The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, January 12, 1920, Image 6
' 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.
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t Week January || I ^
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ibeville I
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* I fc;
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