In speaking at the third meeting of the Union's current lecture season in the Living Room of the Union last night, Congressman Frederick H. Gillett, Speaker of the House of Representatives, gave the Republican view of the issue which is to be decided today.
Professor Roger B. Merriman '96 introduced Speaker Gillett by summarizing the duties and the traditions of his "high and most important office," and by speaking of the "high character, great tact, and splendid firmness" of the present holder of this office.
"I feel a partiality toward the grantor of my later degree," said Mr. Gillett in his opening words after speaking of his alma mater, Amherst, and his Law School studies here, "that makes me favor it in its sports and games, which I still find as much interest in as I did many years ago."
Must Have More Than Say So
After speaking of the increasing number of college men in the House, especially from Harvard and Amherst in representing Massachusetts, Congressman Gillett urged that every young man select a party and be guided in selection by the finding of the same ideals and purposes in the men of the party he finally chooses to associate himself with.
"If perpetual peace and disarmament were to follow the election of the Democratic nominee for President," he continued in talking of the "most discussed and interesting problem of the campaign-the League," "we all should help his election. But we must have more proof that it would than his say-so, though there are many who will take that just as many took Ponzi's word."
Wilson at Least Consistent
He then spoke of the "autocracy" of the present administration, pointing out that it was consistent with President Wilson's ideas expressed in a book of his written during student days 35 years ago; of the inefficient and extravagant government given the country by the Democratic administration during and since the war; and of the scandalous partisanship of the President and Democratic Congressmen in the appointing of committees and even in the filling of clerical positions.
Speaker Gillett devoted the rest of his speech to the real significance of Article 10. He brought out the unstable and unnaturally aggravated conditions in Europe we would be under a compelling moral obligation to deal with, even to declaring war, which Congress could not refuse to do without repudiating the treaty. He emphasized that Harding stood for a League and that Cox stood for the present League, which there was no reason to believe he could get through the Senate.
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