Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-07-05
NEEDLESS FRENCH TREATY
STAINS THE LEAGUE PACT
Covenant Is Jecpardized Under Shadow
OF New Triple Alliance With
Dangerous Balance Of Power
Possibilities

VI cHCHdHtHenL waved To-Day over the
George Washington, en- route for our
shores, the most sacrosanct section of
Mr.. Wilson's luggage would be the scene
of terrific convulsion. What the French
alliance would have to say Of the league
of nations and vice versa is conceivable
as equaling the aCrimony of a senatorial
debate
Diplomatic papers more contradictory
Of each other it would be difficult to i'm
! aglne. If one document is good. then the
other is bad. Only by the most fantastic
| processes of argument can appreciation
| of both of them produce even semblance
! Of harmony.
1t is asserted that the President will
seek to prove them reconcilable and to
plead for the acceptance of each of these
| Clashing pacts before the Senate and the
! nation. The task is spiritually more for
| mdable than any which confronted him
at the Peace Conference. For then his
purpose was, in the main. animated by
IDEAS which the bulk of mankind unques-
tionably sought to have recognized.
The present problem suggests an un-
wholesome mixture of lofty aims with
either questionable expediency or perni-
ciOus illusion. If both treaties should be
favored, then the soul of the other one
will assuredly go soaring off into oblivion.
Fortunately for the American people,
the star chamber secrecy which prevailed
at times at Paris and in spite of pro-
tests. ended with the ARRIVAL of the mo-
ment of fateful decision. The lid is off.
The Senate within a very few days will
possess the true copy of the Versailles
treaty, already signed by the foe. In
that momentous pact is contained the
most elaborate and pretentious panacea
for the beligerency Of nations that has
ever been devised But side by side with
the covenant, which commends itself to
minds unwarped by reactionary prejudice
or political spleen as the most tangible in
strument available for preserving peace,
will be presented a plan of internal
alliance which is either an impotent echo
or e.se stain of dark suspicion upon the
whole scheme of international partner
ship.
On the surface, the special pledge to
France is merely an affirmation of the
obvious. BY its terms the United States
is obligated to furnish prompt armed aid
if the stipulations of the Versailles treaty
concerning the left bank Of the Rhine are
violated by Germany.
But as it is unthinkable that America,
having contributed its potent share to-
ward winning the war, should be indif
ferent to enforcement of its solemn treaty
terms in what way can iteration add to
their force?
An agreement which is considered
| binding by the parties involved needs no
appendix for effective emphasis. The
| simultaneous employment of two taxi
cabs is useless to the time pressed trav-
| eler bent on catching his train.
| To French emotionalism, cruelty in
famed by the war shambles, has been
ascribed the inspiration of the triple
alliance proposal which Georges Gle
meanceau made to Britain and America.
Such sentiments by gallant nation
which bore the brunt of the five years
agony command the full measure of
American sympathy and understanding.
France is our friend and we are hers
in an intensity of degree which has few
parallels in history. A second wanton
outrage against her would not be toler-
ated for d moment by this country, and
particularly when America is formally
enlisted in the league of nations.
Comprehep sion of French feelings,
however, need not carry with it indorse-
ment of French logic The latter is in
this instance dangerously defective, since
even granting that the pledge devised in
| boJ o1-1,
object, its potentialities are replete with
warnings.
Once before-in Vienna, 1814-an in
ternational concert was prepared.
| League of-nations antagonists have
pointed with unctuous irony to the fate
of the fimsy but pretentious partnership
to which Russia, Austria, Prussia, Britain
and later defeated France herself sub
scribed. In way that again suggests a
parody of the league covenants aims;
prandiose meetings were held at Aix-la-
Chappele, at Laibach and at Verona
within a few years after the NapoleoniC
collapse
But that early international society did
not crumble because it was too ambitious
It fell, among other reasons, because spe-
eial internal deals and arrangements
were engineered almost before the
Vienna ink-wells We're dry. The game
was unfairly played.
Russia, Austria and Prussia framed uI
among themselves the so-called "Holy
Alliance" Castlereagh jeered at its de-
sign as "a piece of sublime mysticism
and nonsense" To him it appeared a.
the French treaty might seem to thos,
persons who sympathetically take it a
it's face value, as a harmless superfuity
Such was not its eventual nature. Con
, yerted into a scheme for the maintenance,
} of dynastic oppression, its development
alienated liberal France and England anc
! the European concert ended in discord.
OF course, the Franco-British-Ameri
, can alliance can never coneeivably de
generate. into bulwark for autocracy
| II a Az. defense against tyranny sha