The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-02-06
6. Q. P. BLOCKS WORLD PROGRESS AYERS CUMMINGS. Democratic Chairman Tells Diners Party Proves Utter Failure in Postwar
 Crisis.
 Gov. Edwards Will Garry Prohibition to Convention Secretary Daniels Asserts U. $. Naval Building Pro gramme Will Not Be
 Abandoned.

Abandoned.
 r New Y ork, Feb. 6-Chairman Homer $. Cummings of the Democratic Ma t4onal committee gave a powerful im- petuS of optimism to the party last night at a dinner in his honor at the Hotel Commodore. He held up the record of the Republicans since their return to power in Congress at the last eleGtion, and after examining it chapter by chapter, comparing Re- publican deeds with the needs of the world and this country in the post war crisis, pronounced it utterly void of constructive achievement.
 Pronounced hissing came from all corners of the ballroom when the toastmaster, John M. Richie, follow ing an address mHIe by Secretary Of the Navy Daniels, declared that Ad- ns4ral Sims was the only man who op- posed the North Sea barrage which President Wilson had suggested to combat the submarines. MT. Richie said:
 Secretary Daniels spoke of the great barrage laid across the North Sea, and AdmiralS Mayo and Wilson and the entire members of the Naval Board favored it, but Admiral Sims
 
 The hissing followed.
 Failure not only in international affairs by their blockading of the treaty ratification, but failure to leg islate for the industrial financial and social requirements of the nation was charged against the Republicans by MT. Cummings, and he summed up the indictment with these words:
 "The American people have paid md Gti1 i1oCr Ct rnT-i11 9 price for having elected a Republi- can House and Senate at the last election
 Democratic leaders from all sec tions of the country rose to applaud the chairman's verdict. The diu- ner was under the auspices of the National Democratic club of this city Secretary Daniels was the other chief speaker. He, too, arraigned the Republicans for appealing to "hy- phenated politics. and predicted de- feat for their party next November The Secretary also replied indirect ly to the Sims attack by again giv- ing to President Wilson the credit for being the first to see the neces- sity for shutting up the German submarines, long before the naval tstaffs Ion the other side of the water" moved to that end.
 Chairman Cummings, after review. ing with care the legislation that Republican Congress has failed to enact, said:
 What picture do we present to- day?" A picture of America >dispos- ed to haggle over the terms of a treaty to which the. rest of civilization already has assented. We present a picture of America reluctant to fulfill it's legitimate obligations We see q Nofio to secure the advantages of 8 League of Nations without accepting any of it's responsibility.
 i've see America under the glid- ance of Senator Lodge dealing with a question affecting the destiny of the human race in Q manner which in- dicates that partisanship is the con- trolling motive. We behold men who criticised the President for taking six months to write the treaty unable themselves to reach decision as tc it's acceptance or rejection after eight months of sterile debate.
 We find the League of Nations already established and America not a part of it We see our commerce which began to seek every port ir the world still lowering about Ameri- can shores, with confidence that America has it's heart behind the NShluISS O1 us c1IlZ6nS We find everywhere developing criti- cisms augmented antagonisms, in. creasing partisanship and a genera. dfstaste for politics and politicians The exact reverse of the picture would now be true had President Wilson been supported by Demo cratic Congress. The treaty woul6 have been ratified long ago and America would have been in the very van of the nations of the world"
 At the outset of his speech, MI, Cummings said that during Demo. cratic control more constructiv Iegis 1auon had been enacted than the Re. publican party had put through in z generation. Partisan criticism migh bec1oud the record for a Ime, bu '.the great facts of the last six year speak eIoquently for the Democratit cause.''
 t-I do not care how others may fee about it," he declared, but. an proud to be an American citizen ar1,e proud of our great army ou great navy and of the heroism O American, men and women an proud of the work which America i doing tor the world and of the man ner in which the power of my coun stry has been used. and I am proud O the leadership of Woodrow Wilson only 8 progressive and foreseeinl leadership could have brought Amer ica to her present place, and yet tn very men who have stood in the wa, of these measures of progress are nov criticising the conduct of the war an the activities of the American Presi dent.
 '"The gentlemen who are now lead ing the Republican party, criticism the President and warning agains the League of Nations are the ba advisers Of old, whose counsel led | trouble and whose advice had to b discarded before America. casz1d mak progress.
 e'senator Lodge set forth a yea ago to make the treaty of peace partisan issue, and he has never de viated from that course Senate Lodge packed the committee on Fol aign Relations with senators know to be hostile to the treaty. It ha u,aeD his purpose from the outSe