The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-09-08
Feeling the Senator Will
Not Entirely Reject
League of Nations
PLAYING TOWARDS
FRIENDS OF TREATY
Lawrence Predicts He Will Interpret
Treaty Differently from Johnson -
statement of Wickersham Concern
ing Harding's Attitude.
Bv DAVID LAWRENCE.

Especial Despatch to The Reformer,
Copyright 1920
CHICAGO, Sept. 8.-Two gentlemen
between whom, politically speaking,
there is no love lost, are having a most
uncomfortable time in this campaign
and friends of both are wondering
which shall have proved acurate in an
alyzing 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 nations
and is convinced by reading of the
Harding speeches that the Ohio senator,
IL elected, will reject the whole league
business whilst Mr.. Hoover is salts
fed that Mr.. Harding will approx
mate the position which Republicans
like Taft. Hughes and Wickersham
have expressed as their understanding
of Senator Harding's innermost
thoughts.
Somebody, to borrow a phrase from
William Jennings Bryan, is going to
find his heart Sin the grave when
Mr. Harding chooses between the
wishes of the so-called irreconcilables
and the mild reservationists or friends
Of the treaty and league. Some people
predict that Mr.. Harding will make
the choice before election day, Others
saw he will wait until after the polls
have closed.
Meanwhile. the friends of johnson
were elated by Senator Harding $
speech of Aug. 2s and now they are
correspondingly dismayed by the state
ment issued at Marion by George w
Wiekersham. former attorney general
i'm President Taft s cabinet. That state
ment was read and approved by Sen
ator Harding before being issued
through the stenographic corps of
Harding headquarters 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 Re
publican nominee was leaning toward
| the Taft Hughes Wickersham- Hoover
wing of the party and more and more
lespoused in earlier speeches.
| Moreover, Mr.. Wickersham confirms
| clearly a view of Senator Harding
| position on the treaty which this cor
| respondent found on his own visit to
| Marion in July, namely, as Mr. Wick
ersham expressed it, that Mr.. Harding
/, would not "w-holly and finally reject
| the league, but would take the lead
| in revising the covenant and putting
| it into practical operation.
| There is one portion of Mr.. Wicker
sham 5 statement which, however, if
| the Republican nominee read. ne could
not have approved but the significance
| of it as an utteranee on the very
| threshold of the Ohio senator s home
and its resemblance to statements
made by Governor Cox, the Democratic
| nominee, is simply that after the cleo
ton is over the position taken by either
of the candidates who is successful
viii tend toward the same goal for the
simple reason that each would be con-
fronted by the same set of facts and
circumstances.
~ earnestly favor the league of ma
tions,'' saws Mr. Wickersham without
referring indefinitely to Ha' league
of nations 81 recognize the imper-
| feetions of the Paris covenant Yet I
should have been satisfied to see it
ratified as written, believing that the
power of amendment was ample to en-
able it to be nodded as national inter
| ests might make necessary. Senator
| Harding does not wholly and finally
reject the league. He recognizes that
it may have become so entwined and
interviewer in the peace of Europe that
its good work and its unobiectionable
provisions must be preserved in order
to stabilize the peace of that conti-
nent''
Mr.. WickeTsham represents Senator
Harding as unquestionably inclined to
| adopt "the' league of nations when
he is elected even though it may have
to be modified to remove all Just
doubts as to its undue effect upon
American rights and interests, - which.
in nutshell is the Taft position, the
Hoover position and now the position
too, of Governor Cox
Somebody will have analyzed Mr..
| Harding 3 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 from
that held by Senator Harding.