Belen news. (Belen, N.M.) 1912-1947, 1919-12-11
TRYING TO KILL
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
Senators Are Resorting to the Old
Parliamentary Device of Killing
by Amendment

ldl plotterS against the League Cove
nant is plain to the view. They are
trying to kill the League of Nations.
The law assumes that men intend
the necessary consequences of their
own acts. If the action these Sena-
tors urge upon the Senate is taken,
it will necessarily destroy the League.
They do not even seek to conceal
their purpose. They are resorting
to the old parliamentary device Of
killing by amendment. Mr.. Knox's
hostile resolution, which has gone to
it's death, has been abandoned for a
Qualifying resolution" 1t is intended
that the Senate shall declare in this
resolution that its ratification of the
Treaty of Peace, so far as it applies
to the League of Nations, shall be
without effect so far as the United
States is concerned until the other
nations signing the Treaty shall agree
to certain reservations, which are to
be substantially those recommended
by Senator Root. The Washington
correspondent of The Times asked
Senator Knox what would happen If
the allied nations decline to accept
these reservations. THE United
States in. that event would be outside
the League of Nations Mr.. Knox
replied, with smile. Without the
United States the League would be
a lame and impotent organization; in
all probability it would fall to pieces.
Therefore, we may start from the
postulate that Senator Knox, Senator
Lodge, Senator Borah, Senator John
son and their associates fully intend
the death Of the League Of Nations
and are taking measures to that end.
But what is their Interior aim?
Merely to prevent the erection Of
safeguards against the greatest cause
| of human suffering cannot be the
whole end and aim of their plotting.
We know that they have political
purpose-to express their hatred of
PRESIDENT WILSON, to discredit
him and thereby advance the fortunes
of the Republican party. Their tao
] tics and their utterances disclose that
| motive, it is charged against them by
responsible leaders of their own
party But by what strange perverted
process of argument have they per-
suaded themselves that the success OF
their desperate plot against the
League Covenant would improve the
chances of the Republicans in the
Presidential election next year?
The country is against them. The
great sober minded, reasonable, and
patriotic mass Of their own party is
against them. is practically certain
that they cannot command the sup
port of the majority of the Republican
Senators in their desperate adventure.
| That the Republican party at large
condemns their procedure is made
evident by authoritative utterances in
many States of the Union. An ex-
President and an ex-Attorney- General
of their own party have condemned
them More than score of repre-
sentative Republicans in this city
united the other day in remon-
STRANGE against the course they are
pursuing. In the West, newspapers of
| high standing and of unquestioned
loyalty to the party are outspoken in
| denunciation Of the thing they are
| trying to do. The st. Louis Globe
| Democrat, a great and influential
newspaper of answering fidelity to
Republican principles, declares that
"a large proportion of the Republican
press favors the League, and there
are but few important Republican
| newspapers that are uncompromisingl
against it." In support of this asser-
ton it reproduces upon its editorial
page in its issue of June %, five col
umns of editorial expressions from
Republican newspapers of promi
nence, all deploring the unwise and
| dangerous course of the Senatorial
opponents of the League. Among
these newspapers are The Los
Angeles Times, The Portland Oregon
IAN one of the great papers of the
Pacific coast; The Des Moines Reg
ister, a representative Republican
paper; The Salt Lake Tribune, an
other sound Republican newspaper,
/ The Topeka Capital and the Globe
| Democrat.
The Globe-Democrat calls attention
/ to the adoption of resolutions en-
dorsing the League Covenant by the
representative vote of 29,750 to 420
by the American Federation of Labor;
to the resolution of the Federation of
Women's Clubs, representing 1000, 900
women, declaring its approval Of the
revised Covenant of the League; it
points out that in canvass of agri-
cultural papers published in forty
three States, only one of sixty-eight
opposed ratification of the Treaty
with the League and sixty-four un-
Qualifiedly favored it. The attitude
of the Church in favor of the Cove
nant has been made known from hun
dreds of pulpits. Says the Globe