The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1920-05-13
"HONOR OF NATION' IN HANDS
OF DEMOCRATS, HE
WRITES.
Must Measure Up
To Opportunity.
Violation of Promises Made to World
to Attach Reservations Which
Whittle it Down or Weaken
Document Says Presi-
dent.

Washington, May 9.-Call to the
Democratic party to go into the cam
paign standing foursquare in favor of
t the treaty of Versailles and against
the senate's reservations was issued
tonight by President Wilson in tele-
. gram to Oregon Democratic leaders,
made public at the white house.
Declaring that the party had "the
honor of the nation in it's hands, the
president said that the Lodge resolu-
tions were utterly inconsistent with
the role of world leadership which
the United States must assume.
The only true Americanism, the
president said, was that which puts
America at the front of free nations
and redeems the great promises which
we made to the world" 1t would be a
violation of such promises, he said,
to attach reservations to the treaty
which ''whittle it down Or weaken it
as the Republican leaders of the SEN
ate have promised to do
The telegram was in response to the
following message from G. E. Ham
aker, of Portland, Ore, chairman of
the Multonomah county Democratic
central committee:
PRIMARY election May 21. Please
wire whether you consider it impor-
tant to nominate candidates pledged
to ratify Versailles treaty without
Lodge reservations.
Mr.. Wilson's Reply.
The reply of the president follows:
'sI think it imperative that the
party should at once proclaim itself
the uncompromising champion of the
nations honor and the advocate of
everything that the United States can
do in the service of humanity, that it
should therefore indorse and support
the Versailles treaty and condemn
the Lodge reservations as utterly in
consistent with the nations. honor
and destructive of the world, includ-
and destructive of the world leader
ship which it had established and
which all the free people of the world,
including the great powers them
selves, had shown themselves ready to
welcome.
<':It is time that the party should
proudly avow that it means to try,
without finching or turning at any
time away from the path for reasons
of expediency, to apply moral and
Christian principles to the problems
of the world 1t is trying to accom-
plish social, political and internation-
al reforms and is not daunted by any
of the difficulties it has to- contend
with. Let us prove to our late asso-
ciates in the war that at any rate the
great majority party of the nation
the party which expresses the true
hopes and purposes of the people Of
the country-intends to keep faith
with them in peace as we'll
as in war. They gave their
treasure, their best blood and
everything that they valued in
order, not merely to beat Germany,
but to effect settlement and bring
about angements of a peace which
they have now tried to formulate in
the treaty of Versailles. They are
entitled to our support in this settle
ment and in the arrangements for
which they have striven.
Hope of World.
THE league of nations is the hope
of the world. AS a basis for the
armistice, I was authorized by all the
great. fighting nations to say to the
enemy that it was our object in pro-
posing peace to establish a general
association of nations under specific
covenants for the purpose of afford
ing mutual guarantees Of political in
dependence and territorial integrity
to great and small states alike, and
the covenant is ratified and acted
upon with vigor. We Gan not in honor
whittle it down or weaken it as the
Republican leaders of the senate have
proposed to do. If we are to exer-
else the kind of leadership to which |
the founders of the republic looked
forward and which they depended !
upon their ancestors to establish, we
must do this thing with courage and
unaIterable determination. They eX-