Description:

William Howard Taft
Pointe-au-Pic, Quebec, Canada, September 10, 1919
Ex-Pres. William Howard Taft Discusses League of Nations & Upcoming Industrial Conference
TLS
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, Typed Letter Signed, to Gustav J. Karger, September 10, 1919, Pointe-a-Pic, P.Q., Canada. 3 pp., 8" x 10.5". Stains from paper clips; general toning.

In this letter, former President Taft discusses the ongoing debate over the League of Nations with his close friend, journalist Gus Karger, in Washington. He mentions one of his recent editorials in favor of the League of Nations and his opposition to the second reservation proposed by Republican Senator Philander C. Knox of Pennsylvania. He also discusses the opinions of Republican National Committee Chairman Will H. Hays.

Later in the letter, Taft offers observations on President Woodrow Wilson's ongoing railroad tour to promote American participation in the League of Nations. From September 3 to 24, Wilson traveled 8,000 miles to the Pacific Coast and back and delivered dozens of speeches in favor of American involvement in the League. The trip cost him his health, as he suffered from constant headaches and collapsed from exhaustion in Pueblo, Colorado. After he returned to Washington, he suffered a near-fatal stroke on October 2.

Taft also mentions a meeting of business, labor, and agricultural leaders that Wilson planned to call. On September 1, 1919, President Wilson announced that he would soon call a conference of representatives of labor and industry "to discuss fundamental means of bettering the whole relationship of capital and labor and putting the whole question of wages upon another footing." hoped he would not be asked to be involved. The industrial conference met in Washington from October 6-23, but Wilson's stroke prevented his participation. Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson convened the meeting, and Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane served as chairman of the conference, which included nineteen delegates representing labor, seventeen delegates representing employers, and twenty-five representatives of the general public. Among the participants were labor leader Samuel Gompers and former chairman of the War Industries Board Bernard Baruch. In general, the conference divided over issues of collective bargaining and open shops.

At the time he wrote this letter, Taft was a member of the faculty of the Yale Law School, but two years later, he would be appointed Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Excerpts
"I hope by this time you have seen the editorial which your telegram evoked. It is curious how our minds work together, because I had such a thing on my chest before I received your telegram. The truth is, I have no doubt that Knox drew this second reservation with the distinct purpose of cutting the heart out of the League, and that it is just as noxious (no pun intended) as the Shantung and Fall amendments. It means a rejection of the League. I see that Hays is out in favor of it. I am going to write him a letter on the subject. He teeters around like a Tom Tit and you can not tell where he is, except that you know he is trying in some way or other to get the Republican party against Wilson, and Wilson against the Republican Party." (p1)

"I don't know how you think the trip of Wilson is going. While I don't know that it will demonstrate an overwhelming opinion for the League, I think it will rouse the attention of the people who will insist on the settlement of the matter, and if we have the votes to beat the committee report, as I hope we have, it will force the Republicans into the acceptance of a compromise made by the Democrats and the mild reservationists.... I observe that Wilson is pressing the point of pro-Germanism, and I am glad he is. The longer the delay, the greater impatience there will be, and while it may strategically be weakening at Washington, ultimately I think the impatience of the country will manifest itself, and when it does, it will make for the bringing in of these people on the fence for whom one has such a contempt, but upon whom one must depend for ratification." (p1-2)

"I observe that Wilson has followed Lane's suggestion and called a meeting of labor and capital and farmers. I sincerely hope he will not include me, and I don't think he will. I am afraid I could not give the time to it, because I shall be active in New Haven in my lecturing work, and those things take a great deal of time, as I know from my experience in the National War Labor Board. What I think Wilson will do will be to leave Walsh out and to leave me out, and I shall be very glad if he does. Wilson never forgets attacks, and the publication of my letter was something that he thought it is true was a breach of confidence, but it is something that does not escape his memory, and I am very sure he does not want to appoint me, and I am very sure I don't want to be appointed." (p3)

Historical Background
The Covenant of the League of Nations was established as part of the Treaty of Versailles, signed in June 1919. The Covenant consisted of a preamble and 26 articles. It created an international organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, that was dedicated to preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. The League of Nations continued to operate until it was dissolved in 1946 and replaced by the United Nations, which included the United States among its founding members. The League had 42 founding members, and 21 countries joined later, though it never had more than 58 member countries at one time. The Soviet Union became a member in 1934 but was expelled in 1939 for invading Finland.

Although President Woodrow Wilson was one of the architects of the League of Nations, for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1919, he was unable to convince the Senate that the United States should join. Wilson returned from Paris in February 1919, eager to submit the Treaty and Covenant to Congress for its consent and ratification. Although there was strong popular support for the league, opposition in Congress and the press was growing. A Senate Republican coalition led by Republican majority leader Henry Cabot Lodge wanted a League with the reservation that only the Senate could take the United States into war. Critics objected most strenuously to Article X, which required all members of the League to assist any member threatened by external aggression. Isolationists in Congress considered the article a direct violation of American sovereignty and were opposed to further U.S. involvement in international conflicts.

Lodge also served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. On November 19, 1919, Lodge's committee reported the treaty to the full Senate with 14 reservations, and the Senate for the first time in its history rejected a peace treaty by a vote of 53-38. When the Senate reconsidered the Treaty of Versailles on March 19, 1920, the 49-35 vote in favor of joining the League fell short of the necessary two-thirds majority required by the Constitution. The refusal of the United States to join the League substantially limited its power and credibility. In November 1920, Warren G. Harding was elected president on a platform that opposed joining the League of Nations.

William Howard Taft (1857-1930) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated from Yale College in 1878. He received a bachelor of laws degree in 1880 from Cincinnati Law School. After gaining admission to the bar, Taft worked on the Cincinnati Commercial newspaper full time, covering local courts. After a brief stint as an assistant prosecutor, Taft was appointed to the Superior Court of Cincinnati in 1887. In 1890, President Benjamin Harrison appointed him as Solicitor General of the United States, a position he held until Harrison appointed him to the United States Court of Appeals, where he served from 1892 to 1900. He was Governor-General of the Philippines from 1901 to 1903, then Secretary of War under President Theodore Roosevelt from 1904 to 1908. In 1908, he was elected President of the United States as a Republican over Democrat William Jennings Bryan. After his defeat in the three-way election of 1912, Taft joined the faculty of the Yale Law School from 1913 to 1921, when President Warren G. Harding appointed him as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, a position he held until his death nine years later.

Gustav J. Karger (1866-1924) was born into a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany, and came to the United States with his parents in 1873. He was educated in Ohio and studied law. He served as city editor of the Cincinnati Post before moving to Washington in 1899, where he served as a correspondent for the Cincinnati Times-Star. In 1908, he served as Republican candidate William Howard Taft's personal press agent during his successful presidential campaign. He also played a prominent role in the 1920 campaign of Warren G. Harding. For a time, he served as president of the National Press Club. At Karger's funeral, also attended by President Calvin Coolidge, Chief Justice Taft was one of the honorary pallbearers and offered a tribute to the press about his friend.

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