Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 57, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1920 — AT LAST HARDING HAS SPOKEN [ARTICLE]

AT LAST HARDING HAS SPOKEN

Senator Harding, the Republican nominee for president, goaded by a heckler at Des Moines, la., a few days ago, came out at last flat-footed and said that he was in favor of staying out of the league of nations. He said that he ‘‘wished no acceptance of the league, with reservations to clarify American obligations” that the proper course would be to reject those commitments altogether. “I do not want to clarify those obligations,” he said. “I want to turp my back on them. It is not interpretation but rejection that I am seeking.” This is the clearest and most straight-forward statement that the candidate has yet made and pulls the last straw from under the hundreds of thousands of Republicans who had hoped that their candidate would be for the league with some sort of reservations and that he was only playing for the support of the Johnsons, the Borahs,' the, Brandegees, the Hearsts and the Vierecks by his previous unintelligible statenients. - Now that Mr. Harding has spoken and we know what to expect in the event of his election, the question naturally presents itself to the thinking man. or woman, with some 41 or 42 nations already members of the league, what will happen to the United States if she stays out? /In self-defense aren’t we forced to become members even though we might not wish <to join the league of our own free will? It is a matter of self-preservation, and unless we want to be classed with Rus; sia, Germany and Mexico and share the fate that the other powers of the earth could inflict on non-mem-bers, if they desired, is it not - good sense to go in with good grace and reap the benefits and bear our just share of the responsibilities?