The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1920-11-03


what we had promised in advance.
The refusal of Mr.. Wilson to accept
the Lodge, or similar, reservations to
the League covenant which he had
made was too much like the school
master who will not take suggestions
from his pupils. The League of Ma
tions as written by Mr.. Wilson is un-
American in it's provisions, and in the
minds of men like Elihu Root (the
greatest lawyer in the world today
and admittedly non-partisan in his
views in these matters) entirely mad
visable and unacceptable.
This League of Nations covenant,
against the advice of Bryan and other
leaders, Mr.. Wilson insisted should
be submitted to the voters Of the
country in a "great and solemn ref
erendum" as the one and paramount
issue of the campaign. 1t was so sub
mitted, and the people rendered the
verdict. The grounds upon which it
was rendered, and the reasons of the
decision are (D Wilson and (2) the
League of Nations.
The third reason for the result was
Cox and Roosevelt, the one smart
ward politician and the other fool.
Although the democratic platform
made the Deague of Nations the issue
and although Mr.. Cox accepted the
nomination to make the race on this
issue, he started out his campaign
with the ridiculous charge that the
republicans were trying to buy the
presidency and had raised fifteen mil
lions of dellars for the purpose. The
amount he later raised to thirty mil
lions. The mud-slinging campaign
continued fer awhile, and then, hav-
ing seen. Mr.. Wilson and having let
the announcement be made that they
were Gin accord" on the League of
Nations covenant, he defended it for
awhile, and then squirmed and in the
end was willing to sit down with
Judge Taft, and Mr.. Root, the Senate
Oligarchy, (Which he had roundly
abused,) and reason the thing out,
and to accept any reservations neces-
sary to get the United States into
the League. On top of this came the
vicious attack on the ancestry of
Senator Harding. A college profess
sor in Ohio, selected, it is believed,
because he is libel proof, got up
fake family tree of the Hardings, in
tended to show that the republican
nominees grandmother was a negress.
Thousands of copies of this matter at
somebody's expense were printed in
circular form and scattered through
out the country where it was believed
the race issue would cut figure. The
matter was whispered about for a.
while at first. 1t is stated that even
the White House was approached
with regard to the advisability OF
making the charge public, and that
Tumulty showed the ambassador the
door. He would have none of it, and
neither would Woodrow Wilson, had
the matter come to him. The New
York Times, the greatest newspaper
of the country, the supporter Of
Woodrow Wilson, came out boldly
and charged that the whole statement
was false and that it was the dirtiest
piece of politics since the charge that
Abraham Lincoln was an illegitimate.
But Mr.. Cox and his newspaper
could not follow the Times and Mr..
Tumulty. It is true that Cox denied
having anything to do with circulat-
ing the statement, but he did not do
the thing which high-minded man
like Woodrow Wilson would have
done under the circumstances, and
which any decent man would have
Gore--expose the fallacy Of the charge
and denounce its perpetrators, a
thing be it said to their credit mos
Of the democratic papers Of the coun-
try did. 4 man who is willing to ac-
cept the benefits of a vicious attack
ike that IS unworthy to hold any Of
,ce much less the highest executive
{ Cice in The world. The people of the
United States have so declared.