The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-07-19
TRYING TO KILL
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
Senators Are Resorting to the Old
Parliamentary Device of Killing
by Amendment

ial plotters against the League c bve-
nant is plain to the view. The r are i
trying to kill the League of N. ltions.
The law assumes that men intend
the necessary consequences Df their /
own acts. If the action these Sena- |
tors urge upon the Sena tie is taken. |
They do not even seek to conceal |
their purpose. They are resorting |
killing by amendment. Mr.. Knox's |
hostile resolution, which has gone to
it's death, has been aba ndoned for a
Qualifying resolution" 1t is intended
that the Senate shall declare in this
resolution that it's rat fication of the
Treaty of Peace, SO fir as it applies
| to the League of Ma tions, shall be
without effect SO far as the United
States is concerned until the other
nations signing the Treaty shall agree
to certain reservations, which are to
| be substantially tn ese recomme aided
by Senator Root The Washington
correspondent of The Times asked
Senator KNOX what would hay pen if
the allied nations decline to accept
these reservations. The United
States in that event would be. outside
| the League of Nations" Mr. Knox
replied, with a smile. Without the
United States the League would be
lame and imsob.nt organization; in
all probability it would fall to pieces.
Therefore, we may start from the
postulate that Ser ator Knox, Senator
Lodge, Senator Be rah, Senator John
son and their associates fully intend
the death of the League of Nations
[ and are taking N easnres to- that end.
But what is their Interior aim?
Merely to prevent. the er ection Of
safeguards against the greatest cause
of human suffering cannot be the
whole end and aim of their plotting.
We know that they have a political
purpose1to express their hatred of
r PRESIDENT WILSON, to discredit
/ him and thereby advance the fortunes
t of the Republican Tarty. Their tao
T tics and their utterances disclose that
I motive, it is charged against them by
: responsible leaders of their own
: party. But by what strange perverted
process Of argument have they per-
i suaded themselves that the success of
t their desperate plot against the
+ League Covenant would improve the
/ chances of the Republicans in the
z Presidential election next year?
= The country is against them. The
I, great s05er -fhinded,, reasonable, and
2 patriotic mass of their own party is
= against them 1t is practically certain
that they cannot command the sup
y port of the majority of the Republican
e Senator'S in their desperate adventure.
m That the Republican party at large
a condemns their procedure is made
o evident by authoritative utterances in
many States of the Union. An ex-
!. President and an e2- Attorney-Genera
% of their own party have condemned
h them. More than score of repre-
90 sentative Republicans in this city
is united the other day in remon-
i'll STRANGE against the course they are
pursuing. In the West, newspapers of
high standing and of unQnestioned
LOYALTY to the party are outSpoken in
denunciation of the thing they are
trying to do The ST. Loalis Globe
-. Democrat, a great and influential
ri newspaper of answering fidelity to
e Republican principles, declares that
Ike "a large proportion of the Republican
"a press favors the League, and there
ds are but few important Republican
~ newspapers that are. unconrpromisingly
= against it, In support of this asser-
90 ton it reproduces upon its editorial
~ page in its issue of June %, five col
Az umns of editorial expressions from
ge Republican newspapers of promi-
N nence. all deploring the unwise and
dangerous course of the Senatorial
ub opponents of the League. Among
Is these newspapers are The Los
on Angeles Times, The. Portland Oregon
an ian, one of the great papers of the
- Pacific coast; The Des Moines Reg
~ lister, a representative Republican
,le paper; The Salt Lake Tribune, an
"a other sound Republican newspaper
Ter The Topeka Capital and the Globe
n Democrat.
hg The Globe Democrat calls attention
.ad to the adoption of resolutions en-
he dorsing the League Covenant by the
'rs representative vote of 29,750 to Az
m by the American Federation of Labor
ra to the resolution of the Federation O
en- Women's Clubs, representing 100000
women, declaring its approval of tn,
of revised Covenant of the League; i
rh- pofnts out that in a canvass of agri
It's cultural papers published in forty
as three States, only one of sixty eigh
'ao opposed ratification Of the Treat.
- with the League and sixty-four I'm
in qualifiedly favored it The attitud
b1v of the Church in favor of the Cove