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GOODWIN'S WEEKLY 3 I 1 countries of western Europe to pieces and thus bring down the whole European structure of civilization into one general ruin. It is a threat that makes a new European war imminent. i If Wilson had not insisted upon interweaving his League of Na tions with the peace pact this second war which looms like a world f enveloping cyclone in central Europe would not have gained head Way. We can imagine either of two situations as having prevailed. Either the Germans, two or three months ago, would have ac cepted the terms or rejected them. If they had accepted Bolshevism f would not have had a chance to acquire momentum. If they had re fused Foch would have marched to Berlin and thence to Poland and Bolshevism would have been without power to resist effectively. What is the situation now? Wilson's sacred covenant has drawn out the peace parleys so long that Bolshevism has already begun what may amount to another world war. In that war we may be involved by the very nature of the covenant. How long will this war last? Who shall say that it will not ndure in varying phases for a generation? As the terrifying panorama unfolds in Europe the dimmest pol itical vision can see why we should not involve ourselves. The war is jto be between the Haves and the Have-nots. In Russia, Hungary and f the Teutonic countries the Haves and Have-nots have already tried conclusions and the Have-nots seem to be in the ascendant. It is not merely a case between individual Haves and Have-nots but between nations that "Have" and nations that "Have Not." The bankrupt nations, backed by their bankrupt peoples, are looking with avaricious frenzy upon the nations which still possess sufficient assets for liquidation. - ' "The Microbe of Bolshevism attacks defeated nations, but not victorious ones," said President Poincare of France recently. Let us assume that he is right and that France and Italy are safe ' from immediate revolution. What of the future? The microbes of ', Bolshevism are just beyond the Rhine. They may be defeated today, but they will wax fat on -the corpse of central Europe and multiply V by millions. Apparently the only way to crush them is by warfare, by fighting that may continue for many years. Are we to plunge into this maelstrom with the frail lifebelt of the League of Nations as our only protection? Or, to change the metaphor, can we hope by pouring the oil of the league on the ocean of European anarchy to still the waves to perfect peace? n r t r WILSON'S RESPONSIBILITY. 1 WHEN President Wilson returned from France, rich with the honors and gifts of kings, he made one or two statements which seemed excessively modest. He said that the American draft of a cov enant for the League of Nations has been rejected and that the British draft had been accepted. The covenant was new to us then and be 1 cause we were just beginning to see the sinister tendency of the salient articles the real purport of the president's statement escaped analysis. 1 In the covenant adopted at Paris the most far-reaching article is Article 10 which guarantees the territorial integrity and existing political independence of the nations, member of the league. L It fastens upon the United States an obligation to make war to T "respect and preserve, as against external aggression, the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all states, members of the league." I Is it possible that we have forgotten those familiar words ? They I occur again and again in the president's "fourteen points." They are 1 employed with reference to the Balkan states and the new Polish state which he proposed and Point 14 is as follows : "A general association of nations must be formed, under specific covenants, for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political V independence and territorial integrity to the great and small states alike." That is the keystone of the arch. Without it the entire structure of the League of Nations would be changed. Why, then, was the president sq, willing to admit that it was the British idea which finally was adopted?: , Vas it because he desired to shift the blame? Was it because, having involved his own nation fl so inextricably in the "entangling alliances' of Europe, he wished to I distract attention from his own culpability? Or was it because he had H been outgeneraled by the British and sought to shield himself from I derision here at home. r. fl Certain it that the basic article of the league is the president's ! own. And equally certain it is that Great Britain grappled that H friendly article to her breast with hoops of steel, for it promised to H afford an undreamed-of power for the protection of the far-flung I British empire. H At all events the president did not whisper a word about his own H responsibility for an article which has so alarmed and offended the 'H American people. H But there is another explanation. Editor Harvey says the original H fourteen points were of British origin. H M THE NEW TYRANNIES. I WHETHER Berlin has the autocracy of the kaiser or the dictator- H ship of the working class the newspapers must do as they are H told. Freedom of the press is just as strange to the Teutons as any H other kind of freedom. They do not understand liberty because they H have had no training in it. When one kind of absolutism triumphs H over another the people have no opportunity to study the operations H of free institutions. H Berlin has just appropriated all fortunes over 10,000 marks and H will pay the owners but 3 or 4 per cent for the remainder of their lives. H It has also "nationalized" the newspapers. The people's commission- H ers declare that the liberty of the press something that Germany H never has possessed would in nowise be curtailed. They add that H In this way the press continues to be the slave of the government. H The only difference in its status is that it must call the "proletariat" H master in place of the emperor. H The workmen of Russia who adhere to Bolshevism or some other H form of red socialism frankly admit the one-sidedness of their govern- H ment. They believe in "class distinction" and "class hatred," and the "class struggle." The idea of "equal opportunity" and "no special H privileges," which is our shibboleth, makes no appeal to them, at H any rate not for the present. They concede that they are establishing H their rule by force because they believe, as earnestly as do the kaiser- H ists, that might makes right. H But even in its ultimate forms socialism will not guarantee lib- H erty. It is based on a wholly different idea. Just as the old German H imperialists declared that the individual existed for the state so H the socialists decry individual liberty of action and insist that the H individual must do what he is told by the power above him. No or- H ganization can exist without discipline and the most delicately com- H plex organization ever conceived by man is socialism. If one wheel H goes wrong the engine "dies." H It would seem that these elementary principles should have been H understood at the outset by the Russian Bolshevik leaders, and per- H haps they did understand them, but for a long time anarchy' was per- H mitted among the laborers although all other classes were rigorously H repressed. If socialism does succeed in establishing itself in Russia H or Germany and setting its machinery in operation the workman must submit to a discipline without parallel for rigor in our industrial civi- H lization. H In our country a new system is developing out of democratic H industry. In the east many factories have already adopted the co- H operative method of operation. The employes take charge of many H phases of the operations that intimately affect them. In some dis- H tances, through their own organizations, they even employ and dis- H charge the workers. Whether the system will meet with success only H time can reveal, but it is clear that it is a natural development of in- H dustry in a land where the "class struggle" is repudiated and wrier0 H liberty cherishes as its ideals "equal opportunity for all." H In this country we sometimes see a writer work himself into a H rage over the "subsidized press." Pie asks indignantly if that is H "liberty , of the press?" According to the criterion of equal oppor- H aJtm