'An Appeal to the Common Sense' September 1st, 1939
A man of relatively average stature stands at the dais of the Palace of Nations in Geneva, his round, fleshy face, heavyset build, and simple but formal outfit making his presence stand out among the audience of delegates from states the world over.
Normally curt with his statements, and not particularly an inspiring speaker, many are, not surprised, but rather amused to see his face all-so-typically buried in the papers that carried the words he would be saying that day. As he speaks, the normally rambunctious delegations are unusually quiet, observing him open his speech with the history of the League of Nations, that idealistic international organization formed of the dreams of the late President Wilson, but it is not his words that gain keep their attention, but rather another thing about himself.
He talks of its intention to keep the peace following what has been one of the bloodiest conflicts of mankind's history, the Great War. He talks of this as the world stands on the precipice of another, with Europe once again the center of attention.
It is during his descriptions of the specter of militarism that haunts the dreams of a new liberal order in on the Continent that one imagines just how the world has gotten to this point: soldiers with steel helmets and shined rifles marching in prideful unison in the streets of the Rhineland, an Italy led by an eccentric Il Duce seeking its rightful place in the sun by any means necessary, demands for order in Berlin after years of being racked by internal chaos, increased Bolshevik influence in Eastern Europe and beyond, and so on.
Discussing his time observing Europe recently as one of rising concern, the rise of authoritarian governments having come at the cost of democracy, he ends what is to be labeled his infamous 'Appeal to the Common Sense' speech with a resounding condemnation, a statement to be repeated in the press for days afterwards.
"Of all the paths the citizens of Europe seem to have taken, this is easily the worst. I did not assist in the feeding of millions just to witness them and their children perish at the hands of another foolish conflict among men entrusted with the hopes of the future."
With that, the delegate Herbert Hoover of the United States of America quickly stepped down from the dais, and returned to his seat among the sixty-three others of represented nations who returned to bickering once again about the issues at hand, accentuated by the very situation Mr. Hoover had described.
And yet, his warning, as best as he had tried to emphasize such a looming threat, largely went unheeded.
It is no wonder, then, that approximately two days later, there was war. World War.
"Perhaps it was fitting that no ticker tape parades commemorated the inauguration of a man who stumbled into the highest public office in the United States by way of mere fate. It is, after considering the events under the Marshall Administration, nearly universally agreed that the Twenty-ninth President of the United States will largely be remembered to modern history as an ineffectual stand-in for a great man when the real decisions that defined the Twentieth Century had to be made.
Some may argue this is too harsh of a judgement to issue to the former Governor of Indiana, of whom the widowed Edith Wilson herself said was 'an insufferable man'. Those same voices may say that his position was one doomed to the troubles of the United States following the First World War, and that regardless of whether the late President Wilson had not passed of a fatal stroke that October 2nd, there would still be racial strife, labor conflicts, and the abrasive figure of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to deal with in the remaining months of the term.
I do not maintain that these would not be issues, whether for Wilson or Marshall, merely that the latter was certainly not equipped to handle them in an effective manner. It is, after all, a President Marshall that rendered the American membership in the League of Nations arbitrary by accepting the Lodge Reservations in order for an easy passage through the Senate.
If President Wilson, or a President Marshall with more backbone and willingness to refuse the urging of Secretary of State Lansing, had been present, peace would likely have been the dominant trend. Even the Twenty-ninth President, the unlikely successor to a host of formative pressing issues demanding remedy, wrote in his memoir, Recollections (1925), that '...I may not come to know what effects my choices in that office have into the future, and to be responsible for such consequences after the fact is quite frankly concerning.'
As we know of the historical unraveling of events since then, this concern was not unfounded."
- A League of Dunces (p. 1993)
The Twenty-ninth President of the United States, Thomas R. Marshall, acceded to the Presidency on October 3rd, 1919...[h]e is largely known for successfully passing the Treaty of Versailles through the Senate by accepting the Lodge Reservations, albeit this overshadows his role in the overseeing of the Red Summer, the First and Second Palmer Raids, the major labor strikes of the period...as well as fervently supporting the Prohibition.
