WI: Woodrow Wilson dies of Stroke in 1919.

What if Woodrow Wilson had died instead of being severely incapacitated by his stroke on October 2nd, 1919? How would Thomas R. Marshall's albeit short term go? Could he get the Treaty of Versailles ratified? Would he be re-nominated in 1920? If not, who? Would the Republican Convention still have Warren G. Harding as it's nominee?
 
Marshall would be more willing to compromise on reservations to the Vesailles Treaty than Wilson was, and because of this greater flexibility--and because of Wilson's "martyrdom" on behalf of the League and because most Americans wanted a League of some kind--he would probably be able to get the Treaty and League through the Senate. (The so-called Irreconcilables, who objected to the League in any form, were a small minority in the Senate. One can argue that some of the so-called Strong Reservationists like Lodge were really Irreconcilables in disguise, determined to find some excuse to defeat the treaty, and that if Wilson would have agreed to the Lodge Reservations, they would have demanded further ones. But I doubt that they would have the votes to do so successfully even with Wilson, and in any event, such games would probably be politically impossible after Wilson's death.)

The Republicans will win in 1920 in any event--martyrdom or no martyrdom, too many people ranging from German Americans to African Americans would be just fed up with the Democratic administration.

I doubt that US membership in the League would make that much difference, but there is one interesting way Marshall's administration *might* have differed from Wilson's, if Marshall had come to power early enough: in April 1919, the New York Times quoted him as saying that he would favor sending "a sufficiently large force to Russia to thoroughly exterminate the Bolsheviki." https://books.google.com/books?id=po0bAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA14 Whether it would really have been politically possible for him to do so even at that time is another matter; and by October 1919 it would almost certainly be too late.
 
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the stroke actually saved Wilson's life. One of my professors informed the class that at the speech where the stroke took place there were very many armed men ready to kill Wilson. one of these would be killers was the grandfather of the professor. So either make the stroke worse or avoid it altogether and Marshall is president.
 
the stroke actually saved Wilson's life. One of my professors informed the class that at the speech where the stroke took place there were very many armed men ready to kill Wilson. one of these would be killers was the grandfather of the professor. So either make the stroke worse or avoid it altogether and Marshall is president.
In this scenario, Wilson still collapses in exhaustion while on tour in Pueblo, Colorado. It's only after he returns to D.C. he has his fatal stroke.
 
the stroke actually saved Wilson's life. One of my professors informed the class that at the speech where the stroke took place there were very many armed men ready to kill Wilson. one of these would be killers was the grandfather of the professor. So either make the stroke worse or avoid it altogether and Marshall is president.

I have done a lot of reading about Wilson and have never come across this. I think your professor may just have been repeating a family legend...
 
I doubt that US membership in the League would make that much difference, . . .
Well, how about this? A better League helps to slow and stop the slide into the Great Depression, by taking the view, Hey, if we all clamp down on trade, we're all going to be worse off.
 
Well, how about this? A better League helps to slow and stop the slide into the Great Depression, by taking the view, Hey, if we all clamp down on trade, we're all going to be worse off.

Keynes did suggest a "Free Trade Union" under the auspices of the League. https://books.google.com/books?id=UFJzAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA64 But the US would probably never agree to membership in such an organization even if it did agree to membership in the League. There were some dedicated free-traders in the US in the 1920's, like Cordell Hull, but they were a minority. By 1928, even the Democratic platform was endorsing the protective tariff.
 
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