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Vol. 37
PRESIDENT WILSON FLOUNDERING AROUND THE CIRCLE.
It was the general belief that, when the Bene¬
factor of the World went out to make his “report”
to the people, we would at last be told why we were
plunged into the European War, two years after the
- Lusitania was sunk, five months after the President
had declared that the European Armageddon was
none of our business, three months ‘after our Am¬
bassador had delivered to the Kaiser the olive
branch of our truly dependable President, and about
38 days after veracious Woodrow had veraciously
assured Congress that, “I am not contemplating
war.”
But he has not yet told us; and his “report”
'is far, far from coming up to reasonable expecta¬
tions.
For instance, we had a natural desire to lie in¬
formed what it was that Germany did to us , after
our great President sent the olive-stuff to the Kaiser.
Did the satanio Kaiser afterwards sink an¬
other Lusitania?
Did the Kaiser after the 26th af February
1917, sink another Sussex?
No: the Germans did nothing.
So, we haven’t learned anything new about
the war: we are still in the dark as to why we'
were so suddenly conscripted into it.
. We certainly had a right to expect that our
great President would tell us all about th Peace,
treaty and the League of the Big Five.
We have been disappointed: the principal
aim of our great President seems to be, to talk at
considerable length without giving us any addi¬
tional facts and arguments.
True, he moves Serajevo into Servia, and pries
Bagdad up into Persia, and slrids Prague down into
Poland, but while these facts are new, they lack
verification.
If true they are important, but he need not
have gone off on a stumping tour to have jacked
np our geography.
Has our great President explained to us why
he could not leave the peace-making business to
Mr. Lansing, our able and experienced Secretary
of State?
r ,. Has he justified his unprecederh^ vsuvpation
of Mr. Lansing's functions?
Every one of our Presidents—from Washing¬
ton to Andrew Jackson, and from Jackson to Grant
and Roosevelt—left it to their Secretaries of
^tate to act in that capacity in all matters pertain
to the office.
From what source has our great, President,
drawn' the idea that, he is a bigger man than
Washington, than John Quincy Adams, than
Jefferson, than Jackson, than General Grant, than
Theodore Roosevelt?
Inasmuch as Woodrow \Wilson hasn’t a drop*
of American blood in his vein's, and is altogether
English in principle, we might, expect less arro¬
gance from him, as he preaches the surrender of
our independence to Great Britain.
Secretary Lansing is an American; and had
he been allowed to act, in the capacity the law cre¬
ates for him, we would not now be hampered, har¬
assed, and menaced by a pro-British, anti-Ameri¬
can Treaty and League.
Has our great President, in his tour of “eluci¬
dation,” elucidated anything?
If so, I missed it.,
I have read his speeches, and seldom have my
editorial duties forced me to wade through so
many columns of mere assertion?, unsupported
statements, vague generalities, feeble abuse, maud¬
lin sentimentality, and dizzy inconsistencies.
It is an amazing thing to read his elaborate
explanaton of how the Gennan people, a self-gov¬
erned people, could have told the Kaiser that he
must not go to war, and how the Kaiser and the
General Staff would have obeyed the people, had
the people spoken!
Inasmuch as the German people would'not
speak up, and order the Kaiser to keep out of
war, those German people are guilty of the war,
and must be punished.
Merciful Heavens! What sort of a man is
Woodrow Wilson?
Is he the same great President who publicly
proclaimed these words following?
“We have no quarrel with the German peo¬
ple. We have no feeling toward them but one of
sympathy and friendship, It was not upon their
impulse that their government acted in
this war. It was not «vitli their previous knowl¬
edge or approval. It was a war determined upon
as wars used to be determined upon in the old,
unhappy days when peoples were nowhere consult¬
ed by their rulers and wars were provoked and
waged in the interest, of dynasties or of little
groups of ambitious men who were accustomed to
use their fellow men as pawns and tools.”
