Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1920 — A MISTAKE TO BE AVOIDED [ARTICLE]

A MISTAKE TO BE AVOIDED

If It is better to be right than to be president, then the Democratic legions and their leaders achieved a brilliant triumph in the campaign that ended November 2, for they were eternally right and their Republican opponents hopelessly wrong in regard to the Article 10. The fiercest fight was over the interpretation and effect of that article. The unanimous declaration of the league at Geneva settles that dispute for all time, and settles an express, repudiation of the construction

put upon Article 10 by tbe opponents of the treaty In the senate and by distinguished Republican Jurists who made speeches for their party's candidate. Tbe commission, in which all the forty-ohe member nations were represented. reported that “it can not too emphatically be stated that Article 10 does, not guarantee the territorial Integrity of any member of the league.” Eminent advocates of the election of Senator Harding insisted that Article 10 guaranteed all frontiers as they stand "AH It does," says the commission, “is to condemn external aggression on the territorial Integrity and political Independence of any member of the league,” as was pointed out thousands of times during the campaign. Again, it was insisted that under Article 10, if the league called for the help of American troops, they would go whether we liked the business in which they were engaged or not There was a deal of talk about “our boys” being conscripted to die in Europe. Denmark, requested by' the council to furnish a small contingent of troops for the Vilna service, replies that, while the partly lead ere Tavor granting the request, their constitution requires that the project have the approval of the Danish parliament. That reply was accepted as satisfactory. Thus again tbe Interpretation put upon the covenant by its friends was authoritatively sustained; that Insisted upon by Its enemies rejected.

The Joy of this triumph is exclusively for the supporters of the league. But that Is not the most important aspect of the matter. This decision of controverted points conveys a lesson by which the party soon to come into power should proftV We hope they will not project the passions and controversies of a domestic political campaign into the negotiations which will establish our relations to the league and to the other nations of the world. The fortyone nations now members of the league ardency and sincerely desire the admission of the United States. This is particularly true of the fereat nations of Europe, whose troops and ours fought together in the world war. They hope we will promptly Indicate what reservations or interpretations of the covenant’s meaning we desire. But they are not going to throw the league overboard or to submit to an entire rewriting of the covenant at our demand. Changes for which good reason can be shown they would undoubtedly accept, but they would be very little disposed to sanction amendments merely tq. clinch a party triumph. Our politics have nothing to do with the matter. We shall enter the league, if at all, as an equal among equals,, not as a dictator of tjie league’s organic law. The other nations want us, but they neither want nor need us enough to admit that they are inferiors and subject to our controlling will. —New York Times.

FAIRNESS FROM MR. HARDINO Tbe tone of Senator .Harding's speeches in Virginia on Saturday is all that could be wished He speaks like a man aware that the election is over, and that it is no time for either party glorification or party abuse. As one who is soon Vo be president, he takes pains to show his respect for the existing president This is a refreshing novelty, coming from a Republican. With the exception Of Governor Coolldge, not one Republican speaker in the campaign had a decent word for Mr. Wilson, even in the matter of the president’s severe illness. Perhaps tbe more excellent way now shown by Mr, Harding means the beginning of a change. Anyhow, the occasion for ranting and railing is past. Another example of fairness is set by Benator Harding which Republican congressmen and Republican newspapers would do well to copy. He sees the folly of blaming all our troubles upon a Democratic administration. The chief of them, declares Mr. Harding, are due to universal causes, to what he calls “the world tumult.” This is horse sense as well as fair play. The slowing down in trade and industry, the nervousness in financial circles, have increased rather than diminished since the tremendous Republican victory of November 2. It is clear that there is no miracle-working power in party to withstand the operation of laws. Mr. Harding knows that there will presently be a Republican administration to which the discontented will, after their kind, charge all mortal ills. It may be partly in anticipation of this, and as a protest against it, that he breaks the campaign habit of holding the administration in Washington responsible for droughty and floods and failures in business. It will be hard for austere Republicans like Senator Lodge to fall in step with the music played by Senator Harding. Implacable men in the senate, who have resolved never to. say anything kind of President Wilson so long as he lives, will note Mr. Harding’s words and attitude with something like consternation. Why. the man actually hints at the possibility of co-operating with the president in securing the peace of the world. To the severe and unyielding senators this* will seem most intoler able and not to be endured.—New York Times.