Weekly journal-miner., 1919-05-28
WILSON'S THREAT MAY DELAY
 PEACE

WASHINGTON. Nay 2l.-IIon Jonathan Bourne. IT,. today gave out the following statement:
 Early in the day Sf March 4th, when the session of congress was drawing to a close, th.rty-Rine sena- tors of the next congress publisaed to the world, over their signatures. a declaration that 1t was their sense that the business of making peace with Germany should proceed with the utmost expedition and that he ptoposal for league Of 'iatiors to insure thc permanent peace of the world should be then taken up for careful and serious consideration
 Evidently considering such a so.- chm pronouncernent mere scrap O! paper. Mir. Wilson, on the evening or that very day in New York, gave voice to the following threat: When that treaty comes back, gentlemen on this side will find the covenant not only in it, but so many threads or the treaty tied to the covenant that you cannot dissect the covenant from the treaty without destroying the whole vital structure When the president uttered those words he knew that II his threat was carrie out 1t would mean the defeat of the peace treaty. and a still further con tinuance of technical state of war. Yet such is the character of the man that he mas persisted Tn his fooha-dy course. and the country has before it the consunm2tion of his rash state ment The treaty and the league covenant are one and tLe same docu raent, and in that form they will bc placed before the senate and ratifi cation invited. <y
 1t is just as Inevitable that the Siamese-twin production Of Mir. Will son will be rejected by the senate as t IS certain that the signcrs of what has come to be known as "The Sec ond Declaration Of independence are honorable men whose rule 1t Is to stand by the principles 10 which they subscribe. IL IS also inevitable that when that rejection takes place, Mr Wilson will try to .hrow the burden Of responsibility for delaying peace on to the shoulders of the patriotic tnirty-nine He charged certain sen ators with embarrassing the finances of the government when they refused to be dragooned into passing the i'm nense amount of legislation that he had heaped upon them in the closing days of the congress. snd insisted that the bills should go over until there was opportunity for adequate consideration. In just mat way will he undertake to transfer to them the burden Of continuing the status O. war
 But the reople know where the responsibility will lie. They know that the treaty-leaguc monstros:tY that Mir. Wilson will bring back with hin was defeated or that memorable 4th e March quite as eflectually as if it had been voted on specifically at that time They know that after tie coordinate treatynaking power of the government had so definitely expres sed itself in opposition to a combination of th, league and the treaty and 1t was utterly futile for the president to take 2 contrary course; and, having done so, whatever con sequences flow from his perversity must be borne by him
 ''To snap his finger at the solemn warning of far more than sufficient number of senators to insure the de- feat of a league-treaty ract, and then 10 enter deliberately into such covenant, is but the natural evolution of tne Wilson autOcracy Of method that has been growing upon the coun- try during his reigp. But this time he is riding to a fall, and his attempt 10 procure the endorsement of his document when he knows that such an effort will fail and technically still further prolong the war, will meet with the effective repud;ation that the sturdy signers of the Second Declara- tion of Independence have in store for him