The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-08-18
BAKER TO TALK
 ON OBJECTIONS
 TO THE LEAGUE
Says Partisan Feeling Is Responsible For Many
 Criticisms.

Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 18.-Formal cuss during the presidential cam paign some of the objections which have been urged against American participation in the League of Ma tions was made today by Secretary Baker of the War Department, speak ing before the Ohio State Democratic convention.
 ''When the suggestions based on partisan feeling have been swept aside" MT. Baker said, There re- main but two or three points which is addressed to Article Ten of the Covenant, which article, the president has said, is the heart of the whole matter.
 Since Senator Lodge and Senator Harding have both repudiated the Lodge reservations, for which they both voted, 1t does not seem likely that these particular reservations will figure in the campaign except illus trations of the tactics used to defeat ratification of the treaty.
 Asserting that the whole question hinged upon Article Ten, MT. Baker devoted himself to discussion of that section of the covenant saying that he did NOT believe that there could be any league of peace or disarmament without the equivalent of Article Ten in the covenant, accepted as a common principle and obligation by all nations of the earth.''
 "Those who crfticise Article Ten," he said, "misread into it some sort of fear that it places the military power of the United States at the dis posal of the council of nations and will require American armies to be mt tn enfnrca If or of Article Ten without consent of the American people; but there is nothing whatever in the covenant which seeks to change the power given by the constitution to Congress alone to de- clare war.
 While it might well be that in the early stages of the operation of so great principle it might be neces- sary for the great powers to show the sincerity of their adherence to it by actually enforcing it, any such oc- casion, so far as the United States is concerned, would have to be address ed to the sound wisdom of Congress Meanwhile, the league, without con- gressional action, would be able in all human likelihood to make the guar antee effective by mere weight of it's moral and economic power
 Without Article Ten, MT. Baker ' Sd1us Luc ltdB ue IS NdHl WIlllc WlIn [ it ''the league becomes a great modern, civilized agency" working to bring the world into "just relation ship
 ~"This is the article of the covenant &hich. it is said, needs to be Ameri- cantzed' MT. Baker said "It is American. We invented it and ap- piled it among ourselves; we fought for it as the cardinal principle at issue in the world war: our president formulated 1t and forced it's accept ! ance: it's principle and it's purpose are thoroughly American"
 Turning to armistice\ conditions ac- i cepted by Germany, the secretary said:
 { But all these questions were set tied once. We and our allies accepted the surrender of the Central Powers on that declaration (the fourteen | poir ts) of the president as an ex- | press condition.
 'The long delay in ratification ot the treaty has appeared to break tc the heart of the world the promise which America made with it's lips This delay is due to Senator Lodge and his round robin and his reserva. tions; it is due to Senator Hardine and his associates who voted witt I Senator Lodge for reservations which ! they have now repudiated.
 ''But the Democratic party in it. San Francisco platform has restatet Americas cause. Our candidate has with simplicity and directness de clared his position on this subjec (the league) by saying T favor goint in"
 'If America is to participate in in ternational affairs" M- Baker said the beginning must be made befor the cement is set which binds the res of the world into a family in whicl she is NOT a member" Nationa interest as well as moral duty de nianded he said, that we now de eide"
 Our action will throw the determ ming weight into the scale pan fo America as well as for mankind" h said The question is whethe America being in the world shall b of it; whether she shall co-operat with other civilized peoples in tn maintenance of peace, or shall dra1 | herself exclusively aside, allow tn rules of the game of life to be mad by others and by failing to exert i advance her economic and mora power be again obliged at even nor frightful cost to suspend the pro cesses of her life and send her son to die in a struggle which the weigt of her word, given in advance, woul have sufficed to prevent"
 When the next war might com
 depends in large measure upon U and our action in this campaign { MT. Baker said.
 ''If we make it the business
 statesmen to avert war and equi
 them with agencies whereby wa
 may be averted it may never come,
 he added.
 While Americans spoke Of then
 selves a peaceful people, M
 Baker said, "our own history show
 that we have NOT been able to prt
 serve our own peace, much less ths
 of the world, by the old agencit
 which were much more promisin
 than Senator Harding's plans of holc
 ing up pious hand and askin
 everybody to be good" During tf
 145 years since the beginning of tf
 American revolution, he said, u
 United States had been engaged
 civil or foreign wars for about thirt.
 seven years.
 "If those episodes in our history I