Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1920-08-24
HARDING FALLACIES REGARDING
LEAGUE EXPOSED BY PRES. PLANTZ

The League of Nations is a para
mount question in this coming, presi-
Dental campaign. That our readers
attitude, we take the liberty of print
! ing recent article written by DR..
Samuel Plantz, president of Lawrence
college. for The Milwaukee Journal,
and which appeared in that newspa-
per on August 18th. DR.. Plantz is an
educator who is known not only in
Wisconsin, but throughout the
country Many local people know
him and have faith in his judgment.
The article follows:
By DIR. Samuel Plantz
president of Lawrence College, APP
pleton, Wis, and lifelong Republi-
CAM
written for The Milwaukee Journal
The views of a presidential candf-
date on the problems of the hour are
matter of greatest concern to all
right thinking Americans, and especi-
ally when some of these problems in
volve the welfare of the human race,
as does the question of the League of
Nations, the principal issue in the
present campaign.
A study of Mr.. Harding's positions
on this question, therefore, is especi-
ally important just now when he is
, being interpreted so differently by
friend and foe, due largely to lack of
clearness of statement, consecutive
ness of ideas and definiteness of poll
cy in his speech of acceptance.
I1ax fsnf
his record during the past year in the
senate, his acceptance speech, and his
two more recent front porch addresses
on the League, we shall find that his
main positions can be summarized as
follows:
/. He opposes the present League
as supreme blunder" on the ground
that it was conceived for "world-
super-gOvernment," that it is um-
American, involving us i'm dangerous
foreign alliance which will promote
war rather than give peace, and that
il is military alliance based on
force.
=. He believes I'm separate peace
with Germany made by a Joint resOlu-
tiOn i'm congress similar to the Knox
resolution for which he voted.
3. He proposes to try and get the
nations to overthrow the League and
form a different "aSsOciatiOn of ma
tiOns cooperating i'm sublime accord
to attain and preserve peace through
Justice rather than fOrce.''
What Analysis Shows
Let us briefly examine the sound
ness of these positions:
l. AS stated above, Mr.. Harding
holds the League as super govern
ment,' dangerous to the republic -
I'VE Republicans of the senate, con-
scious of our constitutional obliga-
tiOnS, when we saw the structure of
world super-government taking vi
sionary form, joined in a becoming
warning for our devotion to this re-
public" Mr.. Harding here as else.
where deals i'm assertions and does not
file particulars. 1t is much the easie,
course. But is the statement true
% The League is the product of the
foremost statesmen of % nations, rep
resenting diverse political ideals and
aspirations, all eager for national in
| tegrity and progress, and adopted by
unanimous decision. Is it reasonable
to hold they have constituted super
government inimicable to their own
government?
! (2) The covenant was submitted by
Mr.. Wilson to the committee on for
J eign relations. to four or five leading
I Republicans, among them Mr.. Root
and Mr.. Taft, and was given to the
senate. No criticism of super-sover-
| eignty was made. but il came i'm as an
after thought. Why did not the COM
mittee on foreign relations and Mr.
Root and Mr. Taft see this danger tC
our independence and our liberty?
/ go France advocated League
which had super-sovereignty with a
directorate and a great police force OF
| perhaps a million men who could be
sent to settle disturbances in any part
of the earth, but its delegates were de-
feated by the representatives of Other
nations on the ground that it would
involve super-sovereignty, to which
] they objected, and on the ground that