at Atzcapotzalco, a suburb of the cap j ltal, and which, prior to the coming of Cortez. was the seat of a powerful In dian nation, but which, at the time of the conquest, was the great slave mart of the inhabitants of Tenoxtitlan, home of the Aztecs and the site of the mod ern city of Mexico. In addition to its slave trade, Atzcapotzalco was noted for its expert jewelers and wonderfully cultivated gardens. "Xochipilli" is sup posed to have presided over one of these ancient gardens. Yet Another. The number of proposed undersea tunnels is increasing every day. Al ready to that under the Straits of Dover has been added the suggestion for one tinder the Irish channel. And now comes Colonel Rubio y Bellve. who has obtained permission from the Spanish government to carry out the preliminary soundings with a view to connecting Spain with Morocco by tunneling the Straits of Gibraltar. The proposal Is that the new tunnel should Fink west of Tarifa and come to the surface again east of Tangier. This would make It. roughly, some twenty miles long, which 'ft within three miles of the greatf**f breadth of the straits, a breadth vhich varies from eight and a half to twenty-three miles. Swallow Is Enemy of Mosquito. If you want to free the neighbor hood of mosquitoes encourage swal lows to make themselves at home, says the American Forestry association. These birds feed almost entirely upon obnoxious insects and they will do i much toward protecting orchards and other trees from insect pests. No fet ter investm*%it can be made, therefore, than some houses set out for martins or other swallows. Of the blue swal lows the purple martin is the largest, the male being entirely blue above with a gray breast. Swallows are highly migratory, most of them spending tlie winter in South America, if | if Long Journey |i it By WINIFRED L. JEWELL (Copyright, 1119, by the Western News paper Union.) Rodney Price was mad and ashamed, both at the same time. People stared at him and he was humiliated from the fact that they stared also at the big policeman who bad just led him from a drinking place and now kindly, though, reprovingly, took hlai to the corner with the words: "Go home now, young man, and thank me for saving you your mosey and perhaps your sense. I fancy you don't know the reputation of the joint you went into." Rodney Price did not reply. He traced in going into "the joint" a step down an incline whither he had been headed for some time past. He had gone into the place because he had not the moral strength to resist a panacea for a headache, a trembling frame and a general sense of collapse, due to over-indulgence the night previous. The dutiful and friendly officer saw to it that the man he had rescued was not followed or headed off. He kept his eye on Price until he had turned a corner. Half a square further progressed, the latter stumbled where there was a loose sidewalk tile. He steadied himself and did not fall, al though his head was dizzy and a sub tle drowsiness was overcoming him. Contact with the obstruction had rip ped off the heel of one shoe. Price pickea it up and passed on his way seeking a shoe shop and at last came to a sign telling that repairing was done inside. A woman, her back to him, was hold ing out two little shoes and explaining that she wanted them ready by noon, when she would call for them. As Price plunged heavily into a seat she addressed the cobbler. "It's my little one's birthday, Mr. Akers," she said, "and I've promised to take her to a movie this afternoen. "The cost will be nothing, raa'aia," observed the gentle hearted ••bbler. "I'll send them over before noon, and you can tell your little one that the mending was my present, and if I waa a little better off I'd give her a b*a»d new pair." Rodney Price held his senses diz zying and muddled. Somehow, how ever, he roused up as a vague recog nition of the soft lew tone of the wom an reached his hearing, but he could not trace out tiie suggestion. I»i a maudlin way he gained the counter unsteadily. "Just fix my heel, will you?" he spoke, and handed it and the shoe he had taken off to the cobbler. "And let me snooze for an hour, I'm terribly dozy. When you wake me up have the little girl's shoe fixed, too. I've got an idea. See?" The old shoemaker did not "see" anything further than an inebriate talking incoherently. When the hour had gone by, however, he came from behind the counter, the mended shoe in his hand, He had some difficulty In arousing Price, who unknowingly was the victim of o drugged drink. The latter put on the shoe, produced i well-filled pocket book, selected a bank note and threw it on the counter. "No change," he ordered. '"Hello!" as his eyes fell upon the little mended shoes, and then his hand passed over his brow confusedly. "Oh, yes, I re member now, poor woman, the child's birthday. And you, good old soul, was to fix the shoes for nothing. A capital job, too, neatly patched and polished up nicely. Here," and he tendered a second bank ndte to the astonished cobbler. "And here," he added with a reckless laugh, "I'll uo my share," and he stuffed a handful of bills in one of the tiny shoes. "Now then, you let me deliver them, won't you? Where does the little one live?" "Second floor, No. 182, six doors west There's a sign in front —'dress- maker.' " "All right. Poor little shoes. Poor little child. Anil me a regular goody two shoes, eh? Well somebody will be happy, and tl»e bewildered shoemak er's visitor left the place unsteadily, the two little shoes in his hand. His gait was unsteady, his sight blurred, for the drugged «Jrink had not yet lost its effect. He located 182, how ever, and the fcign "dressmaker" and the second floor. About to approach a door he slipped to the floor of the hall way Instead, for a second time rob bed of his senses by the drug. "Oh, mamma !" exclaimed the little child, as she chanced to open the door, and, startled, noticed the pro«» trate man. "Here's someone sick, or asleep, and oh, my shoes! all fixed up beautifully, and oh. mamma ! they are full of money!" Lost in amazement the mother view ed the situation. When Rodney Price aroused again he lay on a couch in a neat but poor ly furnished room. He fancied he was dreaming as a familiar, long sought-for face seemed to flash across his vision. He reviewed the past, a wife abandoned, two years of reckless inebriety, a fortune won in a mining camp, a search for the woman he still loved, despair, a return to strong drink, but now — One won! she spoke—his name. One look she bestowed —of love. One treas ure he had not known —the little child —sh£ heJd towards him, and Rodney Priafe realized that he had reached the en*f of a long journey.
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