Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-09-14
ARTICLE ONLY
IDEA OF WILSON
IN LEAGUE plan
Clause Jeopardizing Americas
Sovereignty Sole Survivor"
of His Draft of League
Covenant.
BY JUSTIN M'GRATH.

ditional argument were needed to
insure the adoption by the senate
Of the. reservations to the peace
treaty favorably reported by the
senate committee on foreign rela-
tions, it was supplied by the testi-
mony given before the foreign re-
lations committee by William c.
Bulhtt.
When President Wilson started
on his first trip to Paris, he an
nounced that he was looking for
ward to participation in the peace
conference with the greatest inter
est. as it would afford him an OPP
portunity of matching my mind"
against the minds of European
statesmen.
Mr.. Bullitt's testimony yesterday
was the first authentic information
the American public has had as to
the exact results of the mind
matching.
Shows Original Proposal.
Mr.. Bullitt, who was attached
to the American peace commission,
presented to the committee copy
of President Wilson's original pro-
posal for the league Of nations. The
proposal was written on the presi-
dents own typewriter and was pre-
sented to Mr.. Bullitt by Colonel
House.
Comparison of the presidents
original proposal with the league
covenant finally adopted shows that
the only provision Of the presidents
plan which got into the covenant in
tact was the much-criticized and
condemned Article X. This is the
article which provides as follows:
Members of the league undertake
to respect and preserve as against
external aggression, the territorial
integrity and existing political indie
pendence of all members of the
league. In any case of such agrees
sion, or in any case of any threat or
danger of such aggression, the coun-
Gil shall advise upon the means by
which this obligation shall be full
filled"
Believed Forced On Wilson.
1t had been believed generally, un-
til Mr.. Bullitt testified, that Article
X had been forced upon the presi-
dent by Great Britain, France and
Italy through their selfish desire to
have the United States stand as one
of the guarantors of their frontiers.
The information that the presi-
dent gave them that guarantee with
out the asking, and that this gener-
Gus gift was the only proposal of his
they accepted without amendment,
came as a great and astounding sur
prise.
This revelation of Mr.. Bullitt's, it
is believed, will do more to make
sentiment in favor of the adoption of
the senate reservations than all the
speeches that have been made
against the ratification of the treaty
in its present form.
Excuses Are Vanishing.
Senators who have been excusing
concessions OF President Wilson to
the allied powers which ran counter
to American sentiment. nave based
their excuses upon this necessity of
some concessions to bring about the
formation of the league which was to
insure the future peace OF the world.
That is the ground on which the
president himself excused his yield
ing to Japan on the Shantung issue.
The testimony of Mr.. Bullitt
seems to prove that the president
not only yielded on items of the
treaty over which there was conflict,
but that he was forced to Weld also
on every proposal of the covenant
with the exception of Article X,
which was in itself concession,
and perhaps the greatest concession
of all, in that, in the opinion of the
senate republican majority it would
| obligate the United States to send
troops to any part of the world upon
the demand of the league, whenever
the league thought their presence
was needed to repel external agrees
sion against the territory of any
member of the league.
Lost Its Shirt"
American diplomacy has for years
been sarcastically referred to by
Europeans as "shirt-sleeved diplo-
macy" After the testimony of Mr..
Bullitt it was suggested that as
shirt-s1eeved diplomacy usually
brought home the bacon" a more
accurate Characterization of the
present American diplomacy would
be "the diplomacy which loses its
| shirt"