New-York tribune., 1920-08-08
1--WE Should Diminish
Our Cost for Armament

am convinced, after considerable
study OF the subject, that the expense
or the government can, without loss
OF efficiency, be reduced to a maximum
OF tour billion dollars, including sink
ing fund and interest on the national
Heot' H when we enter the League of
Nations we should at the same time
olminlsh our cost for armament. To
IUhc'nue 20 expenditures in either the
war or the Navy department on a
vast scale, once our membership in the
league is assured, would seem to be a
very definite refutation of the advan-
11sages of the world plan which we be-
iieVe 1t possesses. An appealing
fundamental in the league method is
the reduction of armaments. We can
not afford to do it until other nations
DO likewise. If we do not enter the
league hundreds of millions of dollars
must be spent for armaments. If we
go in, and | believe the people will in
slst on it, then we can count on econ
omies.
Since the last national conventions
OF the two great parties a world war
mas been fought, historic, unprecedent
ed. For many, many months, civiliza-
tlon hung IN the balance. In the de-
spalr of the dark hours it seemed a,
l.
table, and that henceforth men and
women who had lived in freedom would
stand at attention, in the face of the
drawn sword of military autocracy.
Credit of Winning War
The very soul of America was touched
as never before with fear that our
liberties were to be taken awav. what
America did needs no reiteration here.
1t IS known of all men. History will
acclaim lt-poets will find it an inspira-
ton throughout the ages. And vet
there is not a line in the Republican
platform that breathes an emotion of
pride or recites our national achieve
ment. In fact, if a man from Mars
were to depend upon the Republican
platform or its spoken Interpretation
by the candidate of that party as his
hrst means Of information, he would
not hnd syllable telling him that
the war had been won, and that Amer
lca had saved the world How ungen-
erous, how ungracious all of this is;
how unfair that mere group of lead
ers should so demean themselves in
the name of the party of Lincoln and
Mckinley or Roosevelt!
Inc dlscourtesy to the President is
an affair of political intrigue. History
Will make it odious AS we'll might it
be directed at wounded soldier Of the
war. One fell in the trench; the
strength of the other was broken in
the enormous labors of his office. But
others were ignored the men and
women who labored at home with an
industry and a skill that words can
not recount! What of the hands that
moved the lathe by day and the needle
by night?
What of the organizations. superb
ly effective, that conserved food and
fed the world=that carried nourish-
ment to the very front trench in the
face of hell's furies-that nursed the
wounded back to life-that buried the
dead in the dark shelter of the night
that inspired business men and artisans
of all parties to work in harmony ?
What of the millions of men, women
and children of all creeds, religious
and otherwise, who stood in the ranks
as firm as soldiers overseas, undi-
vided by things they once quarreled
about? What of the government it
self-contirming the faith of our IA
theirs as sufficient to meet the storms of
time?
Why Sheer at Labor?
Why the sneer at labor with the
veied charge that it was mere slack
cI he SpcCtdClc is SulICieHL W Gull
vince any unprejudiced man that the
Republican leaders who have taken
charge of their party and nominated
its candidate. are no more possessed
Of the spirit of the hour than they
were in 1912. when they precipitated
revolution within the rank and file
of a great organization. If further
proof were needed the action of the
present Congress supplies it. Not a
constructive law can be cited.
Money and time were wasted in seek
ing to make military triumph an obi
Gus chapter in history, and yet is 1t
not significant that after two years
of sleuthful inquiry there was moth
ing revealed in that vast enterprise,
carrying billions of dollars in expense,
upon which they could base even a
whisper of dishonesty?
The Mexican situation, trying to our