Lengthy ALS signed “Wm. H. Taft,” two pages both sides, 8 x 10.5, personal letterhead, no date. Letter to newspaper correspondent Gus J. Karger, in part: "I went to Ottawa to the Bar Association meeting and had a very good time…It was not very exciting staying with the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire though they were very kindly but it is hard to get used to the English mode of entertainment. The Congress of Canada were warm in their reception of me. I am glad I went…I sent the five editorials to the Ledger on my return but I have only seen one of them. I am disposed to go after Cox…He continues to bellow about campaign collections as if he could seize the presidency on that score." He goes on to discuss Warren G. Harding and the League of Nations: "I am content with Harding's Aug. 28th speech in which he devotes half in abuse of the League…and then commits himself to the course which will land him in the League. Harding is going to be elected. Why emphasize the issue of the League against him? Harding will be elected wholly without regard to the League issue. It is not a referendum on that." In very good condition, with dampstaining and rusty paperclip impressions.
In 1915, Taft became the first president of the League to Enforce Peace, an organization that advocated the formation of an international coalition aimed at preventing war. The fruition of President Wilson's Fourteen Points plan similarly and more famously established the League of Nations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, with the League's charter later incorporated into the conference's WWI-dissolving Treaty of Versailles. Taft's public support of the League was chastised by many of his fellow Republicans, and his inconsistent views on the Versailles reservations were rebuked by both parties. Wilson's opposition to any amendments or reservations of the treaty subsequently concluded with its final rejection on March 19, 1920.
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