Woodrow wilson had spent seven Months Overseas negotiating. Professor armstrong wished that the treaty would vault the u. S. Into a leading position in the global order but u. S. Domestic political divisions, combined with turmoil created by a flu pandemic, red scare, racial unrest and wilson suffering a stroke all contributed to his failure to receive ratification. Kansas city hosted this event and provided the video. Our guest speaker, dr. Gary t. Armstrong, teaches American Foreign policy for u. S. Programs in washington, d. C. He is a professor of Political Science at William Jewel college in missouri. He graduated with a bachelors degree from the university of oklahoma and a phd from georgetown university. Gary served as Research Assistant to a political scientist, political economist, and author, and teaching assistant to former u. S. Secretary of state madeleine albright, who is here for a private dinner earlier this year, just to drop a name or two to impress you. Gary joined the William JewelCollege Faculty in 1992 and now serves as chairman of the department of Political Science and director of the International Relations major. The William Jewel student body has voted him professor of the year an amazing four times. Gary is also a longtime supporter of the National World war 1 museum and memorial, and for that we are very appreciate. Please give a warm become to dr. Gary armstrong. [ applause ] good evening, and thank you for coming tonight. There should be lots of interesting questions on the 100th anniversary of the senates first rejection of the versailles peace treaty. What a great moment to talk about americas place in the world. It was a time of growing polarization and radicalization. There had been a series of race riots and the current estimate is that between probably the summer of 19 and the summer of 21, about 1,000 americans were killed. They would get the worst in tulsas race riots, which led i think to the first bombing of an American City by our own air force. At the same time, there were just two weeks before the senate would take its vote, a series of bombings that led to something called the red scare. Its entirely wrongly named. The people who did the bombings were anarchists, but attorney general palmer, whose own house was bombed in one of those raids, launched a series of very vigorous raids to detain about 10,000 and to arrest about 3,000 anarchists, about 550 were deported. Its a time when we have race riots, we have radicals, we have the government using force. Its also a time, lest we forget, when americans were intensely polarized at the political level as well. On the day that Woodrow Wilson appeared to ask the u. S. Congress for a declaration of war in april 1917, his famous speech had to be postponed. A very important matter had to be settled first, which was who was going to have the speakership of the u. S. House of representatives. In the 1916 elections, which Woodrow Wilson had barely won at the president ial level, they are some of the most closely fought in all of American History. Look what had happened in the United States house of representatives. You had a virtual tie. And there were hours of political finagling over who was going to get the majority. This is the only time that the Largest Party did not get the speakership. The republicans had more seats than the democrats, but they did not get the speakership. This was the last time in American History where the speakership was given because the democrats formed a small alliance with small parties, and whats really interesting is that then the house turned to the question of the president s speech and the declaration of war, and a lot of very interesting members of congress voted no on the declaration of war, including the first woman to sit in the u. S. House of representatives, rankin, who would also vote against the war and attack on pearl harbor. She could not accept the violation of her principle, even if the United States had been attacked in 1941. But also interestingly, the man who had just got the speakership of the house of representatives broke with the president , the director of his party, and refused to vote for the declaration of war. This is a time when Great Questions are at stake, people are intensely divided, and politics is going to start impacting Foreign Policy. By the way, its also a great time, just as were getting ready to start debating how to end world war i, a great pandemic breaks out. Today the cdc estimates that about 675,000 americans lost their lives in the great influenza of 19181919. Notice that kansas city had about 2,300 dead. By the way, thats significantly larger than st. Louis, who was better organized and more ruthless in dealing with influenza than kansas was. In the month of october alone, 195,000 americans died of flu. Remember, 50,000 americans died of wounds during world war i. And at about the time that the senate is going to move into the most intense question about what should we do regarding the league of nations, we have the most serious medical crisis in the history of the american presidency. Woodrow wilson has a massive ischemic stroke on october 2nd. He has been on a gigantic nationwide tour. Towards the end of that toward, they realized there was something seriously wrong with the president. They cleared the Railroad Line and got him back as fast as they possibly could to washington, d. C. He had been in washington, d. C. Just briefly when he had the massive stroke. For six weeks, his wife maintained a charade that there was