Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-18
BAKER TELLS OHIO
DEMOCRATS VIEWS
TOWARD LEAGUE
Convention Adopts Platform
and Pledges Observance
of Economy.
By the Associated Press.

! ticket was formally launched here
yesterday at the party's state con-
| vention.
! The convention adopted a platform
pledglng the party, if returned to
| power in the state, to rigid economy,
| enactment of a debt limitation law.
and a more equitable distribution Of
| taxes. 1t also heard addresses by Gov.
Cox, Secretary of War Baker, Sena-
| tor Atlee Pomerene and A. V. Dona-
hey. gubernatorial candidate, in ad-
dition to the keynote speech by NJ. A.
Daugherty of Lancaster, and selected
| twenty-four candidates for presiden-
tial electors.
Upsetting previous expectations
! that the two former governors. Jud-
son Harmon and James E. Campbell
would be chosen as electors at large
the convention went into the rank
and file and selected Oscar E. Brad
| fote of Xenia and James F. Malley of
Cleveland.
Baker Backs League.
In accordance with the formal an
nouncement of his purpose to discuss
during the presidential campaign ''some
| of the objections" which have been
urged against American participation
IN the league of nations. Secretary
Baker said:
When the suggestions based on
partisan feeling have been swept
aside, there remain but two or three
points which really deserve serious con-
sideration. The most important of these
| is that which is addressed to article X
of the covenant, which article, the Pres
ident has said, is the heart of the whole
| matter.
Harding have both repudiated the
Lodge reservations. for which they
have both voted, it does not seem
| likely that these particular reserva
tions will figure in the campaign ex-
cept as illustrations of the tactics
used to defeat ratification of the
treaty"
Whole Question on Article Ten.
Asserting that the whole question
voted himself to discussion of that
section of the covenant. saying that
he did not believe there could be any
league or peace or disarmament with
out 1.-The equivalent of article X in
the covenant accepted as a common
principle and obligation by all ma
tons of the EARTH
said, "misread into it some sort of fear
that it places the military power of the
United States at the disposal of the
council Of nations and will require
American armies to be sent overseas to
enforce guarantees of article Y without
there is nothing whatever in the cove
nant which seeks to change the power
given by the Constitution to Congress
alone to declare war.
while it might well be that in the
early stages of the operation of so great
a principle it might be necessary for the
great powers to show the sincerity of
their adherence to it. by actually en-
forcing it, any such occasion, so far as
the United States is concerned, would
have to be addressed to the sound wis
dom Of Congress. Meanwhile, the
would be able in all human likelihood
to make the guarantee effective by mere
weight of it's moral and economic
power
Without article x, Mr.. Baker said,
the league is vain,'' while with it the
lized agency" working to bring the
world into "just relationship
'"This is the article of the covenant
which, it is said. needs to be Ameri-
canized," Mr.. Baker said. 1T is Ameri-
can We invented it and applied it
the cardinal principle at issue in the
world war; our President formulated it
and forced it's acceptance; its principle
and it's purpose are thoroughly Ameri-
can"
Discusses Armistice Conditions.
Turning to arrnistice conditions ac-
copied by Germany. the Secretary said:
But all these questions were settled
once. We and our allies accepted the
declaration (the fourteen polntS) or the
President as an express condition.
The long delay in ratification of the
treaty has appeared to break to the
heart of the world the promise which
America made with it's lips. This
his round robin and his reservations;
it is due to Senator Harding and his
associates who voted with Senator
Lodge for reservations which they
have now repudiated.
But the democratic party in its
San Francisco platform has .restated
Americas cause. Our candidate has
with simplicity and directness, de-
clared his position on this subject
(the league) by saying I favor go
ing in"
If America is to participate in in
the beginning must be made before
the cement is set which binds the
rest of the world into family in
which she is not member" Ma
tional interest as well as moral duty
demanded, he said, that We now
decide"
Our action will throw the de-
termining weight into the scale pan
for America as we'll as for man
kind" he said. THE question is
whether America being in the world
shall be of it; whether she shall CO.
operate with other civilized peoples
in the maintenance of peace, or shall
draw herself exclusively aside, allow
the rules of the game of life to be
made by others and by failing to ex-
ert in advance her economic and
moral power be again obliged at |
even more frightful cost to suspend |
the processes Of her life and send
her sons to die in a struggle which |
the weight of her word, given in ad- |
vance, would have sufficed to pre- |
vent"
Question of Future Wars.
When the next war might come de |
ponds in large measure upon us and our |
action in this campaign" Mr.. Baker |
said.
'If we make it the business Of states |
men to avert war and equip them with |
agencies whereby war may be averted, |
it may never come he added.
While Americans spoke of themselves |
as a peaceful people, Mr.. Baker said, |
Jour own history shows that we have |
not been able to preserve our own
peace, much less that of the world, by
the old agencies which were much more
promising than Senator Harding's plan
of holding up pious hand and asking
The Su6arSaver