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' f ' ' _ y ESTABLISHED 1844. The Press and Banner ABBEVILLE, S. C. a ? The Press and Banner Company PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Telephone Xo. 10. Entered as second-class mail matter at post offico ir. Abbeville, S. C. Terms of Subscription: One year $2.00 Six months 1 1.00 three months .50 unvnAV lA MTTATCY 12. 11?20. *> _ , MR. BRYAN AND MR. WILSON. L-'Sneaking: af the Jackson Day dinner in Washington Thursday evening in his advocacy of the immcjjj[ ( diate adoption of the Treaty of Versailles with such reservations as might be agreed upon with a republican majority in the Senate, Mr. Bryan had the following to saj] with regard to the much disjjpssed * Article X of the covenant of the League of Nations: "If we do not intend to impair the right of Con ^ gress to decide the issue of peace or war when the time for, action arises, how can we'insist upon a moral obligation to go to war which can have 110 force or value except as it does impair the inde' pendence of Congress?' ( Mr. Bryan thus repudiated the claim of President Wilson and his cuckoos, as Col. George Harvey likes ? * 1 * ni.i. ...14.1, - to call them, that Article X is not in conuici, wan the constitutional powers conferred upon Congress. BE* / ^ . . v*. . His statement justifies the position of the republican party opposing' the adoption of the treaty with the League of Nations covenant, as it does the po> sition of Senator Smith of Georgia, Senator Shields, of Tennessee, and other thoughtful democrats in the Senate. * And Blr. Bryan shows a better understanding of the sentiment of the country than does Mr. Wilson, we think, when he says that the democrats cannot s- win on the issue which the President would make. Sua' " It matters not whether Mr. Bryan makes the stateSv rnent from the point of advantage, or from princiigN, ( pies, so far as probable results go, we think he is M* r*h<The results of the off year elections which have iu?i,i +v,;c iroar in Alabama, in Kentucky, in f'UCCil IICIU unci ... Oklahoma, and in North Carolina, where the issue " has been made, have left no doubt that the people of this country do not favor any agreement or ob9k ligation on the part of the United Slates to guarantee against outside aggression the present boundaries and the political independence of all members of the League. The people of this country, we think, will never vote to agree in advance tha.t the soldiers of this country will go to Europe or anywhere else to defend the boundaries or the political independence of any nation'when called on by ihat nation. 1 IX- Wil.An fV.of if ic !! It will not UO to s?n cti noes 1?1I. TT 1UU1I w??* .v ? only a moral obligation and cannot be made -effec^ ? tive or binding on us at a given time without the sanction of Congress and that Congress may at a ^given timeTfecide whether or not we shall declare war. As Senator Lodge says: "Nothing could so surely destroy all prospects of the world's peace as to have any powerful nation refuse to carry out an obligation, direct or indirect, because it rests only on moral grounds. Whatever we promise we must carry out to the full 'without mental reservation or purpose of evasion.' y- \ Without the most absolute and minute good faith 8* in carrying out a treaty to which we have agreed, Kit* . , without ever resorting to doubtful interpretations or-to the plea that it is only a moral obligation, treaties are worthless. Th'e greatest foundation of peace is scrupulous observance of every promise, ? express or implied,.of every pledge, whether it can be described as legal or moral. No vote should be ) given to any clause in any_ treaty or to any treaty except in this spirit and with this understanding." The democrats, therefore, would do well, so far as-the League of Nations is concefned to take counsel of Mr. Bryan. He may have been defeated s? _ tiiVco times,'"and he has, but he is sfill a shrewd politician if he is not a far-seeing statesman. WitJi the League of Nations as the Platform; as the Spartanburg Journal expresses it, only Mr. Wilson is the logical candidate to make the race for the democratic party. If he cannot run, some of those who have taken orders from him or for whom he has claimed the right to think must do so. The League of Nations which has made such inroads on his pop* rlarity already will do the rest when the people go to the polls. * T ^ J QftTlIP V_. As Uncle Joe unnon suiu in iiaoniiigwu ? time ago, the women are all for the League of Nations at first believing that it will keep the boys out of war, but when explained that instead of keeping them out of war it binds this country, and every mother in it, to send her sons to Europe to take ' part in every war which may arise in that section of the world, or elsewhere, "Hell, they are against it." * MR. BRYAN ACQUITTED AND INDICTED. The Greenweod Index-Journal would acquit Mr. Bryan of responsibility for the nomination of President Wilson by the Baltimore Convention in 1912. While persuasive, the facts stated by the IndexJournal ase not conclusive of its position. Mr. Bryan undoubtedly prevented the nomination of Champ \ m . >-' I-V \ ^ Clark, and wittingly or unwittingly, most people think the latter, he brought about the nomination of Woodrow Wilson. The newspaper reports of the Convention's proceedings certainly made the impression all over the country that Mr. Bryan favored Mr. Wilson for the nomination and was responsible for his nomination. Both Clark and the _ -1 ^ n/ilmAitflftrln'fl illic f a nn fvilP If presiucill, scemcn iu (H.nnvnii;ugb who iw the former by becoming estranged from Mr. Bryan" j and the latter by appointing him his Secretary of j State. Y?"e think, too, the Index-Journal does Mr. Bryan ^ an injustice in L.tim. ting that he is altogether sel- j ! Hsh in rno.