The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-12-14
The President Defines One Issue
and Goes Ashore.

anu OOeS ASHORE.
Perhaps the most important com
munication that reached the United
States from the strangely named ship
that bore on his self-imposed mission
the illustrious advocate of American
ENHANCEMENT came on Wednesday by
wireless to the Associated Press. This
despatch informed the American peo-
pie that their recedlng Executive had
reserved virtually all Of next week
for informal conferences with Pre-
mier LLOYD GEORGE, Premier CLEMEN
CEAu, Premier ORLANDO and others
on the groundwork of the Peace Con.
gress," and added:
"At these conferences ne president
WILSON, will emphasize the idea thai
. League of Nations must necessarily
be part of the peace treaties and Is not
. subject for separate action"
Crediting this announcement of In,
tentions as authoritative, it will be
first definite intimation Of the pro.
gramme which the President has SO
successfully concealed from those
whom 1t most concerns, that Is to
say, the Congress and the people of
the United States.
For herein is framed distinct Is.
sue with and an irreconcilable di-
yergence of opinion from that which
has been SO well expressed in the
resolution introduced in the Senate
ten days ago by Senator KNOX of
Pennsylvania and now awaiting adop-
ton or rejection by that part of the
Government which has the last say
concerning our treaties.
After reciting the declared pur-
poses of the United States in enter
ing the war (namely. the vlndication
of the ancient rights of navigation as
established under international law
and the removal forever of the Ger
man menace to our peace, the Knox
resolution provides:
That the purposes OF the United
States in these conferences should be
confined to the aforesaid aims and mat
tiers germane thereto;
That for the safeguarding of those
aims the first essential is a definite I'M
Outstanding that. the same necessity
arising in the future. there shall be the
same complete accord and cooperation
with our chief cobelligerents for the
defence of civilization;
That any project for any general
league of nations or for any sweeping
change in the ancient laws of the sea
as hitherto recognized as International
law and violated by the Teuton Powers
should be postponed for separate con-
sderation, not alone by the victorious
belligerents. but by all the nations, If
and when at some future time general
conferences on those subjects might be
dee med useful"
The two proposals, we repeat, are
fundamentally different and practl-
cally irreconcilable. The plan Of pro-
cedure attributed to the President in
the quoted despatch by wireless treats
the conclusion of the peace treaties
and the erection of the Leaghe of Ma
tons as matters inseparable The
Knox resolution now in the Senate
declares that the League OF Nations
project Is subject for separate &C
ton; that the immediate business of
concluding peace and then withdraw
ing our army and navy from foreign
territories and waters must be sep
arated from the League question and
take precedence over it.
In our view the Knox resolution
sets forth n programme OF procedure
as sane, sensible, practical and truly
American as the Presidents reported
plan of combining the two subjects is
vague, dangerous In its possibilities
of ENHANCEMENT and inconsistent with
traditional American policy.
1t Is well, however, that the issue
should be made 50 plainly and so
early in the development of the Pres
ident's carefully guarded intentions.
1t may be said that Senator KNox's
proposal has not yet been adopted and
therefore lacks the status of an off,
clal declaration by the United States
Government. The same thing Is true
of President WILSON'S proposal. His
programme for the ordering of events
Mt the conference, like the Fourteen
Points which he carried ashore with
him mt Erest yesterday and conveyed
10 Paris in a manner so spectacularly
ceremonial, rests entirely upon his per-
sonal conception of what ought to he
done at Paris. and possesses no more
weigh. than the Knox resolution as