Evening star., 1920-07-02

he and his party associates thereafter
reported to the Senate, would make us
guilty of the blacklist crime
Quotes Senator Knox.
On May 18th last, the Knox substi-
tute for the Versailles treaty was
passed by the republican Senate; and
this convention can contrive no more
fitting characterization of its obloquy
than that made in the Forum magazine
OF December. 1918, by Henry Cabot
Lodge, when he said:
IF we send our armies and young
~men abroad to be killed and wounded
in northern France and Flanders
with no result but this. our entrance
into war with such an intention was
a crime which nothing can justify
The intent of Congress and the in
tent of the President was that there
could be no peace until we could Gre
ate situation where no such war as
this could recur. We cannot make
peace except in company with our
allies. 1t would brand us with ever
lasting dishonor and bring ruin to
us also if we undertook to make
separate peace
Thus. to that which Mr. Lodge, in
saner moments, considered "the black
est crime" he and his party in mad
ness sought to give the sanctity OF
law; that which eighteen months ago
was of everlasting dishonor' the re-
publican party and its candidates to-
day accept as the essence of faith.
Commends Presidents Views.
We indorse the Presidents view of
our international obligations and his
firm stand against reservations de-
signed to cut to pieces the vital pro-
visions of the Versailles treaty, and
We commend the democrats in Con-
zgreSs for voting against resolutions
for separate peace which would dis
grace the nation. We advocate the
immediate ratification of the treaty
without reservations which would
impair it's essential integrity, but do
not oppose the acceptance of any
reservations making clearer or more
specific the obligations of the United
States to the league associates. Only
by doing this may We retrieve the
reputation of this nation among the
powers of the earth and recover the
emoral leadership which President
politicians at Washington. sacrificed.
Only by doing this may we hope to
aid effectively in the restoration of
order throughout the world and to
take the place which we should as
sumo in the front rank of spiritual,
commercial and industrial advance
ment.
We reject as utterly vain, if not vi
cious, the republican assumption that
ratification of the treaty and men,
bership in the league of nations would
in any way impair the integrity or in
dependence of our country. The fact
that the covenant has been entered
into by twenty-nine nations. all as
jealous of their independence as we
are of ours, is a sufficient refuta-
tion of such charge. The President
repeatedly has declared, and this con-
vention reafffrms. that all our duties
and obligations as member of the
league must be fulfilled in strict con-
with the tint nf he
United States. embodied in which is
the fundamental requirement of de-
claratory action by the Congress be-
fore this nation may become a par
ticipant in any war.
Conduct of the War.
During the war President Wilson
exhibited the very broadest concep-
tion of liberal Americanism. In his
conduct OF the war, as in the general
administration of his high Office,
there was no semblance of partisan
bias He invited to Washington as
his counsellors and coadjutors hun
dreds of the most prominent and pro-
nounced republicans in the country.
To these he committed responsible
ties of the gravest import and most
confidential nature. Many of them
had charge of vital activities of the
government.
And yet. with the war successfully
prosecuted anu cHueu, the
republican party in Congress, far
from applauding the mastery leader
ship of the President and felicitating
the country on the amazing achieve
ments of the American government,
has meanly requited the considerate
course of the chief magistrate by
savagely defaming the commander
in-chief of the Army and Navy and
by assailing nearly every public Of
ficer of every branch of the service
intimately concerned in winning the
war abroad and preserving the Sc
curity of the government at home
We express to the soldiers and sail