u
THE BEE: OMAHA, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1919.
f
)
r t
I- - '
Thee
and
Now
1918
1919
When our men were fighting in Europe, and the Fourth
Liberty Loan was being floated, President Wilson, speaking
in New York, asked:-
"Shall the military power of any nation or group of nations be suffered to deter
mine the fortunes of peoples over whom they have no right to rule except the
right of Force?
"Shall strong nations be free to wrong weak nations and make them subject to
their purpose and interest?
And said:
"Ho man, no group of men, chose these to be the issues of the struggle. They
are the issues of it; and they must be settled by no arrangement or compro
mise or adjustment of interests, but definitely and once for all and with a full
unequivocal acceptance of the principle that the interest of the weakest is as
acred as the interest of the strongest."
President Wilson,
Hew York, September 28, 1918.
When the War was over, and the Peace Treaty with its
intertwined "League of Nations" was presented to the
United States Senate for acceptance or rejection, President
Wilson said:
"Engagements which contemplated any disposition of territory, any exten
sions of sovereignty that might seem to be to the interest of those who had the
power to insist upon them, had been entered into without thought of what the
peoples, concerned might wish or profit by. And these could not always be
honorably brushed aside. It was not easy to graft the new order of ideas
on the old, and some of the fruits of the grafting may, I fear, for a time be
bitter."
, President Wilson,
Washington, July 10, 1919.
Have the Fundamental Principles of Right Changed Since 1918?
OR
Has the Continuance of the United States as a Republic Become
Contingent Upon the Proposed League of Nations, so that Com
promise with Principle is Essential for Self-Preservation Sake?
Or is it that to protect the far-flung possessions of one of our associates in the late War, we are to accept a British-drawn
League of Nations, throw Washington's advice against entangling alliances in the discard; endanger or abandon the Monroe
Doctrine, and pledge our children and their childrens' children to the maintenance of that seething mess of European
intrigue which drove our fathers to this Continent?
Lulled with the belief that President Wilson's promise of "self-determination for all peoples" meant justice for the land of
their fathers, meant the recognition of American ideals of Liberty and Equality for all in that Land, the citizens of Irish blood
among you have had a rude awakening.
Alive now to the danger which threatens this Republic they would have the country aroused to the cry of
America First!
For with perceptions quickened by seven hundred years of contact with England they see: England gorged with the spoils of
conquest, but affrighted at domestic unrest, seeking a partnership with the United States which would bind us to maintain the
territorial integrity of the despoiler.
Such a partnership, if partnership it be with one vote for the United States and six votes for the British Empire, could avail
naught to the United States of America, for we seek no territorial aggrandization, and it must certainly mean sacrifice of prin
ciples which President Wilson restated less than a year ago principles upon which this Republic has grown great and powerful.
For Instance: Are we tb accept partnership with that Empire which holds Ire
land in military subjection against the expressed will of the people
by
"Troops equipped with lorries, armored cars, tanks, machine guns, bombing planes, light and heavy artillery, and,
in fact, all the engines of War lately employed against the Central Powers?"
Atrocity Charges,
American Commission on Irish Independence.
To which the best answer the British Government could make was:
"The equipment mentioned is normal in these days. As regards equipment, the troops in England are similarly
equipped, as also the troops of our Allies, including our American Allies."
Answer of Sir Ian Macpherson, Chief Secretary for Ireland,
speaking officially for the British Government.
For America's Sake Let Your Senator Know Your Views.
s
PUBLISHED FROM
THE IRISH VICTORY FUND
UNDER THE AUSPICES OF
FRIENDS OF IRISH FREEDOM
ani ASSOCIATED SOCIETIES