The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-10-24
KNOX TAXES BITTER FLING AT WILSON
 AND THE LEAGUE
Characterizes President as EgotiSt of the White House and Says League Will
 Breed Wars
By Associated Press

| Chicago, October 23-Senator PhiIander
 Knox of Pennsylvania. former Secretary i of State, who has been prevented by i'll
 health from making contemplated west | ern speaking trip in behalf of Senator l Harding, issued a statement today 1 through Senator Harry New, chairman of | the republican speakers bureau, bitterly criticising President Wilson and at tacking the League of Nations covenant. The statement says:
 1 "On the threshold of the adjustment of ! America's relations to all the world and 1 to the enemy that had cost us the lives ! of our best and bravest sons and 8 treasure beyond Comprehension, the ego
 tist of the White House, when he sallied fcrth. single-handed and alone to recast, !, in his own name and by his own proper authority, the map and the destinies of 1 the earth, demanded uncontrolled power.
 Tn his demand for the election of a democratic Senate and House in 1918, as he was about to take up his role as dictator of the world, and in order that lis individual authority in this vast un- dertaking should not be entrammeed by
 counsel, the President used this lan-- guage' Unless you give me uncontrolled
 power you repudiate me and my leadership 1 before the world He asked to be un-f controlled by the country whose servant he is. This meant that he wished to be beyond human control at that time the word Of the United States was the law of the world. The American people, with that great god sense which makes them worthy of their heritage, promptly repudiated the preposterous suggestion and gave him !reTublican Senate and House, whose cour- ge and patriotism have saved what our grandSires established and our fathers preserved.
 
 an obstinacy of purpose which had for its end an ambition that would have aroused jealousy in the breast of an Alex ander or Napoleon, MT. Wilson took his way to Paris, undertook to put us in apprehension of the world by means of what is called League of Nations, and is now about to receive the nations verdict through a grave and solemn ref erendum in which he is represented by lis proxy, MT. Cox.
 If we are longer worthy of participant ing in a government we must examine and judge Mr. Wilson's supreme effort, his so-called League of Nations SANCTIONS WAR "The proposed covenant. instead ot abolishing war, actually sanctions, breeds and commands it. Moreover. it absolutely requires that every future war shall ba potential war, and that we shall be active participant in every such war
 ",rhe provisions of the proposed cove nant are also destructive of our sover- egnty. Lord Robert Cecil, the British high priest of nternationalism, respect ing, as an honest man always does, the intelligence of those who may not agree with him, frankly admits that it con structs an international entity that must override natonalism.
 IIar Jtpu hat desire no specially insured relation 70 the League of Nations. and therefore that the league, as proposed must be re- jected and the energies of the world under the leadership of the United States, directed to the formation of true League of Nations under which con troversies may be judicially determined and the curse of war outlaWed and made an international crime.
 When we are told, President VIII son recently told us. that those who do not care to tell you the truth about the League of Nations tell you that Article x of the covenant of the League of Ma tions would make it possible for other nations to lead us into war it may be just as well to inquire who told us SO The person who told me that under Ar ticle X we were under an absolutely compelling moral obligation to go to war to repel external aggression against member of the League of Nations was President Wilson, as the following dia- losue at the White House discloses:
 Senator Knox; MT. President, allow me to ask this question: Suppose that It is perfectly obvious and accepted that there is an external aggression against some power, and suppose it is perfectly obvious and accepted that it cannot be repelled except by force of arms, would we be under any legal obligations to participate?
 e Tine President: No. sir; but we would be under an absolutely compelling moral obligation.
 q can think of nothing more inexor- able than absolutely compelling moral obligations"