The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-04-13
HARDING IS
Center OF
TUC-OF-WAR
President Between Two Con-
tending Groups - lrrecon-
cilables Pull One Way -
Hughes, Hoover Another.
FIGHT IS NOT FINISHED
BY MARK SULLIVAN


All who want to have the completest
available understanding of President
Harding's declaration on foreign af-
fairs Tuesday, should read it in con-
nection with what has gone on in
Washington for the past week Dur
ing that week the president has been
the center of two contending groups:
and the position he takes on foreign
affairs in his speech Tuesday registers
the balance between the two groups
as that balance stands for the present.
The group at one end is the senate
foreign affairs committee, more mar
rowly 1t is the so-called "irreconcil-
able" groups in the senate. the group
which has always taken and still takes
the extreme anti-League of Nations
and anti-treaty Of Versailles position.
But this group of irreconcilables has
now so increased it's members and its
rower and especially has so IL. creased
its strategic position that it is almost
impossible to make a distinction be-
tween the irreconcilable group as Il
group and the whole Republican mem
bership Of the foreign relations COM
mittee.
Mccumber Shifts.
McCumber, Of North Dakota, was
the principal anti-irreconcilable Re
publican senator on the foreign rela-
tions committee, and McCumber has
now changed his position in the direc-
tion of the irreconcilable associate.
Kellogg of Minnesota, a new member
of the committee, who takes the place
made vacant by Senator Harding, was
also a reservation senator as distinct
from the irreconcilables, but Kellogg
is now nearer to the irreconcilable po-
sition that he was formerly.
The foreign relations committee OF
the senate as now composed is an out
and out thorough going irreconcilable
group, and it is this group that has
been and is at one end of the tug-of-
war which centers in President Hard
ing.
The other end of the tug-of-war is
composed of a few members OF Presi-
dent Harding's cabinet, especially Sec
retary Hughes and Secretary Hoover
together with few other Republican
leaders, some in official life and some
not now in official life.
For purposes of convenience, here in
Washington we speak of it as the
Hughes Hoover influence, as in many
such contests the issue between the
two groups is one of direction rather
than of clear contrast, to certain ex-
tent especially on the part of the SEN
ate, it is a matter of prestige.
IrreeoncilabIe Position.
The best approach to defining the
difference is to state the irreconcilable
position first. That position for the
early passage of the Knox resolution
providing for a separate peace with
Germany.
The Hughes-Hoover position does
not negative necessary and finally all
consideration of the Knox resolution,
but does want to postpone considera-
tion of that resolution, until some
other things have been done. OF
course, IL you go back far enough, as
far as last October, you will find both
Hughes and Hoover as signers of that
declaration of 81 Republicans, who
said that the best course was to pre-
serve and build upon some parts Of the
league and some parts of the treaty
Undoubtedly Mr.. Hughes and Mr.. Hoo
yer will hardly go this far now.
At the present moment the Hughes
and Hoover position appears to be
that we should approach the whole
problem Of our foreign relations with
deliberation, that it would unnecessar
ny CIhUai aoo I'D dhu 6lCdtly
barrass our late allies to pass the
Knox resolution. and now generally
that the state department should be
given time to approach the allies dip
lomatically before everything is fore
closed as it would be foreclosed by
the passage of the Knox resolution.
Victory Shifts.
The tug-of-war between these two
groups has been the most important
thing in Washington for a week. Dur
ing the early part of the week the sen.
ators seemed to be winning. During
the past few days it has been appar
ent that the Hughes-Hoover group
was winning
The fight is by no means over. In
the fight the senators have the advant-
age of having an affirmative program
They propose the Knox resolution. II
the Hughes-Hoover group are to have
fair chance before public opinion
they should present an equally con
crete affirmative program
For political purposes the best pro-
grain the Hughes-Hoover group can
devise is a conference here in Amer.
lea between the representation Of the
allies and ourselves, only such con.
ference can consider adequately the
complex relations between the allies
and ourselves. And only by holding
conference there in America will ii
be possible to dispel the deep suspi
cion our people have acquired against
European diplomacy.
Bears Out Judgment.
AS your correspondent stated in a
dispatch as long ago as March Is
Every consideration points toward
Washington as the proper place for
the next step looking to disarmament
permanent peace and all the other
purposes for which the nations mus;
cooperate.
'~Thc best way to allay the unfortu
nate suspicious that arouses in Amer
lea over the secrecy and all other as
poets of the peace conference is to
hold the new negotiations in the plain
view Of the American people, and ac
companied by the aerating processes
Of the American newspapers, process
sea which differ greatly from what
happened in Paris"