That is what our great President told Con¬
gress in 1917 when asking for the war which a
month before, he had not “contemplated” because
l
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Price $2.00 Per Year
he “had no cause” to do so! /
But now that he is floundering around the
circle, he said this to the people of Columbus, Ohio:
“The terms of the treaty are severe, but they
are not unjust The men associated with me at
the Peace Conference in Paris had it in their hearts
to do justice. . . . They had no purpose in
overwhelming the German people, but they did
think that it ought to be burned into the conscious
ness of men forever that 'no people ought to permit
its government to do what the German govern¬
ment did. . . .
“A people are responsible for the acts of their
government ; if their government purposes things
that are wrong, they ought to take measures .*>;
sco to it that that purpose is not executed.
“Germany was' self-governed. Her rulers mind.” had'
not concealed the purposes that they 7 had in
Now, I am sure that you will agree with both
the statements of our great President; although
these statements may seem to be at loggerheads,
they are as much the same as any two reasons that
our gi^at P. has ever given, at different times, for
our going into the war.
You know how it was about our taking part
in the war; we pushed our government into it: vit
insisted upon conscription; we cllmored for Lib¬
erty Loans; we howled for Hoover; we demanded
the. War Board; screamed for federal inter¬
ference with private business; cried for the espi
onage act; we made it a crime for any unpatriotic
son-of-a-gun not to report to the sheriff whether
he had worked that day.
Our government did not want the war, but the
irresistible people did; and so our grqat President
had to bend to the storm, and Burleson bent, and
Baker bent, and CoL House bent, and Col.
phine* Daniels bent, and they had to obey the popj
ular will, and go into the war. j
If the Germans had won, think, think, thine;
of the way we, the people, would have been “punt
ished” for “permitting” our government to do wlM
it did. !
We naturally expected our great President dll'
tell us his- reasons ir4T> giving
to our one m his League— of which he expects to be
President for life , and thus the first Kino of
the World.
Did lu: explain it ?
No: he excused it, by saying that we could
veto the action of the Council.
This is an evasion.
The question is “Why did you gi-e England a
vote for herself and five others for her colonies,
while you reserved only one for the United States,
and none for our colonies?"
. , He can't answer the question—nobody can—
except by saying he wanted to assure himself the
Presidency of the League, and England, an over¬
lordship of these, her lost colonies.
It is Woodrow Wilson's dream to he the first.
King of a, world-empire, in which this country
shall again be reduced to a province of England's
colonial empire.
In the long run, six men will beat one, in
every game.
You had a right to expect our great President
to explain why he lowered our national dignity,
by introducing into his League of Poljteal and
Financial Autocrats the pitiful little negro state
of Liberia—introducing those negroes as our politi¬
cal and social equals.
Did he explain this?
* Did he give a single reason why Liberia was
made the equal, in the League, of Italy and France?
No: he didn’t “report” on Liberia.
Did he, give a reason for elevating a few thou¬
sand Arabs, said to be camped in a statq/called
Hedjaz, to an equality with this Republic?
No: he didn’t report on Hedjaz.
Our great President told the beloved people—
who never had seen a President and wanted to see
what a President looked like—that he had acted
with such consummate tact and wisdom, while in
Paris, that if the “contemptible quitters” in Wash¬
ington would immediately endorse all he had so
sagely done, the whole world would at once, settle
down, quit waiting, on us, and not. break its heart.
He intimated that the Senators who continued
obdurate, might expect, to be roped around the
neck, and suspended from high gibbets. stTrred
Before our great P. left Paris, he had
up sixteen wars; and, before lie got across to where,
ardent admirers were waiting to boom him as much
as they were paid for, there were four more wars;
and since he began to tell the curious crowds in the
West that the world was waiting on us, I notice—
with no surprise, but with much pain—that three
or four other nations have got very hot over those
land-lines, that our great P. said he had “settled,”
and are now fighting it out.
D’Annunzio, the Italian literary genius—and
Harlem, Ga., Friday, September 20, 1919.
the greatest Italian orator since Savonarola and
Rienzi—was as much bent on having Fiume for
Italy, as our great P. was determined that his new
friends, the Jugo-Slavs should have it.
