In a speech to a joint session of Congress on April 12, 1921, newly-elected President Warren Harding firmly repeated his campaign opposition to the U.S.'s joining the League of Nations. At the same time, however, he urged "conference and cooperation" among the nations to avoid future wars, presenting a plan that left many viewers perplexed. An article published nine days later in the Literary Digest presented both sides, while leading with and emphasizing the "evident skepticism." Quoting from the Philadelphia Record, it characterizes the "scheme" as "somehow to preserve to us all the rights guaranteed to us by the treaty which we have rejected, and at the same time free us of any of its obligations. . . . How this can be done is a mystery which we can not pretend to fathom." P.5.
The article is illustrated by this world map, which shows how much the failure of the U.S. to join the League set it apart from other major nations. Virtually the entire map is covered in green apart from Russia and those countries identified as "Possessions of Members of the League of Nations."