Word: imperfection
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...jockeying for position that seems to be the sole occupation of the Senate! Ever since President Wilson returned last July with the peace treaty, the overwhelming sentiment of the nation has been for ratification in one form or another,--few have cared much what. Admittedly the document is imperfect, but nevertheless nine-tenths of the forms of American expression--the press, the pulpit, the colleges, the chambers of commerce, the leading public men, straw votes--for nine months have urged ratification...
...compromise is necessary to save the Treaty, it should be made. The Treaty cancelled means disorganization; the breaking down of that delicate structure so laboriously built up. If a compromise is the price of the Treaty no matter how imperfect that Treaty may be rendered, the great stepping stone toward international morality is well worth the price...
...voting today will be interpreted in many different ways. There will be a discussion of its sectional significance, of the point of view of the large and of the small college, and so on, ad infinitum. The forms in which the questions are submitted on the ballot are necessarily imperfect--it would not be possible to draw up a ballot representing all shades of opinion in the country--and will be construed by various factions in various ways. But on the real issue--Treaty or no Treaty--there can be no mistaking the verdict...
...only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment, as all life is an experiment. Every year, if not every day, we have to wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge. While that experiment is part of our system, I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes...
Spirituous liquors, then, must go, for in the only and imperfect way at our disposal, the people have declared against them. But are light wines, beer, and ale, "intoxicating"? Almost anyone would answer in the negative. Certainly it would take gallons of 3 per cent, beer to have the slightest deleterious effect. As for light wines, even were they intoxicating, their high price would continue seriously to limit their use, and to do away with their abuse altogether. We feel confident that if the Supreme Court of the United States interpreted the 18th Amendment as applying only to spirituous liquors...