Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-09-22
CALIFORNIA
GETS BEHIND
LEAGUE PLAN
Wilson Leaves State Tri-
umphant With People
Won Over to Pact.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE,
Especial to The Argus1

President Wilson leaves the Pa
cffic coast triumphant. That is an
extreme statement TO make and
viii be disputed by those who look
at the League of Nations as a po-
ntlcal question or as somehow
! akin to the prestige or political
| fortunes of Woodrow Wilson. But
the idea, not necessarily the man,
has triumphed. Such demonstra-
tons of enthusiasm not only, but
7 quick perception of the logic of the
argument, such readiness to accept
the plain language of the treaty of
peace, rather than the differences
and implications read into the doc
ument by men who seek not its re-
vision or perfection. but it's abso
lutte defeat, such spontaneous &C
claim as the Pacific coast has CIV
en- editorially, vocally, politically
and otherwise can have but one
meaning to anyone who forgets the
hypocrisies of both the Democratic
and Republican parties and their
respective demagogues and OBJ
serves mass impulse, mass reason
ing and mass demand.
Beet Speech of Tour,
In many respects the best speech
which President Wilson made at
the auditorium in Los Angeles was
the best of his whole tour. Not
because so many Johnson men
stood with him and cheered, not
because Republicans predominated
in the meeting, not because Cali
fornia felt proud that she had cast
the deciding electoral votes which
made woodrow Wilson president,
but because the sheer force of his
explanations on Shantung, on the
question OF six votes for Britain to
Americas one, and the policy of
isolation or partnership caused a
deep reaction against the men who
are now believed to have misrep-
resented the contents of the treaty
itself, an unforgivable thing in an
intelligent electorate like Califor-
mia.
Senator Hiram Johnson Is the
strongest political figure in the
state. Were there an election to-
morrow and domestic issues in
volved, he would carry the state.
but his own friends have told me
that they feared he would not be
successful on the league issue if
1t were put to a vote, and they
were not altogether sure some per-
manent damage had not been done
to his remarkable prestige by his
tactics in the League of Nations
controversy.
Answers All But Russ Question.
Practically every argument which
Senator Johnson has made but one
was answered by the president
while he was in California. Mr..
Wilson failed to explain why Amer
lean troops stayed in Siberia and
why more of them were still sail
ing for Russia The anti-Ieague
newspapers are offering that con-
crete fact OF the present as against
the presidents promises of the flu
ture and the president has not yet
given an idea of what the United
States government is driving at in
its Siberian policy.
But as to the other points made
by Mr.. Johnson. while the presi-
dent did not mention the junior
senator from California by name.
nevertheless his audiences seemed
familiar with the senator's argu-
ments and were intensely eager to
hear Mr.. Wilson'S answers. The
president made even clearer than
he did at San Francisco the back
ground OF the Shantung award.
Shows Faults Of Old.
He told how Germany, Russia
France and Japan had each com
PEELED China in 1898 to give them
territory for long periods of time,
most of them for SO years, and how
helpless China was forced to give
up her sovereignty in these leased
territories. He told how the United
States under William Mckinley
and Secretary John Hay did not
make a protest and he said that it
was not because Messrs. Mckinley
and Hay would not have done so II
they could, but that under interna-
tional law they could only express
their interest with respect to
American trade and equality of
commercial opportunity. He ex-
planned too, how Japan forced Rus |
STA out of Port Arthur in the Russo |
Japanese war and how Russia ced- |
ed the territory to Japan, while !
America, through President Roose- |
Velt, helped bring about the peace |
negotiations of that war at Ports
mouth, New Hamp hire, felt power
less to interfere. Now Mr. Wilson |
pointed out, japan did the same
hing at Kia Chau that she did at |
Port Arthur. She drove her enemy |
1ut but she was induced to do so by |
Great Britain and France, who, |
needing her naval assistance in the |
Pacific, promised by solemn treaty |