of sweetness
and light in which he grew up.

"I am a jingo myself. But a wicked material jingo, who wants facts, not
theories. If I thought it possible and that it would pay, I would annex
the North Pole and colonize the Equator. It is, after the manner of
the lady in the play, that the President 'doth protest too much,' which
displeases me and where, in point of fact, I 'get off the reservation.'

"That, being a politician and maybe a candidate, he is keenly alive to
votes goes without saying. On the surface this League of Nations having
the word 'peace' in big letters emblazoned both upon its forehead and
the seat of its trousers--or, should I say, woven into the hem of its
petticoat?--seems an appeal for votes. I do not believe it will bear
discussion. In a way, it tickles the ear without convincing the sense.
There is nothing sentimental about the actualities of Government, much
as public men seek to profit by arousing the passions of the people.
Government is a hard and fast and dry reality. At best statesmanship can
only half do the things it would. Its aims are most assured when tending
a little landward; its footing safest on its native heath. We have
plenty to do on our own continent without seeking to right things
on other continents. Too many of us--the President among the rest, I
fear--miscalculate the distance between contingency and desire.

"'We figure to ourselves
The thing we like: and then we build it up:
As chance will have it on the rock or sand--
When thought grows tired of wandering o'er the world,
And homebound Fancy runs her bark ashore.'"

I am sorry to see the New York World fly off at a tangent about this
latest of the Wilsonian hobbies. Frank Irving Cobb, the editor of the
World, is, as I have often said, the strongest writer on the New
York press since Horace Greeley. But he can hardly be called a
sentimentalist, as Greeley was, and there is nothing but sentiment--gush
and gammon--in the proposed League of Nations.

It may be all right for England. There are certainly no flies on it for
France. But we don't need it. Its effects can only be to tie our hands,
not keep the dogs away, and even at the worst, in stress of weather, we
are strong enough to keep the dogs away ourselves.

We should say to Europe: "Shinny on your own side of the water and we
will shinny on our side." It may be that Napoleon's opinion will come
true that ultimately Europe will be "all Cossack or all re