The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1920-07-01
CUMMINGS MAKES
KEYNOTE SPEECH
The LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND
TREATY ARE DEPICTED AS
THE DOMINANT ISSUES
RAsps REPUBLICAN MAJORITY
0haraes "OId Guard" Sold the Honor
Of America For Privilege Of Nom-
mating a Reactionary.

San Francisco-Making the peace
treaty and the league of nations the
dominant issue Of the coming presl-
Aantial campaign, Homer Cummings.
rs temporary chairman Of the demo
cratic national convention at the op-
~ning session, delivered the keynote
speech. Cummings devoted half o.
his time to q discussion Of the treaty
and it's reception by the senate. Cum
mfngs praised democratic ach1eve-
ments of the past eight years and ut
kered ringing denunciation of the re-
publican party.
Speaking of the league OF nations
rlank in the republican platform,
Cummings said:
cit praises without discrimination
all the republican senator's who par
ticipated in it's defeat. It's words OF
benedicticn fall alike upon the lrrecon-
cileables, the Lodge reservat1on1sts'
the mild reservationists and those
who proposed a separate peace with
Germany. It is enough to know
that the old Guard sold the honor or
America for the privilege of nomi-
mating a reactionary for president.
After naming the nations that have
ratified the peace treaty, Cummings
said:
what nations stand outside? Rev
O1utionary Mexico, Bolshevist Russia
unspeakable Turkey and the United
States of America"
ho
senate Of conspiracy to defeat the
treaty because they were moved by
n strange and inexplicable jealousy of
the president"
Speaking of the sacrifices President
Wilson made for the treaty, he said:
Congress was in session for months
while the president lay in the White
House struggling with terrifying ILL
ness, and at times, close to the point
of death.
"The president made every sacrifice
Tor the cause of peace" Cummings de-
clared, while at home there was
widespread propaganda making it i'm
perative that be take up in his own
country a struggle for the preserva-
ton of that which had been won at in
calculable cost Following the SUI
perhuman labors fseven years Of
unexampled service, this meant the
wreck of his health-and worse than
physical sickness, the sickness Of
heart which comes from the knowl-
edge that political adversaries are
gavagely destroying the hope of
settled peace. This was the afflic-
tfon-this the crucifxion"
Cummings detailed the achievements
Of the nation during the world war.
He gave all credit to American pa
triotism and added:
'tBut surely the time has come
when, because of the calculated criti-
cism and the premeditated calum-
MES Of theopposition we are entitled
70 call attention to the fact that all
Of these things were achieved under
the leadership of great democrat
and the great democratic administra-
ton.
I'VE have no apologies to make,
not one" he said. I'VE are proud of
our great navy; we are proud Of our
splendid navy; we are proud of the
power Of our country and the manner
In which that power has been used.
~ And we are proud Of the in
spired and incompatible leadership
OF Woodrow Wilson.
Cummings said the republican plat
form seeks to same and besmirch
this shining record of tremendous
achievements" He referred to the
various congressional committees as
smelling committees"
"Over 80 Investigations have been
made by congress and over $4,000, 900
wasted" he said, land the one result
has been to prove that it was the
cleanest war ever fought in the his
tory of civilization"
despite all their Investigations
he said, mot one single democratic Of
4cial has either been accused or even
suspected.
Cummings referred to those who
complain at the great money cost of
The war as "pitifully cramped in sou1.%
Regarding preparedness re said
that in a strict military sense a demo
cracy is never prepared for war but
that America was made ready in a
way that was far more effective than
by maintaining at enormous cost
great ornaments, which neither party