Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1919-04-30
ESTABLISHED 1925
Wednesday, April 80, 1919.
President Should Now Com. Home,

"Wednesday, April 80, 1919.
President Should Now Come Home.
Senator James E. Watson. OF
Indiana, declared in the course Of an
address at Philadelphia last week,
that Congress should be reconvened
at once for the consideration of the
many important domestic problems
now being neglected by the admins
tration. He said that not IS per cent
OF the people Of the country favored
the covenant brought home from Eu-
rope by President Wilson. although
there was practical unanimity in the
desire for some genuine and practi-
cal plan for the preservation of
world peace by international agree
ment
Senator Watson said that the
chief reason impelling President Viii
son to refuse to reconvene Congress
was that he did not wish an open
public forum in which the league of
nations plan could be discussed. The
President. he said. had never been
commissioned by the people or by
Congress to write a world constitu-
ton and without such specific dele
cation of power he was acting with
out warrant He declared that the
peace treaty should have been writ
ten hFst and the plan for a league OF
nations considered afterward. not by
a military council. but by representa-
tives Of this and other nations con-
additionally chosen. The allies should
either take their hands off Russia.
Senator Watson said. or send a force
against the bolsheviki sufYiciently
large to cope with the situation.
Senator Watson's address. which
was delivered before the Manufac-
turers' Club Of Pennsylvania. aroused
much enthusiasm and elected evil
'!ences of general approval for the
sentiments expressed
The revised covenant has been ac-
cepted by the peace conference. Ii
is not perfect, for it is a human
document. 1t will be amended by
coming generations if not in the i'm
mediate future. 1t will not please
everybody; its critics will arise
everywhere. 1t would have been
written in other words by other men
but ambiguous expressions have
been cleared up. and new definitions
introduced; some things implied have
been made explicit: vague terms
have become precise. The injunction
imposed upon Americans by our
delegate in chief that a good and
sufficient reason existed for every
phrase Of the first draft and it must
not be changed or criticized has been
proven Of the same class OF bunk
as the demand for Democratic
Congress.
And so We have a more substantial
basis for discussion by the United
States Senate. Criticisms must still
be expected-but here 10 a ground :
work. the best to be had. and We are
glad that beginning has been made
Now let the peace negotiations go
on. for the delay is costing beyond ali
estimate.
Most Of the changes made in the
first covenant were in response to
criticisms by leading minds in the
United States. minds that. obvious
~. ought to have been enlisted in the
construction of the original docu-
ment-the minds of men like Root
Hughes. Knox. Taft and Lodge.
But the United States Senate has
had the benefit Of the clarifying
analyses made by these men, and of
the ablest minds at the head Of the
country's press. The public and its
representatives. are IdIullldf Win the
meaning Of every article Of the
covenant. Each has been viewed
from every possible angle. Every
United States senator is aware Of the
overwhelming desire Of the American
people for some sort of a league con
secrated to the purpose of making
war more dimcult. to reducing the
burden OF preparation against the
world neighbor who MAY attack us
from behind. to seeing to it that nc
nation may be unduly prepared Il
strike without other nations being
warned and ready for the onset.
We have a beginning. Now for
something to take the place Of the
armistice; something on which ma
lions may count as definite, fnal and
ready to build business, industry, and
home calculations upon.
And. now that his hobby has been
ridden to stanchion may We no.
hone that our President will promnt .