The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1920-10-22
TRUE TO PLEDGE
HARDING REAFFTRMS HIS
STAND ON LEAGUE
Declares Democrat Would Veil
Failures At Home With For
eign Issue
IAssociated Press pispatch. ]


Rochester, N. Y, October 21-Mak-
In New York state, Senator Harding
here today again challenged his dem
ocratic opponents to show by his pub
lie utterances where he has changed
his position on the League Of Nations
since he accepted the republican
nomination. Restating, his stand, he
declared the nation cannot take
seriously the democrats insistent
claim that the covenant shall be con-
sidered or accepted as 1t stands" and
added that for such a rejection" he
had stood unfaiIngly. He asserted
that he had favored consistently an
International association in the inter
est of peace, but could not under
and specific plan.
True To Pledges.
;"I am not that kind of a candidate"
-he continued. ut is easy enough for
a candidate, who is going to lose, to
say almost anything about League of
Natiosn or any future plans for Am
erica.
1.-THE democratic forces have para
mounted the solemn referendum of
our foreign relations and we have
gladly accepted. but that does not
blind us to the fact that 1t is design
ed to divert attention. from the un-
happy failure of domestic admins
tration. The great and solemn ref
erendum will not make the American
people forget the tragic mismanage-
>ment Of their own affairs, because
they have long since passed Judge
ment OF. our foreign relations
Consistent In Views.
Surely the American people can
not take seriously the democratic in
sistence that the Paris convenant
shall still be considered, as platform
and candidates insist, for acceptance
as 1t stands. Such rejection has been
twice recorded. ] have repeatedly
spoken such rejection from the day
OF accepting my nomination with un-
failing consistency.
But have never stopred there. 1
challenge contradiction. invite any
mans parallel of utterances, which
are not In accord. have unfailingly
said that we wish to associate with
other nations to end war and promote
and preserve peace. The other nations
OF the world are wiser than our prin-
cipal opponents. They have accepted
the fact that there is no hope of
united Americans, or even substan-
t,al minority behind the impossible
proposal that We should accept the
covenant as written. The foreign ma
lions have set their faces to future
So must America So must every
friend of new and better order
Awaits Mature Judgment.
IF | believed in attempting to ex-
rTess the purpose of the American
people before being clothed with auth
GRITTY to consult them, IL desired
to dictate to foreign nations, 1t would
pc possible for me to suggest new
league and say to the nations Of the
earth and to my native countrymen:
Take this or take nothing. But I am
not that kind of a candidate, No man
In my position, with any conscience.
Whatever, or any sense OF his res
possibility could have the affrontery
or the lack of craftsmanship, which
would allow him to present a. plan
which might have to be revised be-
cause of happenings In a rapid flow
of events, or because the public opin
lon OF America had not been consult
ed sufficiently.
Il trust that 1t will not be i'm
proper for us to consider as a hypo
thetical question where the country
would md itself in regard to the
League of Nations even IL nv oppon .
"NAS OANNION. HC vel IdI6SI CONE
er into politics knows very well that
is numerically impossible for my
opponent to obtain, whether from his
party OF fsom mine, enough votes in
the senate to make good his program.
or evenA remotely approach success
IN making good his program"
Possessed of New Faith,
How is 1t possible to take serious
ly then this frantic effort to divert
our attention from that chaos in our
home affairs into which the democrat
experiment has led us? It has been
my duty, therefore to present a con-
structive program which will put our
house In order. say to you, so that
there shall be nothing vague nor in
definite about the difference between
ourselves and our opponents, that thev
have set their affairs and entangIed
our prospects and endangered our
prosperity and even menaced our
right to call our American souls and
minds and bodies our own. The re-
publican party and America. with an
ideaiism which limits itself to wis
dom and possibility flooko fo.uuard =.