Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-04-15
The Foolish Calpmnies
OF asDetsated Clique


T HE public can hardly have failed to
observe with amusement that the
A gentlemen who are leading the gas
attack against Georgia's' senior Senator have
grown strangely silent upon the issue with
which they launched their campaign, and on
which, indeed, they sprofessed to be waging
the entire contest. A fortnight ago it was
the Senator's attitude toward the League of
Nations that stirred their ire and called forth
their volleys of abuse. That his war record
was above reprOach sand that his services to
business, agriculture and education were ex-
ceptionally substantial they could not gain
say. But, they would vehement!y cry, he
is against the League covenant without
reservations He insists upon modifying
Article Ten! He has voted with the Re-
publican majority against = the Presidents
wishes Chat he voted with the Democratic
majority also and that it was the union of
unbending anti-reserVationfs and bitter
enders" which finally kept the Treaty from
passing, the Senator's enemies failed to
,tate.) -
AS to the merits Of that decisive vote they
themselves had nothing to say; for as a
matter of fact they knew and cared as
little about Article Ten as Cobb county
calf cares about Hal1ey's~ comet. Neverthe-
ess they induced Attorney General Palmer
% come down and plead their case, and
sven W Ou6f up himself as L06lr candidate
Wen, the Attorney General came, saw and
collapsed. He had expected, of course to
md great issue to- argue and a genuine
cause to champion. But scarcely had he
ailghted amongst his unhappy clients when
he found that the issue in their minds was
an old bitter, local feud- utterly irrelevant to
national questions of1the hour, and that the
cause dear to their hearts was the political
loayes and fishes on (which they dreamed of
casting II haply they might push their little
r1hn NH
20 daunt and disgust ,aesfars less Quakerish
spirit than Mr.. Palmer's. Z He discovered
moreover. that the people of Georgia are not
so fervidly enthusiastic over the League COW
enant in precisely the form in which It came
from Paris. as he had. been led to believe
indeed, as he faced audiences here and there
ne would detect a csTain chilliness toward
the idea that reservations aare all ubiquitous
md that the Treaty should be ratified just as
the Executive Department desires, regardless
OF what the Senate Believes. "Chiliness,"
we say. If he had taEried while longer and
looked bit further he would have found out
right and far-reaching hostility. He would
have found it, not only amongst those who
regard the League plan without reservations
as unjust and dangerous to American !nsti-
tutions, but also amongst those who are so
heartily for the larger@prineiple and purpose
of the League that they~eeffsider it indefen-
siby wrong not to accept certain modifica-
lions in order to save the great ideal frcm
utter T0J6CLlOn.
1t is on this ground that The Journal has
stood from the day itSbecame evident months
ago Qong before the present contest in Geor-
gia was dreamed of)sJhat there could be no
treaty and no covenant without substantial
+. reservations. 1t is upon this sane ground
that the rank and flesof the Leagues frmest
friends have taken their stand. l. was 10
this end that twentY-three Democratic Sen
ators, among thenfs Senator Hoke Smith,
voted for the TreatEss adoption along with
the reservations ItEwas- against this end
that the other Denrncratir Senators Joined
with irreconcilables Ike Borah and Reed and
prevented the Treatyss adoption. And it was
that very policy, that unbending illogical, ir-
oncilableaattitude, that the Georgia enc
mics of Senator Smith undertook to defend
when they launched their campaign.
But whereas at the outset they were
yoluble and violent on the Representations
issue, they have grown as silent thereon as
Hindenburg battery ION the afternoon of the
armistice. Something has shut up their Big
Berthas. Something has persuaded them tC
leash in their yelpiRg convictions" on Arti.
Gle Ten. The fact is;tof course, they care nc
less for the League covenant now than at the
beginning, because they never cared at all
They have simply discovered that Hoke Smith
cannot be worsted before his fellow Georgians
upon that question. He has left his enemies
without an inch OF raIlylng ground on thell
great original issue.
Wherefore they have drunk deep of the
. "moonshine" liquor of wrath and plunged in
to a veritable spree of SANDER. Though the
senior Senator supported every war measure
from first to last, Including the Selectivt
Service act on which some Of the loudest o.
his present traducers stood in sheepish neu
trality, they call him disloyal. Though HI
voted, even prior to our entrance into the
war for the resolution to arm American
merchant ships that they might shoot U-boat
at sight, and argued for this resolution will
such warmth that he came near a persona
difficulty with LaFol1ette, they shut thei
eyes, choke down their conscience and cal
him "pro German" They attribute TO hin
statements touching the Lusitania, which h
never made, and then. proceed to denounc
him for those statements notwithstanding
that they themselVes-gave utterance at tn
time to precisely the@sentiment which the
now condemn as pro .,Prussian." Senate
Smith never declared that ''the Unite'
states should not 60 to war with German.
because of her having sunk the good shil
Lusitania." But one Of Senator Smiths bit
terest assailants in the present campaign di
declare in cold print; just twenty-four hour