The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-09-08
CARRYING FIGHT
ON EXTREMISTS
Wilson Would Destroy Argu'
ment Of Men Wanting
Neither League Nor
Treaty.
CANNOT FORETELL RESULT

Westerners still Loyal TO
President in His Intense
Desire for Peace.
(BY DAVID LAWRENcE.)
En- Route to Omaha, Sept. s.
Copyright for The Chattanooga
News)-President Wilson elicits a
friendlier response. q heartier greet
ing and a progressively earnest
enthusiasm for the fundamentals of
his errand as he moves through Mis-
souri,. Iowa and Nebraska-in that
section Of America where go hand in
hand a contempt for party politics
and an Impotence to remove for all
time the obstacles to a permanent
peace. Nothing seems to strike the
big audiences as more apropos or
opt than denunciation Of the party
maneuvers that keep the American
public perplexed and bewildered
about national and international
policy. One might have thought the
roof was coming down when the
president Increasingly remarked to a
packed audience of $4,000 people at
st. Louis that he sometimes wishes
both parties might be smothered in
their own gas" And again at Kansas
City and at again at Des Moines,
Mr.. Wilson took occasion with ex-
cellent effect to say that the treaty
and the league Of nations were by no
means a party matter. But the trou-
HE is a didactic statement like that.
while 1t proclaims a principle which
the people like to hear. doesn't leave
them any better informed as to why
the treaty Is being blocked than they
were before Mr.. Wilson came. They
haven't forgotten the criticisms
leveled at Mr.. Wilson himself in his
selection of peace commissioners to
represent America at Paris, nor are
they unmindful of the fact that the
democratic party in the senate sup
ports the treaty and league almost to
a man and apparently seeks no res
ervations or amendments whatsoever.
while the republican party disagrees
almost entirely with that viewpoint
and wants either to tack on explana-
tory reservations or amendments or
to kill the whole thing-treaty and
all.
Has Not Drawn Limo.
The president has set out 10 fight
the extremists, those who want
neither league nor peace treaty. those
who say the peace terms too cruel
and that the world would be better
off II the whole pact failed. These
are the men whose argument Mr.: VIII
son is seeking to tear to pieces. but
he has failed thus far clearly to
draw line between the extremists
and mild reservationists of his OPP
position and has in thoughtless mo-
ments, dropped his reserve and
spoken OF the amazing ignorance" of
his opponents, and Of ''pygmy- minded
and small visioned men," which cpl
thets have not served hitherto in es-
tabllshing friendly relations between
the executive and legislative branches
Of the government.
Once. at Des Moines and Kansas
City, the president spoke OF those
who were conscientiously opposed 70
provisions Of the treaty and were
exercising their legitimate right to
scrutinize its contents, but before he
ceased his speech he had character
ICED their hesitation as based upon
Why So Tender Of FeeIins7
But Mr.. Wilson's friends ask why
Mr.. Wilson should be 80 tender Of the
feelings Of tho men who are pass
lively or otherwise failing to a7sert
their disagreement with that ;tion
in tho republican party which is, to
his mind, misrepresenting the treaty
as a breeder Of wars and as too
cruel to impose upon Germany.
They add that only a few months
ago the republican party won con-
gresional election largely on the pro
gram Of Unconditional surrender"
and an assduously spread appre-
hension that tho president favored a
soft peace They declare that the |
republican senators who arc con- |
demning the treaty have in large part,
therefore, froved that their objec-
tons to the LEAGUE are derived from |
a sense Of political opposition rather
than conscientious disagreement.
Are They lneonsistenicea
But, speaking of inconsistencies, 1t |
may be the strain of extemporaneous
speaking or the saturation of argu-
ment and thoughts carried away from
his visit to Europe, but Mr.. Wilson is
himself forgetting from one night to
another the substance of some por-
tons of his speeches. For example, at
the Coliseum at st. Louis, he went
to considerable length to explain
that this was a commercial war;"
and that Germany feared rivals would
wrest her trade from her, but last
night at Des Moines, the president,
to make another point, said the bank
ers and business men of Germany did