The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-01
AS TO THE LEAGUE PLANK

lreIerFlng Co Cne League or NaClonS to the people is in effect a challenge to the Republican party's claim of man. date against the league. The Demo- cratic approval of the league as the proper medium through which inter national peace is to be permanently es- tablished is unmistakable. The success of the Democratic party in the coming campaign would foreshadow beyond reasonable doubt the forthcoming ap- proval of the league by popular ballot. It is lamentably true that at present we have no foreign policy of a vigor and dignity commensurate with our impor- tance as world power. We cannot es- cape some share in international delib- erations, but at present we must operate as an outsider rather than as an asso- ciate in good and regular standing.
 Whether this nation directly enters the League of Nations or not, it is the avowed purpose of the Democratic party to develop a foreign policy adequate to take care of all our interests abroad and calculated to maintain our prestige as nation. There is both a sentimental and a practical necessity for our more complete participation in world affairs. In the sentimental view, our sef-respect and our pride of leadership impel us to have a share in the tremendous achieve ments that are in process of being in- ternationally consummated. We have always held such a position of leader ship, and other nations have not yet grasped fully the fact that we have, through the blundering of the Repub- lican party, voluntarily surrendered that strategic position in world affairs. Yet they are beginning to go ahead without us, and to shape world affairs without consulting our will in the premises. Why should. they consult us, when we have formally withdrawn from conference?
 The practical necessity for our more intimate share in world affairs is found in the obligation we have of maintaining abroad adequate markets for our surplus products, a, surplus that increases with every years output. This process of developing our foreign custom consists in reciprocal policy. We must reduce our tariff, which is not only a wall pro- tective of big business in this country at the expense of the American family budget, but it is at the same time bar rier between us and the good will of the nations whose trade we must have. Our tariff, by shutting off foreign goods from our markets destroys the basis of commerce, which is the full and free in- terchange of commodities. Our tariff, by shutting off such trade reduces the purchasing power of those to whom we would sell, and thus restricts the market for our goods, particularly for agricul- tural products. And not only does the farmer see his foreign market curtailed by this policy, but he also, because of the piling up of farm products in ware houses, beholds a consequent decline in the domestic price he receives. The Dem- ocratic party pledges itself to remedy this situation.
 
 international intercourse and good will is the assurance of interrupted peace. The world cannot affordewar. All the nations now are paying for war, if not through taxesj then through loss in ma terial and spiritual ways. Fifty-four na- tions have associated themselves together in league which has for it's fundamental purpose the promotion of the welfare of all nations. Incorporated in that pro- gram as an essential feature is the pur- pose of preventing future wars by every possible means. As Newton D. Baker so acutely observed, the Washington con- ference merely reduced the instruments of war, but the league purpose is to re- move the causes of war. Disarmament is all right and proper, but in a world free from the menace of war disarIna- ment would be spontaneous and volun- tary.
 This nation cannot much longer fail to assume it's full share of the worlds task of solving the world problems. The new inventions of rapid transit and in- stantaneous communication among na- tions no matter how remote from one another have made of common concern matters that formerly were confined to narrow significance. As a nation noted for it's progressiveness, even among its most highly conservative groups, it is inn perative that we begin at once to move forward, and resume our proper place in the ranks of the world powers.