Life — November 11, 1920 — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

NOVEMBER 11, 1920 Groxce B. Ricuarnson, Vice-President Le Roy Minter, Treasurer Grorce v'Utassy, Secretary P EOPLE reddeh! do much do what they will, as what they must, and not so what they must do depends on what inside furniture they have acquired. Out of what is offered they make their selection. Character is resistance to mean choices. Presidential campaigns are studies and trials of character. We know more about men when we get through with a cam- paign than we did when we began. We ought to know more about something, for a presidential campaign is a heavy job. Let us hope that this one, which for read- ers of these words is now over, and the result of which at this writing has not be- come known, has added duly to knowledge. We certainly know more about several men, the candidates included, than we did when we began. We know also some- what more about the League of Nations. Perhaps some of us know ourselves better than we did last June. Certainly we know a good many of our neighbors better, and knowing that, we have made some prog- ress towards knowing what is going to happen. For what will happen to us and our neighbors depends very considerably on what we contain, and the same thing could be said of the world. What will happen to the world depends upon the world’s character. The League and the Covenant cannot save the world unless there is enough grace in it to make it savable; neither will they involve the nations in war unless the nations have that in them that must be fought out. At this writing the campaign is half through its last week, and things seem to be visibly moving towards the League of Nations. The wave Harding started at Des Moines is still going, and it is a good wave. It may not beat him, but it shows a stronger popular disposition towards “While there is Life there’s Hope” Pubbished by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY ais Dana Giason, President 17 West Thirty-first Street, New York London Offices, Rolls House, Breams Bldgs., London, E, C. the League of Nations than possibly he had suspected. Thirty-two distinguished Democrats, headed by Moorfield Storey and John G. Milburn, have published a response to the statement of the thirty- one League Republicans who will not bolt Harding, which is a thorough job. There is about as much left of the statement headed by Lyman Abbott and signed and defended by Mr. Root, as there was of the horse that drew the wagon that car- ried the stuff that blew up Wall Street. Hearst has switched to Smith and half- switched to Harding, and Mr. Wilson has put in a word, It is the best part of the campaign, and quite cheering. A friend who writes us (October 26th) quotes a traveller just in from the Middle West as saying that “it’s all Harding,” and that when we hear of no discussion of the League out there, that is not because there is no interest in it, but because the League is taken as a fore- gone conclusion, and that another fore- gone conclusion is that Harding will have to take it and put it over, though perhaps without Article X. If anything like that is true, the labors of the campaign have not been for noth- ing. If the sweep towards Cox in the closing days on the League issue helps to insure ratification of the Treaty, that will be a result worth a lot of trouble. The Treaty ought to have back of it strong bi-partisan support. It is not a certain panacea for anything. It is an experiment, that we can get out of quite promptly if it does not work. We are a big country, the best able to take care of itself of any on earth, and even if the League is a lottery, we ought to take a chance in it for the encouragement of mankind. Theodore Roosevelt, in the old days be- fore he bolted, used to emphasize the importance of being inside the organiza- tion where he could influence it. The VOL. 76, No. 1984 Epwarp S, Mastin, Editor Tuomas L. Massox, Managing Editor F, De Sates Casey, Art Editor League is a world organization, and the place to influence it is from the We can bolt if we have to at any time by giving two years’ notice. side. 3 ROTHER Frank Crane says no mat- ter who is elected let us have a coali- tion government—an administration, that is, with useful men in it from both parties. That sounds Utopian and therefore im- practicable, but it is not altogether bad. The idea is that if the Democrats have won, they will be geese if they don't use Hoover, and that if the Republicans have won, they will be geese if they don’t use Colonel House. Hoover and Colonel House are valuable and experienced in- struments of government, especially as concerns foreign affairs. There was a thing in the war called a liaison officer, who could get necessary people into com- munication. Colonel House is the great- est liaison officer in the world, He has been laid off ever since Mr. Wilson left Paris, and no matter who is elected, it is time the country and the world had again the advantage of his useful talents. As for Hoover, one great reason for having this clection was to set him to work to improve the condition of mankind. Who- ever the voters have chosen, he should be set agoing on that job. the last day of the convention of the New York State W. C. T. U. at Syracuse on October 26th, the ladies re- solved that “there is immediate need to comicbookshe, |