Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-06-11

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leaders will show at san Francisco that
they are not slow to take advantage
| of it.
There is no use pretending about this
pusillanimous piece of rhetoric. IT is
1 an error of the first magnitude. For
/ the sake Of plaCating dozen senator's
of the johnson Borah typ" tho plank
rcpudates the action Of three times
! that number who voted consistently to
accept the league covenant with pro-
tcctive reservations. There is no doubt
about it, Mr.. Taft pointed out the
situation in advance. His logic is
irrcfutablc. The convention has shown
the white feather under threat of
snlit lust as some of these same irreCOn-
rilabIc senator's did 50 long aS they
dared when the nation was getting ready
to enter the war.
Analyzc this precious bit Of indrcc-
tiou. Read il over sentence by sentence
and see.
II begins with n declaration that the
party stands for agreement among the
nations to preserve the peace of the
world. Fine. Good words, we'll
rounded. Everybody will say ay" to
that. Properly ono would expect the
authors to proceed to explain wherein
the agreement among the nations al
ready signed by every power, large and
small. except the United States Of
America. fails to do that very thing.
But do they? They do not
Instead they indulge in palpable
pIatitudes that might have been written
bv callow commencement orator in
Stpad of full grown men. But it is
meant TO be adrot The nsinuation is
that the covenant has none Of the vir
tues which are grandiloQucutly outlined
as desirable.
The one real concrete statement Of
challenge is a mere generalization which
the Democrats certainly will call upon
the Republicans to prove. and that is
where it says tho covenant is certain
to produce tho injustice, hostility and
controversy among nations which it
proposed to prevent
But tho prize bun of all is the pa =
troni2ing declaration that the scna =
tors performed their duty faithfully
without Spcrifying which Republican
senator's are meant.
Does this praise refer to Johnson and
his group Of bitter -Cnders, or to the
throo times larger group of reserva =
tiOniSts? Il cannot mean both, because
they stood for diametriCally opposite
poSitiouS on the covenant. Yet that is
the effort.
If it means Johnson & Co. it is a
condemnation Of the great ma iority OF
tho Republican senators. including tho
permancnt chairman of the convention
himself, Mr.. Lodge.
II it rcfcrs to the rcscrvationistS, il
is condemnation Of the irreconCilablcs
and We have the iubilant words of these
statesmen themselves that it does moi
offend them.
Probably the best that can be said q
this patent hypocrisy is that it is pal
for guIls and infants, and that thosc
who like it may swallow as much a
they will,
We'll. then HcIroaring Hi has hac
his vindication. Much good may it dc
: him, for it will help the party none.
The question now comes Of what tn
nominee of the party will do about it
, The answer depends upon the choice o
' the man. With such cross eye,
$ declaration upon the most importan
: issue before the country. he can IL
: pretty much as he pleasos. II h.
n should chance to be Hoover. ho roul,
Il do the sensible thing, ignore III" hom
bast and fustian of the words aud ac
t ccpt the present League of Nations wit
@ whatever reservations he deemed nccos
r sary-and these he has already outline
e rlearly-to protect the interests of til
Q United States. II he should prove T.
It be Johnson, he could interpret it Il
d Mr.. Hearst wants him into a dNnunria
e ton of all things European, Asiati
I. and Latin American.
IS That is all there will be to it. Th
= nominee for President must decide tn
OIL League of Nations issue.
il As for the rest Of the platform. it
~ generally as good as could be cXDprtod