Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-10-14
DEMOCRATS MOVE
To DISRUPT c. O.P.
WITH LEAGUE: ISSUE
Strategy Is to Drive Wedge
Between Republicans Fa-
voring and Those Opposing
Covenant
ny DAVID LAwpEMrE
(Leased Wire Service in The Journal.)
Copyright, 1920.)

~
Copyright. 1921 '
NEW YORK, Oct. 13.-Democratic,
strategy for October-the critical
month tf every presidential cam
paign-is to drive a wedge between
those Republicans who favor and
those who oppose the present League
Of Nations.
President Wilson has gotten into
the fight actively. This is all by
pre-arrangement. When Governor
Cox talked with Mr.. Wilson at the
White House just after The San
Francisco convention, it was agreed
that the Ohio governor should open
the campaign with series of
speeches in The west and that in
the meantime the president should
remain silent. The idea was that
there should be no confusion IN the
public mind as to the identity of
the leader of the Democratic party.
Indeed. Governor Cox was to ex-
pound his doctrines of leadership.
The statement from Mr.. Wilson
that he was in entire accord with
Governor Cox on the peace treaty
and League Of Nations was generally
construed as a su rrender by Govern
or Cox to the president. but the fact
Of the matter is that the Democratic
nominee told Mr.. Wilson his views
an dthe president expressed no OBJ
lection to the plan of campaign or
the ideas on reservations to the
peace treaty which Governor Cox
mentioned.
Time for Wilson to Enter
Now the western trip is over and
Governor Cox has given to the peo-
pie his own views on the treaty and
other issues unembarrassed by any
concurrent statement from the White
House. The time has arrived. how
ever, when the president can enter
the campaign. Governor Cox wants
him to do so. The issuance of u
statement denying what Senator
Spencer said about the proceedings
of the peace conference and alleged |
promises to give American military
aid to Roumania and Serbia was the
first step.
The controversy which ensued will |
day or two. Internationally it has
been badly handled. The facts are
coming out. AS usual 10Th sides
had justification for what they said.
Senator Spencer took a newspaper
account purporting to give an &C
curate copy of what the president
said.
Mr.. Wilson himself knew he had
never made such promises. The
writer attended the Paris peace con-
ference and remembers the difficult
ty which everybody experienced in
getting an accurate transcript CT
what was said in the open sessions.
Chance for Errors
This was because half of the pro-
ceedings was in French and the 9TH
er half in English. AS soon as Pres
ident Wilson finished speaking, Lieu
tenant MantouX, of the French army,
remarkable interpreter. would arise
and repeat in French from memory
almost verbatim but not actually of
course-everything that had been
said in English.
memory with long hand notes as
he himself was not a stenographer.
but while he did an extraordinary
piece of work, sometimes repeating
speeches Of half hours length
without interruption-he did not get
the English words. When the presi-
dent himself said that so far as he
knew, no actual stenographic tran
script of his speech was in exist
ence, he had in mind. undoubtedly,
the fact that what Lieutenant Man
toux said was taken down by French
stenographers and possibly trans
lated into English.
The copy which Senator Spencer
saw was obtained from French
sources and the existence of an
American version was unknown I'M
til Fred Carlson. Of Chicago, an
American stenographer, told that he
hand and was forwarding a copy to Z
the White House.
Correspondence With Taft
The discrepancy appears to be be-
tween specific promise of American
military aid to Rumania and the
ported by Senator Spencer. and a
general promise that if the world
should be troubled again as it was
in 1917 and American rights were
violated, the United States would not
hesitate to send a fleet and an army
to Europe once more to save civili-
cation. This is practically the same
thing as Senator Knox included in
his famous paragraph five in the
resolution he wrote as a substitute
for the, League of Nations
But the issuance of the documents
showing how President Wilson was
i'm frequent cable communication
with former President Taft during
the peace conference is plainly in
tended by the Democrats and by
the president himself as refuta
ton of the oft-repeated charge that
he never consulted anybody or that
he wanted the pact ratified without
the crossing of 1t" or the dottins
of an 81" exactly as he wrote it.
The white house has plenty of let
ters from Herbert Hoover, too.
which if published may place him in
an embarrassing position before the
country.
TT n WYE