The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1919-08-01
WILSON OR REED-WHICH?


Reduced to its simplest terms, SEN
ator Reeds bitter attack on the Pres
ident and the League of Nations
means nothing more than an effort TO
gather into one political group the va
rious malcontent elements of the
Democratic party and hold them in
leash for services in the presidential
campaign of 1920. Senator Reed is
less interested in defeating the League
of Nations than he is in defeating the
leadership of Woodrow Wilson. He
is less interested in Saving" the Unit
ed States from "entangling alliances"
with kings and the decadent mon
arches of Europe" the "niggers of
Liberia" the Ambitious yellow races
of the Orient" than he is in controlling
the Democratic National Convention.
He talks threateningly of "Third
Party" in the event the League Of
Nations covenant is "driven through"
the Senate, but what he actually is
thinking about is not a Third party
but a Democratic party (save the
namely in which his voice will be more
potent than Woodrow Wilson's voice,
and in which the voice of Germanism
will be louder, we believe, than the
voice Of Americanism.
Signs already are plentiful that he
is not confirming his efforts at control
of the Democracy Of Missouri to the
mere mouthings of the platform, but
that he already is devoting himself to
secure and hold it by practical means.
The Missouri State Democratic Com
mittee, seemingly at Reeds dictation,
last week voted to remove it's head
quarters from st. Louis to Kansas
City, where it will be more directly un-
der his eye and more subservient to
his will. II elected an avowed pro-
Reed man for its secretary. The anti
Wilson element of the party Is ac-
lively grooming a candidate for ma
tionai committeeman.
In the group backing Reed already
may be found the "old guarders", the
representatives Of special interests,
the "hard liquor" crowd. the personal
1iberty"-iites, the brewers, the pro-
Germans, the extreme Irishmen who
believe, or profess to believe, that
America should go to the length of
risking a war with England in order
to enforce their views of the tragic
problem of Ireland's freedom, wheth-
err not the Irish themselves are agreed
on the method by which freedom
should be established or by which it
could be maintained.
Cunning and sophistry can go no
further than Reed and his followers
are carrying them in the effort to di-
vide and regroup Democrats in Mis-
souri, and elsewhere, for personal and
selfish reasons. And it would be idle
to say that their efforts will be futile
and wasted. 1t would be little less
than criminal to underestimate the nu-
merical and political strength Of the
elements which are rallying to Reeds
banner in Missouri and to the banners
of his co-agitators i'll other States,
1t may or may not be important that
the Democratic party control our gov
committed most of the sins of inef
ficiency and disorganization. 1t has
neglected opportunities of statesman
ship and patriotism and has mega
tived and in many instances flouted
er or not the Irish themselves are
a decade, that of Woodrow Wilson.
But as an instrument for etfectuat
ing the ideals and visions Of its great
leader it still has remaining oppor
tunity for service to its country, re-
naming chance for self-perpetuation
That opportunity and that chance
lie in the support of the Wilson lead
ership, in the rebuke and destruction
of Reddish and the thing Reddish
masks, pro-Germanism. Paltering and
frittering at this task will bring ruin
to the party, not alone W Missouri
but in the nation.
Failure to act quickly and by inten-
sive organization to check the spread
of party treason and party surrender
which Reed and his followers are
practicing can mean only one thing,
the death Of the party and, what is of
vastly greater Importance, the cruel
fxion of the country itself.
Woodrow Wilson's is the greatest
mind the Democratic party has ever
produced. Desertion of him at this
time, failure to uphold his hands, to
practicable and effectuate his vision
would be far more than a party dis
aster. 1t would be world disaster.
Whom will you follow, Wilson or
Reed st. Louis Star.