The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-09-03
AMENDMENT IS
HELD ATTEMPT
TO KILL PACT
Hitchcock Denounces Knox
Proposal for Separate Peace
With Germany.
(By Associated Press)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3.-Declaring
relations committee majority in
amending the peace treaty was to kill
the treaty entirely and that such a
course would be suicidal to the United
States, Senator Hitchcock Of Nebras-
ka, Democratic leader, asserted IN a
senate speech today that the majority
Of the senators never would accept
any Of the committee changes.
THE treaty opponents" he said,
crawl on the ground with micro
scope searching for pitfalls in the
League Of Nations and overlook bene.
hts which the treaty would bring to
, the nation. The proposal of Senator
Knox, Republican, Pennsylvania, that
the treaty be rejected and a separate
peace made with Germany, was char
acterized by the speaker as an '"in-
sane mixture of poltroonery and folly"
BY vote of 8 to said Senator
Hitchcock, "the committee on foreign
relations is to bring squarely before
the senate the question of defeating
the pending treaty. Suppose the SEN
ate should vote in favor of the Shan
tung amendment or any other? What
would happen?
Would Isolate U. s.
| Either the president would refuse
to go further with the treaty or he
would submit the amendment to the
naions associated with the United
States. Does anyone believe they
would accept it? Does anyone believe
that Great Britain who has already
ratified the treaty and is also under
a pledge to Japan with regard to Shan
tung, would accept the Shantung
amendment? Does anyone think that
France, also under a pledge to Japan,
would ratify this change? Does any
one suppose that Japan herself would
submit to this humiliation before the
| eyes Of the world?
| II cannot conceive any intelligent
and candid man who would assume
such thing as a possibility. We
would be met by an instant refusal
to accept the amendment, and then
| where would the United States find
itself In this international settlement? l.?
We would find ourselves out in the
cold, isolated from the rest Of the
world. The work Of ratifying the
| treaty would proceed without u.s.
In article 231 Germany Is COM
PEELED to accept full responsibility for
the damages caused by the war Does
anyone think II we undertook to ne
gotiate a separate treaty with Ger
many, Germany would make any such
concessions to the United States. Ger
many might say she had never declar-
ed war on the United States: that it
was the United States which forced
war upon her.
| Property Action Cited.
Take the matter Of German proper.
ty in the United States. Under this
treaty all acts Of the United States
and OF the alien property custodian
with regard to that property are vail.
dated unless Germany can show act
ual fraud. Is anyone insane enough
to suppose that Germany will volun-
tarily make that concession to us il
we lose the hold upon her which this
treaty gives? Suppose Germany points
to the treaties Of 1899 and 1929 under
which we agreed to respect the pri-
vate property of German nationals in
the United States.
| This treaty creates a commission
called the reparations commission.
Unquestionably 1t will be the most
powerful international body ever
created. It receives from Germany all
reparations paid and distributes them
to the various nations. Does anyone
think under the circumstances the
United States can afford not to have
a representative on the reparations
commission?
Defeat of the treaty by means of
proposed amendments to It Is the real
program and hope of the majority of
the committee on foreign relation. 1t
is for this purpose that he treaty has
been locked up in cold storage for so
many weeks. They have felt justified
in delaying the treaty in committee,
holding useless hearings and making
killing amendments with the full
knowledge that amendments would
beat the treaty just as effectively as a
refusal to ratify.
Knox Speech Attacked.
"A few a very few, have declared
they would vote against the treaty
because of the league Of nations, but
1t has remained for Senaor Knox to
declare boldly against our participa.
ton in the peace settlement. To say
that he has amazed the country is to
put it mildly. He has shocked the
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