we must not attempt to convince ourselves that they did not try the genius, patience, and diplomacy of statesmen at that time.  History will say that great as was the Allied triumph in war, no less a victory was achieved at the peace table.  The Republican proposal means dishonor, world confusion and delay.  It would keep us in permanent company with Germany, Russia, Turkey and Mexico.  It would entail, in the ultimate, more real injury than the war itself.  The Democratic position on the question, as expressed in platform is: 

“’We advocate immediate ratification of the Treaty without reservations which would impair its essential integrity, but do no oppose the acceptance of any reservation making clearer or more specific the obligations of the United States to the League associates.’

“The first duty of the new administration clearly will be the ratification of the Treaty.  The matter should be approached without thought of the bitterness of the past.  The public verdict will have been rendered, and I am confident that the friends of world peace as it will be promoted by the League, will have in numbers the constitutional requisite to favorable senatorial action.  The captious may say that our platform reference to reservations is vague and indefinite.  Its meaning, in brief, is that we shall state our interpretation of the covenant as a matter of good faith to our associates and as a precaution against any misunderstanding in the future.  The point is, that after the people shall have spoken, the League will be in the hands of its friends in the Senate, and a safe index as to what they will do is supplied by what reservations they have proposed in the past.

“Our platform clearly lays no bar against any additions that will be helpful, but it speaks in a firm resolution to stand against anything that disturbs the vital principle.  We hear it said that interpretations are unnecessary.  That may be true, but they will at least be reassuring to many of our citizens, who feel that in signing the treaty, there should be no mental reservations that are not expressed in plain words, as a matter of good faith to our associates.  Such interpretations possess the further virtue of supplying a base upon which agreement can be reached, and agreement, without injury to the covenant, is now of pressing importance.  It was the desire to get things started, that prompted some members of the senate to vote for the Lodge reservations.  Those who conscientiously voted for them in the final roll calls realized, however, that they acted under duress, in that a politically bigoted minority was exercising the arbitrary power of its position to enforce drastic conditions.  Happily the voters of the republic, under our system of government, can remedy that situation, and I have the faith that they will, at the election this fall.  Then organized government will be enabled to combine impulse and facility in the making of better world conditions.  The agencies of exchange will automatically adjust themselves to the opportunities of commercial freedom.  New life and renewed hope will take hold of every nation.  Mankind will press a resolute shoulder to the task of readjustment, and a new era will have dawned upon the earth.”