Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-09-09
Johnson AND !.
HOOVER DIFFER
ON PACT VIEW
By DAVID LAwaENcE

CHICAGO, Sept S.-Twe gentle
men between whom, politically
speaking, there is no love lost, are
having most uncomfortable time in
this campaign and friends of both are
wondering which shall have proved
accurate in analyzing the mind of
Senator Harding, or President-elect
Harding. as the case may be after
next November.
Hiram Johnson is the one and Her
bert Hoover is the other. Mr. John
son is opposed to the League of Ma
tions and is convinced by reading
of the Harding speeches that the
Ohio senator. if elected, will reject
the whole league business, whilst
Mr.. Hoover is satisfied that Mr.
Harding will approximate the posi-
tion which Republicans like Taft,
Hughes and Wickersham have ex-
pressed as their understanding of
Senator Harding's innermost
thoughts.
Somebody, to borrow phrase from
William Jennings Bryan. is going to
find his heart "in the grave" when
Mr. Harding chooses between the
wishes of the so-called irreconcila-
bles and the mild reservationists or
friends Of the treaty and league.
Some people predict that Mr.. Harding
will make the choice before election
day, other say he will wait until after
the polls have closed. III
Feeling Changes
Meanwhile, the friends of Johnson
were elated by Senator Harding s
speech Of August 2s, and now they
are correspondence dismayed by the
statement issued at Marion by
George w. Wickershanl, former att
torney general in President Taft's
and approved by Senator Harding be-
fore being issued through the steno-
graphic corps of Harding headquar-
ters, or it is the first important
statement issued from the front
porch that has not gone through that
process.
But the tendency at Marion has.
been to win the friends of the treaty
and league, and the writer pointed
out. at the time Charles Evans
Hughes went to see Senator Harding,
that the Republican nominee was
leaning toward the Taft-Hughes-
Wickersham wing of the party and
more and more away from Johnson,
whose cause he had espoused in ear
Moreover, Mr.. Wickersham con-
firms clearly a view of Senator
Harding's position on the treaty
his own visit to Marion in July.
namely as Mr.. Wickersham ex-
pressed It, that Mr.. Harding would
not wholly and finally reject the
league" but would take the lead in
revising the covenant and putting II
into practical operation.
Wickersha1n's Views
There is one portion of Mr.. Wick
ersham's statement which, however,
if the Republican nominee read, ne
could not have approved, but the
significance of it as an utterance on
the very threshold of the Ohio sena-
tors home and its resemblance TO
statements made by Governor COX,
the Democratic nominee, is simply
that after the election is over the
position taken by either OF the can,
didates who is successful VIII tenu
toward the same goal for the simple
reason that each would be confront
ed by the same set Of facts and cir
IT earnestly favor the League or
Nations" says Mr.. W1ckersham !:
without etorr10R 1uQStlHllcly "
league of nations, 81 recognize the
;mperfectIons Of the Paris covenant.
Yet | should have been satisfied to
see it ratified as written, believing
that the power of amendment was
ample to enable it to be nodded as
national interests might make neces-
sary Senator Harding does not
/ wholly and finally reject the league,
| He recognizes that it may have be-
come so entwined and interviewer in
! the peace of Europe that it's good
| work and it's unobjectionable pro-
visions must be preserved in order
to stabilize the peace of that conti-
nent."
Mr.. Wickersham represents Sena-
t tor Harding as unquestionably in
clined to adopt "the" League of Ma
| lions when he is elected even though
| it may have to be modified to re-
move all just doubts as to its undue
! effect upon the American rights ana
| Interests" which, in nutshell. is the
/ Taft position, the Hoover position.
and now the position, too, of Cover
| nor Cox.
/ Somebody will have analysed Mr..
I rardirg,s views incorrectly by the
/ time election time has come, and this
/ correspondent predicts that Senator
Johnson will find his Interpretation
! of the treaty and league different
4 l. 20 Z a- i11O