Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-09-08
IN WEST
GET NO NEW LIGHT
ON PACT BLOCKING
President Drops His Reserve
in Fighting Extremists,
Says Mr.. Lawrence.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
EN- ROUTE TO OMAHA. Neb.. Sep
lember S.-President Wilson elicits a
friendlier response, heartier greet
ing and a progressively earnest en-
thusiasm for the fundamentals of his
errand as he moves through Missouri,
Iowa and Nebraska-in that section of
America where go hand in hand a
contempt for party politics and an
impatience to remove for all time the
obstacles to permanent peace.
Nothing seems to strike the big au-
diences as more apropos or apt than
a denunciation of the party maneu-
vers that keep the American public
perplexed and bewildered about ma
tioEal and international policy. One
might have thought the roof was
coming down when the President, di-
gressingly, remarked to a packed au-
ditorium of $4,000 people at st. Louis
that he sometimes wishes both par
ties might be smothered in their own
gas" And again at Kansas City and
again at Des Moines, Mr.. Wilson took
occasion, with excellent effect. to say
that the treaty and league of nations
were by no means party matter.
Crowds Uninfozmed.=ss .aa,,.,.
But the trouble is a didactic stats.
ment. while it proclaims a principle
which the people like to hear. does
not leave them any better informed
as to why the treaty is being blocked
than they were before Mr.. Wilson
came.
They have not forgotten the criti-
cism leveled at Mr.. Wilson himself in
his selection of peace commissioners
to represent America at Paris nor are
they unmindful of the fact that the
democratic party in the Senate sup
ports the treaty and league almost to
a man and apparently seeks no reser-
vations or amendments whatsoever,
while the republican party disagrees
almost entirely with that Viewpoint
and wants either to tack on exp1ana-
tory reservations or amendments or
to kill the whole thing, treaty and all.
The President has set out to fight
the extremists-those who want neith-
er league nor peace treaty, those who
say the peace terms are too cruel and
that the world would be better OFF If
the whole pact failed.
Dropping His Reserve.
Those are the men whose argu-
ment Mr.. Wilson is seeking to tear
to pieces, but he has failed thus far
clearly to draw a line between the
extremists and mild reservationists
of his opposition and has in thought
less moments dropped his reserve and
spoken of the amazing ignorance" of
minded and small-visioned men,"
which epithets have not served
hitherto in establishing friendly rela-
tons between the executive and legis-
lative branches of the government
Once, at Des Moines and again at
those who were conscientiously OPP
posed to provisions of the treaty and
| were exercising their legitimate right
to scrutinize it's contents. but before
he ceased his speech he had char
acterized their hesitation as based
upon ignorance and not honest doubt
What His Friends Ask.
But Mr.. Wilson's friends ask why
Mr. Wilson should be so tender of the
feelings of the men who are passively
or otherwise failing to assert their
disagreement with that faction in the
republican party which is to his mind
disappearing the treaty as a breed
er of wars and as too cruel to i'm
| pose upon Germany. They add that
only few months ago the republican
| party won congressional election
| largely on the program of "uncondi-
| tional surrender" and an assiduously
spread apprehension that the Presi-
dent favored "a soft peace" They
declare that the republican senators
who are condemning the treaty have
| in large part therefore proved that
their objections to the league are de-
rived from a sense of political op-
positeness rather than conscientious
disagreement.
President Forgets.
But, speaking Of inconsistencies, i,
may be the strain Of extemporaneous
speaking or the saturation of argu-
ment and thoughts carried away from
his visit to Europe, but Mr.. Wilson
is himself forgetting from one night
to another the substance Of some por-
at the Coliseum at st. Louis he went
| to considerable length to explain that
this was a commercial war" and
that Germany feared her rivals would
night at Des Moines the President
to make another point. said the bankers
and business men Of Germany did not
want war, but thought it ''unspeakable
folly"
Whether the President meant to convey
the impression that a militaristic groun
/ in Germany persuaded business that the
way to greater commercial success was
by a war of conquest. or whether Mr.
\ Wilson thinks that in some Of the allied
countries the seeds of commercial zeal
! ousy helped to breed antagonism in Ger
many and to play into the hand Of the
militarists was not explained.
! Mr. Wilson harps on the necessity fol-
breaking down pan-Germanism and
keeping the road open from Bremen tc
Bagdad and safeguarding the republics
along the way, but his audiences do moi
seem to grasp the meaning of Mittel.
europa politics.
Safe on Simple Ground.
| It is apparent that whenever the