nothing wrong with the president. No one was permitted to see the president for six weeks, except the first lady, his physician, a handful of trusted aides. His own press secretary, was not allowed to see the president. And whats really interesting is that a lot of specialists now believe that mrs. Wilson made a terrible mistake. She isolated the president , when what he probably needed the most for his longterm recovery was consistent interaction with people. Now, that has led to a big argument that were going to see later, that the president s catastrophic stroke led to an increasing rigidity in his personality that would lead him to make fundamental errors during the debate over the versailles peace treaty. Are we talking plague, war, stroke . I mean, god bless us, we are this close to the four horsemen of the apocalypse while we are trying to figure out what is americas role in the world. So the debate, its a series of first. It is the first time that a president of the United States proposed sweeping reforms to the fundamental basis of International Relations. Its the first time that an american president goes abroad for diplomatic negotiations. President wilson will be abroad for basically seven months. There are people who challenge this. They dont even believe that he has the constitutional right to leave the territory of the United States. This is going to be the moment where we have the first proposal for a permanent World Organization with something called collective Security Authority in war and peace, and that for tonight is going to be the heart of the fight that were going to be exploring in just a minute. This is going to be the first time that the United States will consider a treaty that technically, formally requires it to end its historical isolation. By isolation, im using the definition that we use in Political Science, a reluctance or avoidance of military commitments to europe. So you can be in favor, for example, of sending missionaries to china. That doesnt make you an isolationist. In 1900 you could have been in favor of annexing the philippines. That would make you an imperialist. But opposed to making any security commitments to europe, which could make you simultaneously an imperialist and an isolationist. This will be the first time that the senate will invoke to stop the filibuster so they can get the voting Business Done and this will be the first time that the United States, the senate will reject a peace treaty. And this is how it starts. President wilson landed back in the United States on about july 8th, 1919, from his long time in europe. He goes to new york and then he goes to washington, d. C. He carries the bound, enormous copy of the treaty into the senate. In fact, hes met by, and who asks if he would like help carrying the treaty and wilson laughs and says, not on your life. Then wilson gives this speech, the stage is set, the destiny is disclosed, it has come about by no plan of our conceiving, but by the hand of god, who has led us into this way. We cannot turn back, we can only go forward with lifted eyes and freshened spirit to follow the vision. It is this that we dreamed at our birth. America shall show the way. The light streams upon the path ahead and nowhere else dare we reject it and break the heart of the world. This, from the most accomplished rhet orician ever to become president of the United States. E president of the United States. And the speech was a dud. It was too high, it was too flowery. But whats really interesting is youre going to see more in the New York Times firstpage coverage of the president s speech. They give the basics of the speech, but you start to see down here some really interesting salvos that are already being waged. The new majority leader of the senate, henry cabbott lodge, is saying, dont forget, we have the right to amend this treaty. And we may have to amend it by twothirds, but dont forget, we republicans are now the majority because of the elections of 1918. Youll also see that the president greets callers in the special room set aside for the president of the United States at the u. S. Capitol, 30 democrats went to see the president , one republican. It was the first sign that very serious trouble was brewing on the fate of the treaty. Now to skip ahead, here are the votes. So 100 years ago tonight, and they closed at about 11 00 p. M. Washington, d. C. Time. So i think we should all stay so we go for the full hundredth hour. The vote for a set of reservations by henry lodge was 41 yes, 51 no. The twothirds requirement was 61. Then the vote for the treaty with no reservations as president wilson himself had proposed it was 38 yes, 55 no. It was not even close. Then in march of 20, after four months, they have another debate and another vote, and this time the votes go up in part because 12 senators are absent. So this time the votes are 49 yes, 35 no. The requirement to pass a treaty is 56, so it is failed by 7 votes. Then those who were absent, although they couldnt vote, they could announce what their position would have been, and thats how you wind up with this. 57 announced that had they been there, they would have voted yes or they did vote yes. 39 said that they were there and voted no or they would have voted no. Thats the highest that the senate ever came, the closest the senate ever came to passing the versailles peace treaty. Now, a lot of people say, well, this is a problem, there were a group inside the senate called the irreconcilables. They said, you couldnt drag us with all the