New-York tribune., 1919-12-01
The Treaty Crisis

ltS events are largely 70 determine
whether or not there is to be ratifi-
cation of the peace treaty and entry
by this country into the league of
nations.
The President was responsible for
the temporary defeat of the treaty
ten days ago, and on him rests the
final determination of the issue of
whether the half-dead shall be re-
suscitated or whether a coup de
grace is to be given to the document
which he negotiated.
This should not be 80, but unfor
tunately it is so. 1t seems useless to
beseech the Democratic members of
the Senate to stand up as men and
Senators and to express their own
judgments. If they would, if the
question of whether the treaty
should be ratified with reservations
or without them were submitted to
them alone, and they were willing to
act as their beliefs and consciences
dictated, there is practically no
doubt as to what would be the re-
suit. But they have become pay
tisans, to the prejudice of their pa
triotisn, and may be expected to
continue to act as dummies respon-
sive to the pressure of the White
House. A Senator should be as free
in the exercise of his constitutional
prerogatives as the President is in
his. But one side of the Senate is
populated by mannikins.
The friends of the treaty and the
league are those who urge ratihca-
ton by the only method by which
the end can be achieved. The enc
'n'es Of the treaty and the league are
those who insist on a method which
they know will fail.
1t has been demonstrated before
the American people that reserva-
tions are necessary, first, to remove
ambiguity with respect to the lib
erty Of action that this country in
tends to exercise; second, to preserve
democratic control over foreign re-
lations, which the President is CON
spicuously seeking to disregard;
third, that reservations take out Of
the covenant no good thing that is in
it, and that the proposed league will
function as effectively with them as
without them.
For weeks the treaty killers have
made no serious attempt to support
their policy by argument. All they
have been able to say is that they
were obeying the orders of the Pres
ident. And so far as the President
is concerned he has significantly
refrained from meeting his oppo-
nents In the open. He has been sat
isfed to have his friends abuse Sen
ator Lodge and to insult the sup
porters Of saving reservations by
implying that they are Indifferent to
peace preservation and opposed in
a narrow spirit to America doing her
share in creating a better world.
The issue is too big a one to be
sacrificed to feed the 'vainglory of
any man. Yet the most diligcnt in
ouiry has failed to uncover any rea-
son for the Presidents course other
than the one that he is more inter
ested in saving his diminished pres
tige than in the fate~of the covenant.
The Tribune has steadily labored
to bring about the ratification of
tha covenant. Its whole policy has
been directed to this end But it
early saw that fiat ratification with
out reservations was not only unde-
sirable, but impossible. Fifteen SEN
ators oppose entry into the league
OF nations under any circumstances.
There would have been more than
the thirty three who can constitu-
tionally reject a treaty if the reser-
vation plan had not been developed.
Stripped of all DISCUSSES, the
Presidents policy would place the
entire power of decision in the
executive department. Against this
is the demand that the President
and the national legislature, acting
together as the Constitution enioins,
shall share power The President
would have an authority equal to
that of kaiser or czar, to end
which was one of the prime objects
of the war. Read the reservations
carefully and you will find that
probably all center in and proceed
from the doctrine that a President,
with respect to foreign relations,
shall not rule alone.
Thus a domestic question is be-
fore us. With the reservations the
Constitution will govern and control