The sun., 1919-09-07
THIRD TERM HINT IN
KANSAS CITY TALK
Wilson Asserts He Will Fight
for Covenant "Whether
in Office or Not"
AGAIN RAPs SENATORS
Holds That the Cause He
Pleads Is Greater Than
Ratifying Body.
Bv a stor Correspondent Of rur sus.

Bv a star Correspondent Of TIE Sun.
KANSAS CITY, Sept. 6.-President Will
son has expressed at no time more
plainly his fever to stake the United
States of America against the roulette
wheel of International politics than to-
day In this city when closing a speech
before $4,000 persons in Convention Hall
he said:
81 have come to fight a cause greater
than the Senate. greater than the Gov
eminent; a cause as great as mankind
i intend, In office or out, to fight that
battle as long as I live
Thousands of his hearers left the hall
asking themselves what he meant by the
phrase 'fn Office or OUT and not many
could escape the surmise that the master
of the Democratic party was serving
notice that II the Senate rejected or
amended the treaty he would run again
for the Presidency
The address in Kansas City, the
people of which received the President
with all of the respect and pride due
TO the great office, was the most in
teresting of the trip so far. for the
President touched on many matters Of
present acute interest and continued to
display that acrimony toward opposition
Senators which has been fiavoring his
speeches on this tour.
Appeals for Armenia.
He denounced the Bolshevik control OF
Russia with the full rhetorical power of
which he is master, crying out violently
against the brutality of the thirty-four
masters of Russia, 'men who represent
nothing but themselves" The President
appealed for immediate ratification of
the peace treaty to save Armenia, DE
cause It is an open question as to whether
ha
while we debate" He charged that lit
tie groups Of selfish men were plotting
the future of America, as little groups
OF selfish men had plotted the future of
Germany, and he meant to destroy the
power of all such groups-'political Boil
shevlsts" he called such-with a very
obvious allusion to his opposition In the
United States Senate.
One of his central arguments to-day
was that a League of Nations, including
the United States, forever would solve
the troublesome problem of the Philip
pine Islands, because, he said, the Philip
pine Islands then would be under the
protection of the league and need not
fear external aggression, thus removing,
he left II to be inferred, a possible cause
Of conflict between the United States
and Japan.
AS he has done wherever he has faced
~
ton of business men, he uttered the
threat that II the United States remains
out OF the league she must reconcile
herself to vast standing armies, crushing
taxation, an autocratic Government and
regime of spies, and he spoke scorn-
fully of the men who approach this
question with private passions, party
passions. who look at the thing with the
jaundiced eyes of persons who have some
"a ~ hal
Predicts Moral Gfbbeting.
These persons so Enthusiastically in
clined, these political Bolshevists," had
not been able to see the great vision"
they could not call up the shades of the
fathers as he could and catch the echoes
of the voices of Washington and Hamil-
ton and Jefferson and the Adamses re-
joicing that the American spirit had
captured the world" Much to the con-
trary, indeed, for those lost ones of a
dead age were just negativeists who could
construct nothing, and heradded without
a smile to relieve the set severity of his
ceuntenance, when in the annals of
mankind they are gibbeted they will re-
greet that the gibbet is so high"
The President thrust his opponents1
into two classes, the first a highly Of
fensive and decadent class, composed of
ID,
and partisan narrowness, the political
Bolshevists"; the second class made of
men honestly opinioned. he was inclined
to think, since he once had admired
them, but now very ignorant. With the
latter class he had he said. no quarrel.
and he denied that he had an intolerant
spirit. Here he seized the opportunity
to flash forth one of those bellicosities
which invariably arouse cheers.
tl.a hAN IF rYpxr IN a
top of my head I've got fighting spirit.
My ancestors were troublesome Scotch
men. Some of them were Covenanters.
Here Is the covenant of the League of
Nations. 1 am a covenanter."
Weapon of Isolation.
There was a great deal in his speech
which had little enough to do with the
direct controversial points of the League
of Nations. points which Mr.. Wilson con-
tinues day after day to refer to as mere
Incidents" spots examined with mi
croscope" by ignorant men. The fact is
his principal arguments were to buttress
parts of the treaty with which few per-
haps have quarrelled seriously. The
speech as II enveloped the League OF
Nations, centred around this main point,
that if the United States went into the
league the United States scarcely ever
need Iear war SINCE lne OTBanlzeu power
of the world would be ready instantly
to subdue evilly disposed nations, not by
military force but by the terrible weapon
OF complete isolation. Wherever the
President goes he emphasizes that idea,
that boycott. isolation, process OF suf-
location, would be so terribly effective in
preserving world peace by sitting trouble
makers that war virtually would be un-
thinkable.
Kansas City gave the President a
handsome welcome. The people made a
holiday of II, emptying the factories. col
oring the streets with bunting and even
admitting Republicans to some degree of
participation in the festivities-a con-
siderable concession. The friends and
devotees OF Mr.. Wilson were inclined to-
look upon the large street throngs and
the great audience In Convention Hall as
marked evidence of Partially for the
cause of the League of Nations and
smiled more broadly than 1t had been
their opportunity to smile since the Pres
identisl special reached the middle West.
But this view did not recognize the stub
badly split in Missouri, is all at sea over
the league question and that the Re-
publican party is distinctly anti-league.
Senators solidly Supported.
Senator Reed has q strong following
among the plain Democrats of the State
no matter what the party organization
may do under urging from Washington.
and Senator Spencer as solid backing
for his opposition. Nor Nover, the spirit