Part 36 (1/2)

As Senator Brandegee and others contended that the Covenant of the League of Nations was a ”muddy, murky, and muddled docuuity” against the proposed Constitution, saying that it was ”absolutely iive up and e retain”

Mandates and siton's day

George Mason, fearful like Senator Sherman of Illinois in a later day, ”apprehended the possibility of Congress calling in the ia to quell disturbances in New Haton in his day was very siust 19, 1797, he said: ”I a the Federal Constitution] is the best that can be obtained at this time And, as a constitutional door is open for amendment hereafter, our adoption of it, under the present circumstances of the union, is in my opinion desirable” And of the opponents of the proposed Constitution he said, ”The overned by sinister and self-iht against the League was the opposition personally conducted by Senator Lodge and others of the Republican party against the now famous Article X The basis of the whole Republican opposition was their fear that America would have to bear some responsibility in the affairs of the world, while the strength of Woodrow Wilson's position was his faith that out of the ith all its blood and tears, would coreat consuo into the League and bear our responsibilities; that we should enter it as gentlee He did not wish us to sneak in and enjoy its advantages and shi+rk its responsibilities, but he wanted America to enter boldly and not as a hypocrite

With reference to the arguue, saying that it would be a surrender of Anty and a loss of her freedom, the President often asked the question on his Western trip: How can a nation preserve its freedoh concerted action? We surrender part of our freedo this matter one day, he said: ”One cannot have an oue of Nations, a nation loses, not its individual freedom, but its selfish isolation The only freedo Robinson Crusoe was free to shoot in any direction on his island until Friday came Then there was one direction in which he could not shoot His freedoan”

There would have been no Federal Union to-day if the individual states that went toto surrender the powers they exercised, to surrender their freedoue tried to convey the ied to send our boys across the sea and that in that event A voice

Lloyd George answered this argu hen he said:

We cannot, unless we abandon the whole basis of the League of Nations, disinterest ourselves in an attack upon the existence of a nation which is a ue and whose life is in jeopardy That covenant, as I understand it, does not contemplate, necessarily, military action in support of the imperilled nation It contemplates econo people; and when it is said that if you give any support at all to Poland it involves a great ith conscription and with all the mechanism of hich we have been so familiar in the last few years, that is inconsistent with the whole theory of the covenant into which we have entered We conte pressure to bear upon the recalcitrant nation that is guilty of acts of aggression against other nations and endangering their independence

The Republicans who attacked the President on Article X had evidently forgotten what Theodore Roosevelt said about the one effective ed: ”The nations should agree on certain rights that should not be questioned, such as territorial integrity, their rights to deal with their domestic affairs, and with such matters as whom they should adotten that Mr Taft said: ”The arguainst Article X which have beenthat under its obligations the United States can be forced into many wars and to burdensome expeditionary forces to protect countries in which it has no legitimate interest This objection will not bear examination”

Mr Taft answered the question of one of the Republican critics if Article X would not involve us in war, in the following statement:

How much will it involve us in war? Little, if any In the first place, the universal boycott, first to be applied, will i isolation and starvation that in most cases it will be effective In the second place, we'll not be drawn into any war in which it will not be reasonable and convenient for us to render efficient aid, because the plan of the Council must be approved by our representatives, as already explained In the third place, the threat of the universal boycott and the union of overwhelue, if need be, will hold every nation fro Article X, and Articles XII, XIII, and XV, unless there is a world conspiracy, as in this war, in which case the earliest we get into the war, the better

Evidently Mr Taft did not look upon Article X as the bugaboo that Mr

Lodge pretended it was, for he said:

Article X covers the Monroe Doctrine _and extends it to the world_ The League is not a super-sovereign, but a partnershi+p intended to secure to us and all nations only the sovereignty we can properly have, ie, sovereignty regulated by the international law and nty of other nations The United States is not under this constitution to be forced into actual war against its will This League is to be regarded in conflict with the advice of Washi+ngton only from a narrow and reactionary viewpoint

Mr Herbert Hoover, now a 's Cabinet, in a speech delivered on October 3, 1919, answering the argument that America would be compelled to send her boys to the other side, said:

We hear the cry that the League obligates that our sons be sent to fight in foreign lands Yet the very intent and structure of the League is to prevent wars There is no obligation for the United States to engage in military operations or to allow any interference with our internal affairs without the full consent of our representatives in the League

And further discussing the revision of the Treaty, Mr Hoover said:

I am confident that if we atteh European chaos Even if we ed to keep our soldiers out of it ill not escape fearful econoue is to break doe ht Few people seem to realize the desperation to which Europe has been reduced

CHAPTER XLII

THE WESTERN TRIP

Tentative plans for a Western trip began to be forent insistence fro could win the fight for the League of Nations except a direct appeal to the country by the President in person

Admiral Grayson, the President's physician and consistent friend, who knew his condition and the various physical crises through which he had passed here and on the other side, from some of which he had not yet recovered, stood firo West, even intiht pay the forfeit if his advice were disregarded Indeed, it needed not the trained eye of a physician to see that thearound the circle” was on the verge of a nervous breakdown More than once since his return froed hiet away froton and recuperate; but he spurned this advice and resolved to go through to the end