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Show THE CITIZEN A PERPLEXED PRESIDENT 5 their money. The general himself had no idea that these friendly contributions would become a scandal. That they did result in widespread criticism was due, in part, to the agitation of political opponents who understood that the people were averse to personal - to find weaknesses in a statement which the Qpresidcnt intended to be a powerful prelude to the Democratic convention. In his New York World interview he renews his attempt to manufacture political ammunition for campaign purppses. Republican leaders in .Congress, he says, cried aloud for the knew protected the repeal of some of the measures which they-welpeople from more serious evils than they would have the country know. The Lever food control act has proved to be one of effective agencies in preventing depredations at the expense of the people than almost any other measure now in operation, 'fime for repealing it is not yet. (By the way, is the bad grammar the presidents of the interviewers.) Manifestly, the president must be alluding to the use his admin-istration'made of the Lever act and other wartime measures to suppress the coal strike, the railway strike, to meet the exengencies of profiteering and to deal with the violence of aliens. Let us admit, for the sake of argument, that the administration used these wartime measures effectively and that the time is not yet when we can afford to do without them. But, after making the admission, let us hear what the president has to say about getting rid of these .wartime measures. The United States Senate, he says, has for eleven months had in its hands the power to end conditions that are unmistakably irksome to a great many of our citizens because with the ratification of the peace treaty the operation of laws that were enacted to safeguard the interests of the country in the war would automatically It is not difficult . l the-mos- O cease. In one breath he says that the wartime laws are still necessary and in the other that the Senate should have rid the country of them by ratifying the peace treaty. He defends the use of wartime measures in peacetime as imperative because of serious conditions more serious, indeed, that the Senate would have the country aware of and yet he blames the Senate for not doing away with these laws by accepting his peace covenant. The ratification of the peace treaty would not have altered those conditions which the president, and all of us,, found so menacing. It would have added menacing conditions of a. foreign character. We still would have had strikes that threatened to paralyze all industry and we would have had the secret machinations and the open violence of those who sought to destroy the nation. Had the senate ratified the nefarious treaty it would have betrayed the nation, and, as the president himself says, it would have eliminated the wartime laws which he declares arc imperatively needed even to this day. . . ; i BUTLERS BAD BREAK General Wood employed strong words to characterize the charges .made against him and his supporters by Nicholas Murray Butler. 'Jb who, strange to say, was regarded as a presidential possibility. IIow-!cve- r unfortunate it was that the campaign for General Wood was so liberally supplied with cash, the American people, who had the evidence of the senatorial investigation before them, did not believe that the general was supported by a motley group of stock gamblers, oil and mining promoters, munition makers and other like persons. Dr. Butler should have published the names' and the evidence or remained silent. The evidence at Washington showed that. the leading backer of General Wood was Colonel William Cooper Procter, whose probity and high character have not been cpiestioncd, and that the other backers were of equally good repute. There was nothing to show that any of these supporters represented all that :was worst in American business and political life. The real truth probably is that rich friends of General Wood, .many of them admirers of Colonel Roosevelt, were eager to promote the candidacy of one who had done so much to prepare the country for the late war and who had endeared himself to millions of Americans. They helped in the only way they could help by means of t campaigns in which money was such a dominant influence. When it came to nominating a candidate the delegates at Chicago were particularly, impressed by the simple, dignified and practically moneyless campaign of Senator Harding. It is General Woods opinion that Dr. Butlers action was an attempt to ingratiate himself with certain elements which exercised a determining influence at the convention, or to explain his own weakness as a candidate, or both, but whatever the reasons that prompted his statement, Dr. Butler was guilty of a blunder. If we suppose that he was prompted by a wish to emphasize the dif- fcrence between General Woods campaign and that of Governor Harding, we shall be justified in pronouncing his motive laudable while recognizing that his methods arc cru.de and ineffective. The helpful worker in the Republican ranks is one who docs not try to tear down reputations for political advantage but who works early and late to promote harmony. PLAN PLATFORM PERFIDIY The Democrats have pinned their faith to the phrase, nullifying reservations. The Utah platform, adopted the other day, declared against reservations that would nullify the covenant of the League of Nations. The phrase is essentially dishonest. It reflects the intellectual dishonesty of those who seek to defend an intolerable covenant. The phrase means either that the reservations must be such as not to change the effect of any article of the covenant or it means that the Democrats will accept reservations in the Republican sense of an amendment. If it means the former it means nothing, for a reservation that docs not amend the covenant in the least particular is the same as no reservation at all. If it means the latter it means ' that the covenant should be amended. ' The hope is, of course, to confuse the minds of loyal Democrats who have demanded that the covenant be so modified as to preserve Americas rights as a sovereign nation, the right of this nation to be represented equally in voting power, the right of the United States to handle its own domestic questions without domination by a foreign executive committee and the. right of the United State's to enforce the Monroe 'doctrine without orders from the league council or assembly, and, above all, to preserve this country free from obligations to take part in European and Asiatic wars or to expend its blood and treasure to uphold boundaries fixed by an unjust treaty. The president began by favoring interpretive reservations and he made it clear that he meant such reservations as would be a commentary, but would not amend. The phrase, nullifying reserva. tions, is designed to meet a change of opinion in Democratic ranks. The vote in the senate was sufficient to demonstrate that perhaps millions of Democrats, following the lead of Mr. Bryan, were in favor of reservations of the Lodge type. To offset this defection and, if possible, to appease the demand for real reservations, the president invented a phrase intended to mean one thing to blind Wilsonians and another thing to Democrats who could sec the perils of the league. . i I , WE WISH TO HELP We have always been kind enough to make helpful suggestions to the Democrats in their difficulties. Never have we withheld our advice concerning planks or men when our friends, the Democrats, have found themselves in a qu.mdry or thereabouts. There has been some criticism of the Republican platform because it failed to include a plank concerning the cause of Ireland and the Democrats arc threatening to write a plank on that subject for the sake of gaining political advantage. Let us, therefore, in a spirit of generosity, try to find a way out for thcN Democrats, - |