The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-10-10

This letter by Homer Cummings was read at dinner given by the
 Democratic club. of Southern Cali
 fornia. at Los Angeles. on Monday,
 October 1:
 I am happy to know of the activity of the Democrats of Southern Ca1ifor-
 tunity to send them a word of greet
 ing A revival of interest in our
 great historic organization is not only
 due to ourselves as members of the
 party; but it is a useful public ser
 vice which cannot be too highly com
 mended.
 In the Congressional elections of
 1918, for reasons which it is not now
 necessary to detail. the people of our
 country took the wrong turn at the
 fork of the roads. There was an op-
 portuntty in the Presidential eies-
 ton of 1920 to retrace these false
 steps; but the people preferred to
 continue the course which they had
 chosen. This was their privilege. It
 is one of the fundamentals of democ-
 racy that the people have the right
 to make their own mistakes. Since these two elections, however, copdi-
 tions have grown steadily worse. We
 are in the midst of the most serious financial and business depression in
 the history of our country. This con- dition, accompanied as it has been by the loss of national morale, might easily have been avoided had not the mistakes above referred to been
 made. Our people abandoned a fruit full leadership for barren isolation.
 It seems strange that so many bitter lessons are required to teach the sim pie truth that enduring prosperity is neither local nor nationalist is in ternational. The interdependence of one nation upon another, the instant means of international communica- tion and all the modern facilities of commerce have accentuated this an cient and fundamental truth.
 Our country today has the largest stock of gold in the world. It is pro- ducing and manufacturing essential l things far in excess of it's own ca l pacity to consume them, and yet, in 1 the face of this patent condition, the | attitude of the leaders of the Re | publican party from the close of the war to the present time has been in sular and uninteligently selfish. The League of Nations, which despite our | failure to join it, is the one stafbilizin g 1 influence in the world today, present. | ed not only a great moral issue but it
 was essential to American prosperity | as an economic proposition No na- | ton having means of production far | in excess of consumption, can delib- l erately cease commercial intercourse | with other nations, or establish poll | cies which make that intercourse diff l ffcult or impossible, without in the | end bringing disaster upon itself l I am quire aware that the leaders l of the Republican party embarked ! upon a mere policy of opposition | without thought SS IO Iue IIlOIdi OI l economic results, but even now, | though clothed with power, they seem l incapable of understanding the fun ramenta1s upon which prosperity de- | bends. They have the power to rat 1 fly the Treaty of Versailles, with any
 reservations that they may see fit to | impose. Their failure to do this is sufficient comment upon the good | faith of their purposes when the treaty was before the Senate. Though | hundreds of thousands of Republi- cans voted for MT. Harding upon the