Putnam County herald. (Cookeville, Tenn.) 1903-1922, 1920-01-29
FEAR TREATY AS ISSUE

ington Post recently said in part:
The large and rapidly growing
body of sturdy Democrats who be
lieve that the surest way for theiI
party to join the suicide club is to
permit it to be forced nto an advo
cacy of the peace treaty of Versailles
and it's league of nations covenant
sans reservations, now see their
hopes, as in glass. darkly, in the
well-known position of Mahomet's
coffin.
President Wilson, In the first
brief utterance that he has made on
the subject since the treaty and
league of nations was laid carefully
away in lavender and old lace by
the Senate, declares that responsible
ity for the treaty has been shifted to
other shoulders. Democrats who
have been shrinking before the ap-
preaching shadow of the league Of
nations as a campaign issue, with
the party pledged to the affirmative
side, are wondering whether the
leadership of President Wilson will
bring them out from under t. shad-
ow and out of the wilderness of for
eign entanglements back to old
fashioned Jacksonian and Jefferson
ian democracy.
THE revolt is not thing OF day.
It's growth since the defeat of the
peace treaty with" ut reservations by
the Senate has been remarkable.
Back of this, however, are the fig.
ures-figures that count-to tell their
story Of recent elections, and still
back of that there are the warnings
from leaders within the party who
held that such an abrupt and wide
departure from true Democratic
principles as voluntary participation
in European politics of alliances more
than entanglng, could not and would
not be accepted by the followers of
the Democratic faith.
Senator James A. Reed, of Mis-
souri,, sounded the first warning. In
a speech in the Senate on November
21, 1918, before President Wilson
sailed for Europe for the first time,
and the league of nations was but
a. figment of the brain, Senator Reed
pointed out that such league and
all it would stand for could not be
repellant to a nation that had pros
pered and grown great under the
wise precepts of the fathers against
foreign entanglements.
"Other Democrats, both in and
out of public office, joined with SEN
ator Reed in the attempt to steer
the party clear, OF support of any
treaty or covenant that would in any
way call for the use of the strength
or wealth of the United States in
settling the broils or quarrels inner
ent in European politics."
In every election held in 1918
where the league of nations was
made an issue the result was dis
astrous to the Democrats, notably
in Kentucky where Democratic
ma jority of 31,335 in 1915 was turn
ed into a Republican majority of
1910 in 1919 in the contest for gov
ernor
Further, two trong Democratic
Newspapers have added to the warn
ing The Jacksonville (Fla.) Times
Union, under the caption. "How to
Commit Suicide" says:
wherever the test has been made
the Democrats have lost out on that
issue. (the league OF nations). They
have already lost Kentucky and the
election in one Okl homa district
shows what would happen in that
state. The Republicans would win
If half the changes were made in the.
this district"
The Montgomery (Ala.l Advertis-
er under the title "The League Not
a Party ISSUE" says
I'VE cannot bring ourselves to be-
lieve that after the experience in the
league of nations, both in the Senate
and out among the people, the Demo
cratic leaders will consent to max
ing the ratification of the league a
party question and go before the
country with it as the paramount is
sue in the presidential campaign OF
1920.
''In a practical sense, we believe
that the injection of the ssue into
the campaign would be disastrous
for the party"
1T is small wonder, with such sen
timents refecting opinion in the
strongholds of their own party. that
the Democrats are anxiously seek
ing some loophole of escape or some
leader who can bring them out Of the