Before Italy came into the War, she was prom
ised this port; but because the Pope bitterly op¬
posed the growth of secular Italy, his dutiful son.
Woodrow Wilson, made it his especial piece of
mulish marplotism to deny Italy what she had won,
at the cost of 400,000 of her best, soldiers,
Now, since our great President began his
floundering round the circle, D'Annunzio has
marched into Fiume, has been joined by the Ital¬
ian troops of occupation, has torn down the French
and British flags, and has compelled the Paris Big
Bugs to tamely say—“We wash our hands of it.
The Italian government must deal with the situa¬
tion.''
If the Italian, -government does not accept the
imperial- gift of the heroic D'Annunzio, it will be
unworthy to hold the place first won for it, by Mus
zini , Dixio, and Garibaldi.
It is almost comical: at the very time when
our great President was trying to explain, to a
dwindling audience, why Fiume could not become
a pari, of Italy, D’Annunzio was publicly proelam
izing that Fiume had become a part of Italy.
In the “report” of o\u* great President there
is, of course, an effort to sanctify his conduct tow
ard China, who came into the war at Wilson’s in
vitation and on his guarantee of Iter territorial in¬
tegrity.
The substance of his defense is, that, Japan was
needed to cope with Germany’s fleet in the Pacific;
and that Japan took the Shantung possessions of
the Germans’,
The answer to this is, that at the time England
and France secretly' agreed for Japan to keep what
the Germans had stolen, there was not a German
ship in the Pacific.
If Japan had not taken the German posses¬
sions, they would have been harmless during the
war, because of the British fleet: tfhd, if not, starve#
opt, would have been easy prey afterwards,
• Again, the Chinese concessions to Germany
provided that they should revert to China if, for
any reason, Ihe German concessions were forfeited
or lost.
Our great President declares that Japan has
promised to get out of Shantung, and he asks that
the 1 American people take the Japanese promise,
on his personal endorsement.
The security is well-nigh irresistibly tempting.
The reputation of the Japs for keeping their
word, is about on a par with Wilson’s.
I have been trying to think up a promise made
by the Japs, and then kept, when it inconvenienced
them to keep it, but memory fails to produce an
instance, ‘
Then I endeavored to think up a pledge made
by Wilson, and redeemed, when it suited him to re¬
pudiate it, and again my recollection did not re¬
spond.
This is very strange.
' The Koreans, like the, Chinese, were an unwar
like people, and Japan, without having any cause
of war, invaded the country, and compelled the
Korean government to sign an agreement that all
financial and diplomatic offices should be filled by
the truthful, honest, amiable Japs.
A treaty was drawn up and signed, in which
the unselfish Japs guaranteed the Independence
and Territorial integrity of Korea.
What more could any fair-minded man de
sire?
To have insinuated that Korea did not mean
a word of this guarantee, would have grievously
offended Senator John Sharp Williams, Senator
Swanson, Senator Fletcher, and the Honorable Mi¬
kado, of Japan.
The date of this promise to respect and guar¬
antee Korea's independence, was August, 1904,
eight years before "Woodrow Wilson promised to
smash monopoly, reduce the cost of hams, destroy
the small groups of Rich Men who wore ruling this
country—which he said would not be difficult—and
to lie content with one term.
Step by step, the trusty Japs advanced their
demands upon the Koreans, first taking control of
internal affairs, then of foreign affairs, and then
the Japs “annexed” Korea.'
It was in six years after Japan gave her writ¬
ten guarantee of Korean independence and territor¬
ial integrity, that Japan absorbed Korea and used
baypnets, machine-guns, heartless massacres ,«ndj
ruthless rapine to reduce the Koreans to submit
s ; on —just as England has done in Egypt, India,
Persia, Russia, and Ireland.
Don’t you think that Woodrow Wilson takes
you to be easy dupes when he asks you to trust to
the word of Japan?
