Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1919-11-29
TREATY DEFEATED
Capital Believes President Made as Great
a Mistake as When He Wrote
Letter in 1918.
lSneclal Correspondeneel.

/ " dElllll lOiIf ~ ~ AN lhhiI NduAA
ed treaty Of peace and League of Nations,
which in their combined benefcence
were to bring a new world order, are
killed as the result of the determination
of President Wilson to have his own
way at all hazards.
As a result the United States is about
to enact a concurrent resolution declar.
ing the war at an end and will then re-
turn to its domestic and foreign prob
lens with a view to its own welfare,
untrammeled by the necessity ofgaining
the consent Of any other nation.
In the opinion of official Washington
the President made as great, if not a
greater blunder than made by him in his
letter of 1918 calling for the election of a
Democratic Congress because the Repub.
licans had not supported the Admins
tration as he thought they should,
though they were as loyal After going
to Europe without asking the advice or
consent of the Senate as to the course to
be pursued, he brought back a docu-
ment the adoption Of which would have
permanently changed the traditional
policy Of the country. Though it had
been composed in secret, and the future
of the United States in the view of some
Of the soundest statesmen in both par
ties, was jeopardized and menaced by it,
he demanded upon his return that it be
ratified exactly as he presented it. The
constitution stipulates that the President
shall be bat part of the treaty making
power aud that the Senate shall be the
other part, but be decreed that the
Senate must do his will But the Senate
did not do his will On purely patriotic
grounds it sought to make reservations
In the treaty so that American rights
would be protected. These were very
simple They provided that the United
states be permitted to withdraw from
the League of Nations at the will of
Congress, that it assumes no obligation
10 preserve the territorial integrity of
other States throughout the world, that
no mandate to govern other lands be
accepted without the consent of Con-
sress, that this country reserve to itself
exclusively the right of sole jurisdiction
IN all domestic questions, that it refuse
to submit to arbitration the Monroe
doctrine, that it withhold full action in
regard to China and Japan, that its par
ticipation in official representation in
the league be subjected to Congress, and
that II threatened with invasion it |
should not have to ask the consent of
the league to increase its armament, and
preventing the British Empire from
having six votes to our one.
In spite Of the fact that the remainder
of the treaty as drawn at Versailles re-
NAMED intact, the President, on the last
day of the session. when the Senate was
about to make its momentous decision,
sent letter to Senator Hitchcock, the
Democratic leader, in which he said that
"in my opinion, the resolution in that
form does not provide for ratification,
but rather for the notification of the
treaty. To this statement Senator Len
root, of Wisconsin, took issue for the
Republicans. "The time has gone BY
be declared, when general statements
like that, having no foundation in fact,
can be longer made and the American
people be deceived thereby. | shall be
sorry indeed if this issue must get into a
political campaign. 1t ought not TO.
There ought not to be any partisan con-
siderations in a matter of this character.
But if need be that the Republican party
must again assume the obligation to
stand for Americanism, and the Demo-
cratic party choose to stand upon this
treaty of it was drawn and defeated
because we have Americanized it, we
will welcome the ISSUE"
Only eleven Republicans voted against
the treaty as it was Americanized, while
forty-two Democrats opposed it because
it did not exactly suit the President.
CAS- soon as the people recover from
this pipe dream they will see good old
human nature and the law of cause and
effect doing business at the some old
stand" Senator Brandegee told the
Senate.