Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1919 — TAFT CRITICISES THE CRITICS [ARTICLE]

TAFT CRITICISES THE CRITICS

Former President Taft is causing the dry bones of the Republican Bolsheviks in congress and throughout the country to rattle uncomfortably by ihis exposure df the partisan criticism of these higher-up “reds” toward President Wilson and what he has accomplished at the peace ccmTerence. Last Friday at San Francisco, in addressing the closing session of the Pacific Coast Congress of the League to Enforce Peace, he replied to opponents of the plan to establish a league of nations, and referred to an open letter addressed to him by Senator William E. Borah of. IdaJho, which questioned the efficacy of the Monroe doctrine in ©vent the league of nations plan ■was adopted. “Senator Borah wants to know in what he calls an open letter,’ said Mr. Taft, “whether I would consent to a league of nations in which the Monroe doctrine is not recognized. I will answer him by saying that I would like to have the Monroe doctrine acknowledged specifically by such a league, but if a recognition of its principles is contained in the covenant for such a league I would not object to the form on which it is put. “Article X of the covenant drafted in Paris extends the Monroe doctrine to the entire world and gives It the backing of the entire world. Consequently it recognizes the Monroe doctrine and I am Int entire support of that covenant. . "What I would like to aek Senator Borah is this: ‘lf he insists upon the specific acknowledgment of the Monroe doctrine In the covenant of the league of nations and If such recognition is given It In the covenant as finally agreed upon In Paris, will he vote for a treaty based upon the covenant .as amended?* "The wild words of Represents-

tive Fess and Senators Reed and Poindexter, \hot out into the air on the theory that the- people of this country do not read and that they will accept their words unquestioned, would be humorous if they were not the utterances of eminent and learned gentlemen.” Mr. Taft left San Francisco Friday for Salt Lake City to attend the mountain congress of the League to Enforce Peace. At Sacramento the following day dispatches state; “William Howard Taft, president of the League to Enforce Peace, today gave out a statement in which he reiterated his statement that those who oppose the league of nations covenant on the ground that we should maintain the so-called policy against entangling alliances have a narrow vision of bur national duty.’ ”