-i. thing? he does. Mr. Bryan is entirely | m * I too wild a statesman to be considered seriously for the presidency, wo think, but there are those j rmong.-t us who believe that Mr. Bryan is a great r>r;n so far as his iove for his country is concerned, i ; id in his unselliih devotion to its best interests. ! The fact that he has a habit of talking out in the meeting about people who, in his judgment, are i : " wrong on matters of great importance to the coun- j try does not alter that opinion. Besides, since wnen did it become a crime in the i t j democratic-party to be a selfish politician? i I i WHAT ROOSEVELT WOULD HAVE DONE. . I William Koscoe Thayer, yvhose biography of Theodore Roosevelt is just out, says in his book that i > wtlinf lip wnnlrl have done i if he had been in the White House in May, 1915, when the Huns were ruthlessly sinking ships on which American citizens were passengers. Roosevelt replied, *"Ke said, in substance, that as soon as h? h-ni rea l in the New York newspaper the advertisement which Bernstorff had inserted warning all American citizens from taking passage ' on the Lusitania, he would have sent for Bernstorff ;ind a*ked Knvi whether the advertisement was officaily acknowledged by him. Even Bernstorff, arch- j liar that he was, could not have denied it. 'I should I then have sent to the department of .gtate to prepr.re his passports; I should have handed them to him and said, "You will sail on the Lusitania yourseK next Friday; an American guard will see you j on board* and prevent your coming ashore." ^The breaking; oli of diplomatic relations with bermjtny, j Rooesvelt added, 'would probably have meant war i and we were Jierrlbly unprepared. But better .war i than submission to a humiliation which no president oT this country has ever before allowed; better war a thousand times than to let the Germans go on rtiilly making war upon us at sea, and honeycombing ihe American n?ople with plots on land, while i our government snai dssly lavished praise on the criminal for his justice and humanity and virtually begs his pardon." ^ That sounds so much like Roosevelt that you can almost hear his voice and the pounding of his | fist upon the table. It rings true of the most virile American of our time, the first anniversary of whose death was commemorated this week in so many place by so many people. In vivid, instan. | # taneous, effective action ,as in intense Americanism, Roosevelt shares with Andrew Jackson unique place on the roster of our Chief Magistrates.? Greenville Piedmont. DEMOCRATIC PRESS ON THE BIG SPLIT. } In the past it has been the habit of Mr. William Jennings Bryan to boast that so long as he had the country press of his party^vith hi.m he did not care j ~ how the city newspapers stood. It remains to be seem whether the fnct that many of tl\e leading Democratic newspapers approve the stand he has taken will make him dubious concerning the soundness of his position. For some of tha Democratic organs which have bc3ii least friendly to him and most friendly to President Wilson are taking the Bryan end of the treaty argument. Not the Louisville Courier Jour * nal, which "sees red" whenever the Nebraskan trots upon the stage and construes the Jackson Day trotting as having no other importance than opening a way for a new lease on the Chautauqua stage. "Mr. Bryan," declares this leading exponent of Kentucky opinion, "cannot split the Democratic party if he is no longer a real leader of the party." On the other hand, the Cleveland Plain Dealer holds that Mr. Bryan, rather than the President, has made the more accurate appraisal ofrthe treaty situation in the Senate. "The Nebraskan," it explainsj sensed the impossibility of forcing a hostile majority to do the bidding- of a minority. He realizes j the futility of a continued deadlock. He does not believe that the question of America's participation in the League of Nations could be satisfactorily settled at the polls in a Presidential election. The Plain Dealer has urged all these points repeatedy. We have not changed our position.' The Philadelphia Record "can.not believe that any very large proportion of Democrats will elect to march under the white flag,' explaining that in its opinion "this is not the Bfyan who swayed the Baltimore Convention in 1912; this is the Bryan who splif with the President on the issue of upholdj ing American rights contested by Germany." ? The Richmond Times-Despiitcn uescriDes i>ir. cryun s attitude as a surrender to the inevitable, "but there is sound logic in his views." The issue raised by the conflict between Mr. Bryan and the President v , "may have to be decided one way or the other in the naming of the party's candi 'ate for the Presi dency. It will not await the polls. It can be delayed no longer than convention day.' The Baltimore Sun professes to believe that no impasse has been reached as yet. Not until the Senatorial deadlock becomes unquestionably unbreakable or until the President refuses to proclaim a treaty which has i been ratified by the Senate is these. need ef talk of a referendum.?New York Herald. m w 1 coir * m* Ul" ? ? 1ST1 SI I !'<* rJl I 9&' ^:~ i^'* j^j^^rr-j^ui ja..3^ > gmgggTg J This offer isv | and you- -cannot | by buying this 1 and materials n,v'tpn jj | No goods charged or I - thesi gj ' Dry Go lllllllilllii!IIll!il!llilll!illMlllllll!lllllilll!ffllllPllillll!l!lllllil!il9linilllii!lliil!il!iililIISi I @ 1 /"SAVE, C | I National' Thrif 1 ' J| 1 17th to 25th. i II 'I (f taking stock wii IJanua if II Building an ?f AI 1 - !! V1 | || G. A. Neuffer, President I ? ? m a in wmavsf H *" 11 $ v ? 9k. 5"*?n Si til Nla A! I 1 * ssi r 1 ^ ,-fa II J IK^ 1FIC4? | " * H "" ^ very,'very, unusual | :| . maxe a misia&e | in season's best styles | e;i at practically -1-2 ? 'J SB . 3 sent out on approval at i j i prices 1 J rsoD Company | >od3 Store .. 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