William Howard Taft Weighs In

Swingback Saturday returns to the thrilling days of yestercentury to check up on how President Woodrow Wilson's peace negotiations were going ... with the Republican Congress.

"The Champion" by Cyrus Hungerford in Pittsburgh Sun, July/Aug., 1919

At the end of the Great War, there was considerable public relief that the fighting was over, and support for Wilson's League of Nations to prevent any more wars. But Republican Senators nevertheless mounted opposition to the peace treaty. Their motives varied; isolationist Sen. William Borah of Idaho was against American involvement in any international body, whereas Majority Leader Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts had the more cynical aim of denying President Wilson a domestic political victory.

"Jazzing the Professor's Grand Opera Composition" by Jay N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Aug., 1919

Between those two interests, throwing up one "reservation" to President Wilson's treaty after another, the prospects for American ratification of the Treaty of Versailles grew dimmer with each passing day.

"A Very Present Help" by Bill Sykes in Philadelphia Public Ledger, Aug., 1919

Into the fray ventured William Howard Taft, at this point the only living ex-President of the United States. Having served as Governor of Cuba and of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War, and as Secretary of War under Theodore Roosevelt, he had some experience with the U.S.'s expanded role in the world. As President of the League to Enforce Peace, he had pressed for an international organization dedicated to the cause of preventing war since 1915, so it was no surprise that he should break with the then current leaders of his party.

"His Former Master's Voice" by John Knott in Dallas News, Aug., 1919

Taft contributed essays to a book the League to Enforce Peace published in the summer of 1919, The Covenanter: An American Exposition of the Covenant of the League of Nations. He addressed his fellow Republicans' charge that the League would act in violation of the Monroe Doctrine:

"The sum and substance of the Monroe Doctrine is that we do not propose in our own interest to allow European nations or Asiatic nations to acquire, beyond what they now have, through war or purchase or intrigue, territory, political power, or strategical opportunities from the countries of this hemisphere. Article X of the League is intended to secure this to all nations, except that it does not forbid purchase of territory or power.

"The White House Gardener" by Cyrus Hungerford in Pittsburgh Sun, Aug., 1919

"In some speeches in the Senate intimations have been made which enlarge this doctrine beyond what can be justified. Those who would seek to enforce a Monroe Doctrine which makes the western hemisphere our own preserve, in which we may impose our sovereign will on the will of other countries in their own interest, because, indeed, we have done that in the east, should not be sustained.

"The Butterfly" by Sidney J. Greene in New York Evening Telegram, Aug., 1919

"The European nations desire our entrance into this League not that they may control America, but to secure our aid in controlling Europe, and I venture to think that they would be relieved if the primary duty of keeping peace and policing this western hemisphere was relegated to us and our western colleagues."

"Keerful Y' Don't Make a Mess of It, Boys" by Elmer A. Bushnell  for Central Press Assn., Aug., 1919

"Will our country be forced by these covenants into a lot of little wars all over the face of the world? No. In the first place, the existence of the League and its covenants and the immediate self-acting boycotts will restrain most nations, especially small nations, from incurring the penalty of complete world ostracism. The background of possible united force will be a further restraint. It will minimize war everywhere."

As significant as Taft's book was, it was President Wilson tasked with touring the country to rally support for the League. In September, Wilson suffered a stroke that took him out of the game, leaving the field wide open for the League's opponents.

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I'm going to take a couple weeks off from history studies, but do keep tuning in for my regular contemporary cartoons.