The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1923-01-18
INCOMPETENCE
IS ENTHR0NED.
COX CHARGES
Democratic Candidate for
President in 1920 Assails
Washington Government
PLEADS FOR LEAGUE
Asserts that League of Ma
tiOns Is Still a Big Issue
In Nation

Lancaster, O., Jan. 18.-The pres
ent public indictment is that gen
eral incompetence is enthroned at
| Washington, declared Former Cover
nor James M. Cox Of Ohio, and De-
mocratic candidate for president in
1920, in an address here last night
on the occasion of Jacksonian OBJ
servance.
eve have the presidents own Of
! ficial statement that the congress
has passed two measures that would
have bankrupted the treasury except
for his own intervention" Mr.. Cox
said. "The executive and legisla-
tive departments are equally respon-
sible for tariff law that is con-
demned in every community, as a
menace to- our markets subsidy to
campaign contributors and the un-
certain forcrunncr Of industrial trou-
bles.
"More lamentable is the failure in
international affairs. Never since the
dawn Of civilization have the sons
of men been SO plagued with condi-
tions that bring disaster 70 individu-
ais and uncertainty as to the very
existence of nations. It's awful re-
actions have spared no nation. The
disaster is so widespread that any
attempt at piecemeal repair is but a
pathetic evidence Of national or ra-
cial endeavor.
"What would Andrew Jackson do
now? He would establish relation
ships with the nations of the world
in order to save humanity. Recog-
nizing the futility of waiting longer
for alternatives he would ask AM
erica to Join the only operating con-
Germ created for this critical need
the League of Nations. A solemn
duty confronts the Democracy now
and we must not retreat"
The currents of public opinion
are running now against the Repub-
lidan leaders as they did against the
Wings, the speaker continued, and
unless present portents are mislead-
ing the fate that befell the Whig
Party may overtake it's successor.
Turning to the Turkish situation,
Mr.. Cox said:
propaganda reaching to commun-
tiles has carried the expression often
heard from partisans that after all
are we not fortunate to be out of the
European mess? For this time this
may carry the intended appeal but
the facts underlying the Turkish
embroglio will in brief season be
known. If we had not abandoned a
responbility assumed during the war,
the situation in the Near East would
not now be so serious. Mr.. Hughes
contention that we were not at war
with Turkey is an evasion. We were
in fact but not in law at war with
Turkey. We were an ally of the ma
tions fighting Turkey. We turned
munitions over to our allies without
question as to where they were to
be used. When soldiers from our A.
lied armies went to the scene of
Turkish hostilities. our own soldiers
took the places they gave up on the
western front. There was no inter
ference with war shipments. Not all
of the war necessities were imported
by kemalists but most of them were.
If this is not another tragedy to be
charged against the policy of in
difference and aloofness, then l mis-
take the plain significance of
events. The Kemaiists offensive re-
suited not only in an insolent atti.
tude to the world generally, but in
the slaughter of thousands of men
women and children as we'll.
There is another phase of the
near eastern situation which will
doubtless enter into the public's
final analysis. 1t presents the ques
tion Of whether the administrations
attitude of silence when women were
outraged and thousands of adults
and children killed, squares with the
time-honored American policy of pro-
tecting religious minorities.
when the slaughter of Christians
was at is height, committee of
church ministers called upon the
president of the United States and
urged some officials expression of
our peoples outraged feelings. The
executive is quoted as saying that
he did not favor any protest unless
we were in position to back it up.
Within fortnight our government
filedTa protest but not in behalf Of
human life. Instead, it was entered
to protect oil interests in a part Of
contested territory"
Secretary Hughes should sanction
without delay the congressional pro-