The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-10-27
WEDNESDAY, ocToBER 81, 1920.
Qualification and Cox.

Ever since PRESIDENT WILSON
framed Article X. and boosted to his
own countrymen that he had inter
woven supergovernment with the
peace treaty by so many knots and
stitches that it could not be dissected
out without destroying the whole vital
structure he has been engaged in what
he and Governor Cox alike call
Identification.
To the process of Qualification" he
has devoted all the resources of his
agile intellect and specious rhetoric;
oil the momentum of his invincible
vanity of will.
He began to clarity when the
treaty makers of the Senate, repre-
scented by the Committee on Foreiea
Relations, attempted at the White
House conference a year ago last sum-
mer to ascertain what his Covenant
really meant; his artfully interviewer
Covenant for which he demanded they
should vote as the price of peace.
The result of that Qualification was
very general understanding among
President WILSON'S previously Gewil
dered and hesitating fellow citizens OF
the exact nature of his conception and
dream of the future of an American
Government subordinated to an inter
national overlordship.
In particular, they learned that the
obligation they were hidden to under
take, the treaty contract to fight at
the call of the new supergovernment
for foreign interests and alien causes
with which this Republic would have
no proper concern, was an absolutely
compelling moral obligation, superior
In the authority of its exactions- to
any merely legal engagement
This step toward Qualification was
perhaps the most important yet ac-
complished. 1t set forth clearly the
central and vital fact regarding Ar
ticle X. In Mr.. WILSON'S scheme for
the nations hereafter. Although
neither he nor any other advocate of
league supergovernment could blink
the constitutional powers of Congress
TO declare war or to refuse to declare
war, the theory Of an absolutely COM
Polling moral obligation cut under the
constitutional provision and inyall-
dated 1t. For it Is obvious that IL the
treaty engaged us to send troops at
the call Of the Council to fight for
foreign boundaries, the absolutely
compelling moral obligation would be
upon the Congress Itself and the only
choice of the Congress would be be-
tween national dishonor and obedience
to the upergovernment's call.
Among the patriotic Senator's whose
questions to the President on that
memorable occasion served most to
bring out clearly the accursed nature
of the compact President WILSON pro-
posed to his country were HARDING of
Ohio and BRANDEGEE of Connecticut
and KNOX OF Pennsylvania and BoRAH
OF Idaho. They and the other Sena-
tors who stood with them were the
real clarifers The debt Of our people
to them is impayable.
The President soon took the stump
for further Qualification, and began to
denounce the opponents Of his Cove
nant as contemplate cutters and to
describe them rs ''pygmy minds" /;
with increasing intensity of vindictive
lcpithet up to the time OF the unfortu-
nate breakdown Of his physical
powers.
The thing to be kept in mind is that
all professions OF willingness to ac-
cept clarifying and helpful" explana-
tions OF the interviewer text, however
they may be styled. whether explain
atory resolutions or clarifying and
helpful reservations, are pure bun.
combe. There exists fixed intention
10 put through by Governor Cox's
agency the Covenant Mr.. WILSON
brought back from Paris after having
told tho Peace Conference, without
warrant Of truth, that no had come
with mandate, with definite lnstruc-
lions he dared not disobey, and that
no represented the American people in
his demand that Europe should join
us in creating such league.
So the American voter will not be
greatly impressed by Governor Cox's
latest shift of phraseology with re-
gard TO the League Covenant. His
Huntington speech of Monday is as
hollow as any tub that was ever cast
10 a whale. He Is willing, he says,
if elected. to "sit down with the SEN
ate and make an agreement" on the