Besides, the Imperial Government of Japan
issued Weekly
has not given any such pledge.
The most mysterious phase of the Paris Con
ference mas, the mastery exerted over it by th*
Japs.
When the Italians seceded from the Confer
ence, because of Fiume, the other Great Powers
ostentatiously assumed a go-to-h—II attitude; but
when Japan threatened, to withdraw, old man Wil¬
son, old Monsieur Clcmenceau. and that little old
liar from Wales, actually called for overcoats—they
had three separate chills, all three alike.
II hat is the explanation of this fear of Japan?.
The fact is apparent, and it is most disgrace¬
ful, but I am unable to explain it.
Wilson was brusque, if not insulting to Italy:
be was both brusque and insulting to the United
States Senate; it was with difficulty that he could
remember the King of Belgium; he wasn’t sure
that Portugal existed, but he was wide awake and
strangely obsequious to the Mikado of Japan
Eminent, lectures have often used flashlight
pictures to illuminate the statements they were
making.
For instance, when the speaker was describing
the ruins of Palmyra, or of the Egyptian Mem¬
phis. a picture was thrown upon the canvas, repro¬
ducing a photograph which made the lecture, more
vividly life-like.
Our great President has unintentionally been
served in the same banner, while delivering his
strings of assertions around the circle.
For example, he caused the good women t*
cry, by telling them that if the “ignorant” Sena¬
tors—who deserved the gibbet—should come to
their senses, and adopt the League of Hedjaz and
Liberia, the boys in Khaki would never again La
sent across the seas to fight for foreign countries.
To illustrate the truthfulness of our great, P.,
it. transpired that at about the time truthful Wood
row was uttering this statement.—which made the
women cry—he was secretly sending troops to Si¬
lesia, under the League of Nations.
And Senator John Sharp Williams flawed
upon the canvass another picture which much more
impressively...demonstrated, th© meaning, of the
league and the artless veracity of our great Presi¬
dent : it. was a bill to authorize the Secretary of
War to send 150,000 American “boys in khaki” to
fight the Turks and Kurds, in defense of the Arme¬
nians.
Thus the League is doing exactly what the
President said it would never do.
The, President intimates that, if he had nof
become Japan’s accomplice in the Shantung crime,
we would have had to fight France and England.
That's an awful charge to bring against the
the two nations we had just saved, at such a trem¬
endous sacrifice,
11V paid England an enormous price for her
carrying over the troops that saved her.
We paid France, for everything, excepting th»
use of the trenches our boys died in.
After having seen what these governments
charged us, for having spent thirty-two thousand
million dollars to maintain the soldiers who fought
for them, and having spent 300,000 young Ameri¬
cans to rescue them from annihilation, it may be
that President Wilson is justified in saying that
they would have turned their arms against us, at
the say-so of the Japs.
Nevertheless, he should have iaken the view
that nothing compelled him to become Japan’s ac¬
complice in crime: he. could have said to Clemen
ceau and Lloyd-Gecrge, “For are Japan's partners
in the secret treaty of London: l will have nothing
to do with it.”
But lie was eager for Japan's signature to his
hobbyhorse League, and he bought her signature
with the blood and the liberties of the Chinese prov¬
ince of Shantung— a province as big and as popu¬
lous as France
It is the foulest blot, upon our national record,
and no yian of sound morals can defend it, even
though he he a bishop. President
We had some hope that our great
would explain why conscription is forbidden to
Austria* and Bulgaria, but not forbidden to Ger¬
many. this difference?
What .is the reason for
Did France allow it. to Germany far France’*
vse, as her reason for maintaining conscription, hi
France?
That’s my guess: What’s yours?
Our great President does not. dare to tell yott
that France insisted upon the Gennan right t*
conscrip soldiers.
But if France did not, what nation did?
You can see the inconsistency of forbidding
conscription in Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria—
and allowing it in Germany.
Don’t you think you are entitled to know iJb
reason, when it involves the keeping of an Amen
(Continued on Pago Three.)
No. 53.