The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1920-07-17

Editorial in The New York Times,


June 29,1920
~ The Republicans will lose their tenn
pers over the address with which
Chairman Cummings opened the Dem
0crati0 Convention at San Francisco;
they will lose the election il tire Demo-
Gratis name candidate big enough
and courageous enough TO make the
fight in the spirit Of that speech. From
this moment there can be no doubt
about the dominant issue OF the cam
paign. 1t is the League of Nations.
On that isue the Democratic Chairman
sounds Il challenge that will arouse the
enemy In their encampment. Mr..
Cummings wastes no soft words upon
the Republicans-they deserve none.
Of the wrecking Of the Treaty and the
League Covenant he, says that mo
blacker crime against civilization has
ever soiled the pages OF our history"
and he proves the charge.
1t is a terrific drubbins that he adj
ministers to the party responsible for
the rejection Of the treaty. The Re-
publicans may deny, they may evade
and squirm, they will certainty rage.
but they will not have time enough
between now and doomsday to excul
plate themselves from the specitica-
lions OF his Indictment. He tells of the
Committee on. Foreign Relations care
/ EuIly packed, against the, treaty: ot
| the Misrepresentation OF its purpCrt
and effect; of the falsehoods about .he
Presidents refusal to permit the dot
| ting OF ah "i'' or the crossing of a IT.:
| nf In, ~, 81,
by the President of amendments sug-
gested by Mr.. Taft, AR, Root and Mr..
Hughes; of the attitude of the ire
concifiables, like Borah, who used a
! bludgeon to kill the treaty, while
Lodge used poison; he points out that
/ it took the Senate nearly three times
as long to Kill the treaty as 1t did The
Representative OF the Allied Govern
n1ents TO make it.
! Mr.. Cummings sums up with tell-
ing effect the evidence to show that
I AMERICAN honor is bound up, in this
contest and that good faith requires
that we should enter the League Of
\ Natiohs." The establishment OF an
agreement among nations TO make
peace secure was the purpose we pro
claimed before we entered the war
7 When we entered the war, while we
! fighting to win the war. The Senate
: 'Iitself." he says, ION August ,2S 1915, by
unanimous vote passed a measure Re.
7 questins the President TO take the lead
IN such a world movement" He die
I take the lead, he gave to the United
states the moral. leadership Of tn,
woril," he brought back the treat!
and the Covenant which all the ma
: tions OF the world except revolutiopar,
Mexico, Bolshevist Russia, unspeak
able turkey and the United States %
!, America have found good enough fol
: their acceptance. And at Chicago thi
very men who slew the treaty, the mel
I who, in seeking partisan advantas
proclaimed a policy that would buils
Il Chinese wall aroun' this nation
caused themselves to lie 9ommendet
for his fearful ruin they had wrough
;" OF our national honor and reputation
, of the worlds hope.
Chairman Cummings does not de
; vote all his attention to the opposi
!, tion party. He reviews the achieve
! ments OF the two Democratic Admin
listratfons and he has no apologies I
MAKE. 1ntTe Is no neeu Oh dpolOS1e:
E II is in truth an extraordinary recort
and one Of the most convincing proof
t Of it's quality and souhdness is the fail
, ure of the Republicans to make an
effective attack upon it, More. tina
100000, 0,000.Q 600 passed through tn
hands Of, a Democratic Administratio
y during the war, =" and the finger Q
scorn does not point to one Democrat
offici ial In America" This record h
compares with the scandals in the lit
tie war with Spain, seriously to tn
= disadvantage of the party that is try
ing, with all its might to discredit tn
: Administration. There have been in
= vestigations there have been "smellin
committees" two million dollars ha
been spent in an effort to prove dere
liction, and the only Gignitary il
America of any outstanding politica
:, sisnitican nee who is moving in, the d'
} rectton OF the penitentiary is'-,n
Republican Senator from Michigan. b
whose vote that party was able to or
No National Chairman, OF elthe