horses of the calvary to vote for this. They said we will not do this. Theres a lot of discussion about how many were there. Im going to be using an estimate that you can see in a couple of different books, because normally youre going to get between 15 and 18, so im going to list the 18 and they include all kinds of fascinating senators. Theres bob lafollette, theres president Theodore Roosevelts attorney general in William Howard tafts secretary of state, who was irreconcilable. There was no way he was going to vote for the treaty. Theres a new senator from illinois, mccormick. A lot of people say, well, thats what happened. These people somehow managed to defeat the treaty. Thats the story. And thats not the story at all. One of those irreconcilables is our very own james reed from kansas city. He would be in the senate for 18 years. He had been the mayor of kansas city from 1900 to 1904 when our Convention City burned, and they rebuilt it through fast donations and fast work. He made very clear he was an irreconcilable, i will not vote for this treaty, because he was an isolationist. But theres Something Else. He was a racist. And he was very direct that he was afraid that the league of nations, with its darkskinned people, would eventually be able to outvote the whiteskinned people and impose a new order of racial equality at the international level. Im not using some of his more incendiary quotes because they are public quotes laced with the n word. For some people the story of james reed becomes a story of who opposed the treaty. Its provincialist bigotry that sank this treaty. Thats not a good understanding of what happened here either. For example, in one of the best books about this fight, john milton coopers breaking the heart of the world says lets take a look at this for just a minute. A lot of people think that cosmopolitans, people who have strong experience abroad, those would be the people most likely to be in favor of the treaty. He says actually when you study the biographyies, the people wh were the most cosmopolitan members of the senate tended to be the most opposed to the treaty. So, for example, the new senator mccormick was raised by a diplomatic. He used to boast and drag that he learned to speak french before he learned to speak english. He was very involved with global affairs, but he was opposed to the treaty. This is senator knox, the republican who had been tafts secretary of state, he was an irreconcilable, but during the Senate Debate he announced a resolution that we now call the knox doctrine that announced if there were in the future any threat to the peace of europe, then the United States would regard it a grave matter, consult with friendly governments and consider the possibility of taking military action to deal with it. In other words, he was an irreconcilable, but not an isolationist. Some people say if its not the story of those irreconcilables, who were probably provincial bigots, then surely the story is that the American Public opinion wasnt ready for this gigantic step, a huge stride into a formal commitment to join the Security Architecture of world politics. So the professor in his book power without victory says its time we kill that myth. We dont have what we would now call modern Public Opinion polling for another 15 years after the defeat of the versailles peace treaty. What we normally use to gauge where Public Opinion was in those days is to look at where newspapers were, and the evidence, he says, is overwhelming. There was very strong American Public opinion support for the treaty and for joining the league of nations. Look at the list of newspapers, except for the kansas city star, many of them, including the st. Louis dispatch, favored the treaty. He takes a look at religious organizations, which were incredibly important 100 years ago, and its overwhelming support from protestants, including baptists, to catholics, jews. Labor was very in favor of the treaty, although they had strong reservations about one component of the treaty. Senate groups like the new American Legion came out in favor of the treaty and joining the league of nations. 17 state legislatures passed resolutions, including massachusetts, which happened to be the most important to the treaty. And the most important brand new single Issue Advocacy organization in the United States was something called the league to enforce peace. It had thousands of members all over the country and they had 100,000 to try to advocate for the treaty. It was led by the former president William Howard taft. The evidence is this treaty had the Popular Support to be approved. By the way, there were some really interesting intellectuals who were trying to make fundamental decisions about this. Theres the great feminist social worker jane adams and theres w. B. Dubois, both of them disappointed for their previous support of Woodrow Wilson. Adams, because the president had not been a vigorous supporter of the constitutional amendment to give women the vote. He had not supported doing it through a constitutional amendment. And then w. B. Dubois who was furious at the president s inability to articulate publicly a strong opposition to lynching or to articulate why we need to do stop the race riots. Whats interesting is both of them thought things over and decided they, nevertheless, would support Woodrow Wilson in the league. This is Walter Littman. By the 1960s and 70s, i am told, i have read that there was hardly any serious question of the day that serious americans didnt wait until