The Penn's Grove record., 1920-10-29
INDEPENDENT REPUBLICANS
APPEAL
A Revolt of 40 Prominent Republicans
Against the senate OIiEarehy
Wilson'S Last Appeal to His
COuntrymen

iatiOn. read by all Chautauqua course
readers, a prominent Republican who
was at the Peace Conference in Paris,
is leading a Republican revolt against
Harding and Coolidge. He heads the
list of 10 names of prominent Repub-
l1ican Progressives.
Their appeal reads as follows:
we. the undersigned, who have usu-
ally supported the Republican or Ma
tional Progressive tickets, nave been
trained in political traditions empha-
sizing the international responsibilities
of America. From Lincoln to Roosevelt
ad Taft each successive Republican
Administration has labored for a closer
understanding among the nations of the
world.
The present Republican leadership,
which has nominated Senator Warren
G. Harding for the Presidency, has re-
pudiated these traditions. This leader
ship has permitted the Republican
Party to become a little America"
party, drifting toward national isola-
ton and the REIMBURSEMENT of any real
responsibility for the general peace of
the nations.
I'VE hold no brief for the present
Administrator or the details of its
foreign or domestic policies. We do
not insist on any particular wording of
the Treaty. We have been tolerant of
much hostility on the part of Republic
can Senators to some features of the
Treaty, hoping that in the end they
would agree to a reasonable compro-
mise and that the Treaty would be rati-
fed with the patriotic agreement of
the majority of both great American
parties. We did not desire that a cause
which should have served to unite all
parties in the same spirit of common
service Which won the great war should
be made a basis of party difference in
the present campaign.
w egret the issue. But we cannot
avoid it. National isolation has never
been a Republican ~watchword. 1t shall
not be ours. Such Republican states
men as Audrey d. White, Joseph H.
Choate and Elihu Root labored for the
development of International law and
for the organization of the world
Through the two Hague conferences.
We would continue in the patti they in
dicated.
1--WE cannot forget the interest of
President Mckinley and Secretary Hay
in establishing peace with justice in
the distant realm of China
Theodore Roosevelt as President in
tervened to halt the Russo-Japanese
war. In his latter days he labored I'M
til death to bring home to the American
people the meaning of the great conflict
in Europe.
president Taft honored his party by
his magnificent work for International
arbitration and afterwards for the
League of Nations.
Agency to SuppIant War
Justice Hughes left the Supreme
Court bench to enter a campaign of
protest against what he thought at that
time was the indifferece of the Admin
istration to our international response
bilities.
we hailed as a triumph of Republic
can principles President Wilson's aban
donment of his party's historic policy
Of narrow nationalism to advocate a
League of Nations.
True Republican craftsmanship
would have welcomed and supported
the covenant. 1t would nave sought to
strengthen, rather than to weaken, it's
guarantees against aggression.
1t would have insisted on our need of
the League as the one possible means
Of reducing ornaments and the crush
ing burden of taxation they cause. 1t
would ave seen in the League the one
practicable means of restoring and in
creasing the authority of the intecna-
tiona law and its agencies designed
ultimately to supplant war.
War is the worst evil that exists on
earth. The last war was the worst hat
ever happened. The next, if permitted,
will be far more horrible. During the
late war every one agreed that it was
imperative to adopt some measures to
prevent its recurrence. The question
facing America is whether we shall ae-
cept the existing League or insist upon
a new international agreement having
the same object.
TT is now too late to ak of a new
Association of Nations" to be created
under Republican auspices. The pro-
posal to ask forty-three member ma
ions to scrap the existing League, en-
ter another Peace Conference and agree
on some underlined experiment, can no
longer be taken seriously.
ALREADY the Council of the League
has held nine important sessions.
The full Assembly of forty-three
member nations meets this November.
THE plan of the international Court
has ben formulated, with the active
participation of the Republican states
man and jurist, Elihu Roo
Commissions on disarmament, health
and on financial and economic matters
of the highest Importance to America
are at work.
THE Labor Conference has met and
the international Labor Office is organ
lied and active.
such important regions as Danzig
anu me- odIit NdiltN i Ilbt liz c
sponsible authority of the League.
1.-TWO serious international conflicts
Poland versus Lithuania, Sweden versus
Finland-have been averted by the me-
diation of the ouncil of the League.
"All this and much more has been
done. 1t should not and annot be un-
done. To say that the League of Ma
tions must be abandoned because it is
already a failure is to assert what is
not true. With American participation
the League will become even more eff
~fective.
we want our country to stand first
in the councils of nations. We want
our country to share fully in the great
decisions which are shaping the future
of the world. We cannot endorse SEN
ator Harding's policy of America last.
"In the absence of the definite assur-
ances that the Republican candidates
will use their full influence to bring
the United States into the League with
such reservations as may be acceptable
to the American people. we urge all Re-
publicans and Progressives who put pa
triotiSm above party TO iOin with. us in