Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-08-29
HARDING CLAIMS LEAGUE OF NATIONS
 COMPLETE FAILURE
Continued From Page 1

! --------~~--~ most reluctance and with grave mis- givings, as l announced at the time that voted to accept the league covenant with reservations designed tc preserve our essential liberty of nation. The record is made and un- der the same conditions confronted by the same alternative, I should vote now as I voted then.
 "But the conditions have changed Experience has brought enlighten ment We know now that the league constituted at Versailles is utterly impotent as a preventative of wars It is so obviously impotent that it has not even been tried. It could not survive a single test. The ori- ginal league, mistakenly conceived and unreasonably insisted upon, has undoubtedly passed beyond the pos sibility of retoration."
 "Now, it may appear to you that I have been speaking chiefly in the negative. l make the admis- sion. What is more. 1 might con- tinue to do so almost indefinitely without disadvantage to our cause So many things have been done by the present expiring administration that no power on earth could induce me to do, that I cannot even attempt to recount them. may remark casually, however, that if should be, as I fully expect to be, elected president of this just and honorable republic, I will not empower any assistant secretary of the navy te draft constitution for helpless neighbors in the West Indies ane ] jam it down their threats at ths ponit of bayonet, borne by United States marines. Nor will misuse the power of the executive to GOV CT with veil of secrecy repeated acts of unwarranted interference 1T domestic affairs of the little repub lies of the western hemisphere.
 l "On the other hand, l will not ol shall not, as you prefer, submit t' any wrong to any American citizen with respect to either his life ol property by any government. Thi
 statement is made in all so1emnity with emnity for none and friendship for all. If it particularly applies t Mexico, the application has been di
 rected by the robbery and murder O
 hundreds of our own people in tha unhappy country.
 Two Types of Policy.
 "This admonition is not directed
 exclusively toward our next doc
 neighbor to whom we would gladl.
 hold forth helping hand. It is in tended for a plain notice to ever, government on the face of the eartl
 that the entire resources of this ma
 tion are pledged to maintain the sac rcdness of American lives and tn just protection of American property "The line of demarkation betweel our attitude and that of our politica
 opponents is perfectly plain. Tn president has made his position clea by his action no less than by hi words. He still holds Article Ten t. be the heart of the covenant. S. does the democratic platform. S
 does the democratic nominee. IT.
 assume that the nominee would ac
 cept the reservations rejected by tn president and denounced by the par
 ty platform is to impugn his integri
 ty.
 "For myself T do not question fo:
 moment the truth of what the dem
 ccratic nominee says on this subject
 He has flatly said "he was in favol
 of going in" on the basis announced
 by the president. lam not. Tha
 is the whole difference between us
 but it is most vital one, because i
 involves the disparity between { world of court of justice supplement
 ed by world associations for con
 ference on the one hand, and thu
 council of the league on the other. "The one is judicial tribunal t,
 be governed by fixed and definite principles of law administered with
 out passion or prejudice. The othel is an association of diplomats ant politicians whose determinations ar, sure to be influenced by considera
 tions of expediency and national self ishness." ~C
 "There are distinctly two types o1
 international relationship. One il
 an offensive and defensive allianc,
 of great powers, like that created a Versailles, to impose their will upor
 the helpless peoples of the world.
 am opposed to such a scheme a'
 that. I am opposed to the very thought of our republic becoming z party to such great outrage upon peoples who have as good a righ'