Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-11-25
4 Time for Calm Thinking
On the Treaty of Peace
THE interval of calm between the Sen
ate's empty wrangle and the recon
- waning of Congress in December al

ates empty wrangle and the recon-
vening of Congress in December af-
fords opportunity for quiet thinking on the
treaty of peace, about which there has peen
such a whirl of partisanship and passion.
Prejudice has had its fling; pygmy polltics
has had more than its inning. Surely II is
time for common sense and common patriot
ism to take charge. 1t is high time for men
who are clear-visioned enough to see anu
frank enough to admit the perils when loom
ahead to seek an agreement on this grave
issue-an agre7 ment by which the treaty can
be ratified and Americas interests and duties
un6cr' t. goat covenant guaranteed.
Listening to the recent Senate debate. one
might have imagined that this was merely an
issue between the Pres dent and faction OF
the upper legislative chamber. There will
be no compromise" Senator Lenroot an
grily cried ''if the President wants this
treaty, he must take the reservations sub
seantially adopted today" Now this Is
fairly typical of the attitude of those who set
their heads to nullify the document which
came from Versailles. They made the Pc
culiarly .re~rettable error of assuming that it
was President Wilson's treaty they were
dealing with and that because they d;sliked
h m they were privileged to wreck any peace
plan which he might submit. The fact is. of
course, that this is no more Woodrow VIII
sons treaty than it is Lloyd GEORGES treaty,
or Clemenceaus treaty. 1t is not the work of
any man. It is the work of an inter-
national conference.-the most widely repre-
sentative and most profoundly democratic
conference lin the history of ciVilizat ton.
America had large part and decisive in
f1uence in those counselings. The ideas she
carried tnither were, for the most part, eff
fectual; the principles she champiOned proved
dominant. Without unseemly Boosting 1t
may be said that the compact which finally
came forth was distinctly American in the
larger trend of it's thought and purpc-e.
President Wilson, it is true, was this ma
TONS chief spokesman in the conference
But the President, whosover he may be, is
always this nations chief spokesman in mat
tiers international. The Constitution itself
SO provides, and Henry Cabot Lodge him
self has so asserted until recent months.
Some thirteen years ago that great Constr
tutional authority, Senator John c. Spooner,
declared, in the course of a memorable eX-
position of the treaty-making power that
"under the Constitution the absolute power
Of negotiations is in the President and the
means of negotiation subject wholly to his
will and his judgment" Further, 1.-The Pres
ident is so supreme under the Constitution
in the matter of treaties, excluding only the
Senate'S ratification, that he may negotiate
a treaty, he may send it to the Senate, it
may receive by way of advice and consent
the unanimous judgment of the Senate that
it is in the highest degree for the public in
terest, and yet the President is as free when
ratification attached, to put it in his desk,
never again to see the light of day. as he
was free to determine in the first Instance
whether he would or would not negotiate it.
1t is a matter of record on that occasion that
the Honorable Henry Cabot Lodge rose in
the Senate and Endorsed this exposition, de-
claring: Where the Senator from Wisconsin
mas reaLed, there is very little left for any
one else to CLEAN" It is the veriest non
sense, then, and a mere echo of wounded
vanity when senatorial foes of the treaty talk
of Pres dent Wilson's having ignored their
rights in the negotiation. Mr.. Wilson did
essentially what Mr.. Lode would have done
had Mr.. Lodge been Chief Executive and had
followed Constitutional forms of procedure.
Let us admit that the President might have
dealt more tactfully with the Senate, and
that on the Democratic as well as the Re-
publican side of that body better judgment
might have been shown. All this is as moth
ing to the vast interests of America now de-
pendent on the ratification of an honorable
and well-ordered peace Wlthout such
peace this nation will lahJl under dtaabil ties
which every province Of our industry and
commerce Will feel d handicap, and every
phase of our foreign fairs as Humiliation.
1t is idle to talk of settling this problem by
a mere resolution OF Congress declaring the
state of war between the United States and
Germany at an end. There must be treaty
Of one kind or another If not treaty shared
by our associates in the world conflict, then
treaty constituting separate peace with
Germany and isolating from the friends
with whom won the AMI who now
look to us for aid in maintaining concord and
justice. Should matters drift as they are,
the United. States would have no defined re-
lationships with Germ8uy and no part or
right in the adm II lstration of the peace terms
which that country has accepted at the hands
Of the Versailles conference
Consider what this would mean to u.s. 1t
would mean competent authorities declare
that we should be bound, under international
Jaw, to give up the German ships which we
seized in our harbors when we entered he
war, and that we should have to forego (un-
less we chose to take up arms agan) the
COLLECTION of the hundreds OF millions of dol
lars of war claims which American ct;gers
hold against Germany. 1t would mean that
our Government could be legally called upon
to restore to German nationals in this country
the property which it took over during the
War-property amount ,ng to millions, if not
billions in money and reaching into every
field of industry and bus ness. It would
mean, moreover, that the United States
would have no voice in the highly important
Preparations Commission which is to have SUI
pervisiOn over the entire foreign commerce
81 Gc:m~ny, determining one way or another
il what 10" sis she shall buy and sell and
o. wat te MS she shall pay. SuDQoZe our
i2,-xsIs We're without representation i'll