Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1920 — THE FATAL DIFFERENCE [ARTICLE]

THE FATAL DIFFERENCE

The fatal difference between the league covenant accepted and signed by 28 nations and the association of nations promised by the Republicans at Chicago is that the one actually exists and will continue to exist, while the other can never be brought into being. “We pledge the coming Republican administra~ tion,” says the concluding paragraph of the treaty plank of the platform, “to such agreement with the other nations of the world as will meet the full duty of America to civilization.” The, hardihood of this undertaking is stupefying, as Mr. Stevenson said of the impudence of one of his personages. The Republicans have pledged themselves to persuade some twoscore of the nations of the earth to abandon the league of which they are now members and to accept at our hands another covenant drawn up by ourselves, to please ourselves. They undertake to negotiate a new treaty altogether—a transaction in which Germany would have a great deal to say. They would make the

United States the real supergovernment of the world, dominating the globe and demanding submission to its views by all other nations. If the Republicans should come into power on the 4th of March next they will do nothing of the kind, attempt nothing of the kind. Mr. Root’s treaty plank was not drawn up with the view of any such colossal enterprise. He was asked to prepare a declaration that would effectively prevent a bolt by Johnson and Borah? He wrote his prescription with a view to accomplish that purpose and without regard to anything else whatever. It succeeded; it quieted Borah and Johnson. The last paragraph of the composition devours the first paragraph.

There is no promise of an association of nations, of protection for the peace of the world, or of any other desirable thing whatsoever in that plank. It gives shadow for substance. It is a nullity and must have been intended so to be, for otherwise it would never have appeased Borah and Johnson. It does this, however —it declares the hostility of the Republican party to the treaty of Versailles and to the covenant of the league of nations. It proclaims a policy of complete isolation for the United States, it puts the party on record as an unyielding foe to the noblest conception of an international policy of justice and assured peace that the mind of man has ever brought forth, a conception of higher worth than any Republican senator ever will present to the world. —New York Times.