Omaha daily bee., 1919-09-21
JOHNSON ENDS
|. TOUR AGAINST
LEAGUE PACT
Makes Three Addresses ii
Twin Cities. Many Turned
Away; Wishes Roose-
welt Were Alive.

Minneapolis, Sept. 20.-(By The
Associated Press.)-With three ad-
dresses in the Twin Cities today,
Senator Hiram w. Johnson conclud-
ed his speaking trip through the
middle west opposing the ratification
Of the league of nations covenant in
its present form. At noon he adj
dressed a large gathering at the
Metropolitan opera house in St.
Paul and at 4 p. m. he spoke to the
Lincoln club in Minneapolis.
Tonight the climax of a strenuous
day of speechmaking was reached
when he addressed mass meeting
which packed the Armory in Min
neapolis. Many were turned away
unable to find standing room. May
or J. E. Meyers introduced Senator
Johnson at the armory meeting.
where the Californian was cheered
for several minutes when he entered
the hall.
Answering President Wilson's
statement that Theodore Roosevelt
would favor the league of nations
were he alive today, Senator John
son said:
Need of Roosevelt.
/, "Mr. Wilson, hard pressed, quoted
yesterday Theodore Roosevelt. Oh,
| if Roosevelt were only here. The
nation never needed him more His
commanding personality. his lofty
patriotism. his love for and pride in
our nation. his verv personality typ
ical of our republic, his loyalty to
the great cause of democracy, his
fearlessness in attacking any d.
vided allegiance to our country. his
red-blooded Americanism, would
have made short work of the un-
American thing which Mr.. Wilson
seeks to foist upon US. How strange
and weird and unnatural it seems
for Mr.. Wilson to quote Theodore
Roosevelt. Thev have ever been the
antithesis of each other. /.
Zone with clear vision and TN.
erring wisdom saw the possibilities
of the great world war and our in.
terest in it. The other with feeble
and habby phrases preached the doc,
trine of neutrality in deed and
thought. Roosevelt, when it was
unpopular to do so, denounced
wrong and aggression, broken ma.
| tional faith and ruthless militarism
Wilson, for three years before we
got into the war, was unable to tel
for what the nations of the. earth
were fighting and told us each side
was battling for the same hidden
cause.
| Failed to Vision.
"For two years and a half he
neither saw nor understood the un.
DERIVING forces in civilizations IT,
tanic struggle. Unmoved and un
touched he witnessed the crime
againt Belgium and the ASSAULT
upon humanity. He now speak:
learnedly on the initial phases O
| the conflict, the actuating reasons
the roots of the cataclysm. Unit
the beginning of 1917, he told diff
ferent tale and spoke another story
| 1t is only now, when the exigencie!
of his league demand another pre-
sentation, with a wholly differen
background, that he reverses his ut
terances from 1914 to 1917 and as
sumes now to tell US the causes o
| the war, the underlying forces o
| the ruthless militarism which
bounced upon an unsuspectine
world, and paints a picture utterly
the reverse of that which he painted
to the American people for nearly
three years. And during all thi
time Roosevelt clearly saw and HI
sounded his trumpet call to thu
| American people of preparation fol
| the inevitable, while Mr.. Wilson il
utter indifference or with unseeins
eyes, again and again publicly stat
ed that both sides were fighting to
the same unknown reasons and tina
justice substantially rested will
neither.
Scorned Wilson's Ideas.
"Of course, Mr.. Roosevelt, like al
the rest of US, would have gone fal
to have prevented war. But wher
any man says that he would for /;
single instant have accepted thu
pro-British document which woule
put the country he so dearly loved
within the power or direction, com
mand or Recommendation of foreign
nations, that man affronts the rev
cred memory of Theodore Roose
welt. None who knew Roosevelt
none who talked to him during hi!
last days but know that his hear
and his soul revolted at Mr.. Wilson's
internationalism and Mr.. Wilson's
endeavor to subordinate to foreign
nations the American republic.
"The debate in congress yesterda,
, indicates that gradually the issu'
which the proponents of the leagu
. have ever sought to obscure is be
coming increasingly plain. The abb
: and disting uished senator from Min
nesota boldly announces that he be
lieves in maintaining our troops il
Russia and Siberia and that upol
us is the moral responsibility at leas
Ito maintain the new nations set vi
by the peace treaty.
No-Moral Responsibility.
"If a moral responsibility exist
for US to protect and preserve an
maintain these new nations, the re
I sponsibility also exists to protec
them with our power. And if thi
responsibility exists, it means n
: matter how much we may say tina
: we deem the responsibility onl
: moral, that American troops mus
for all time in the future, wheneve
it be necessary, patrol threatened ma
; tons in Europe.