The Washington herald., 1919-09-21
BY JOHN LLOYD BALDER sToN.

ny SohN LLotD bALDhHsItNs
II the Senate ratifes the peace
treaty with reservations or amend
ments, there will be three courses
open to the government at Washing
ton.
Wilson can entirely dissociate this
country from the Paris conference
and from our associates. and either
negotiate a separate peace with Ger
many or simply ask Congress to de-
clare that the war with Germany Is
ended.
He can attempt to induce the great
powers, by Diplomatic negotiation, to
accept the changes made by the Sen
ate without recOnyening the confer
ence.
And, lastly, the President can sug-
gest the -convening Of a new Peace
Conference to draw up a new peace
treaty for Germany to sign. This
step must follow il the United States
is unwilling to make a separate peace
and unable to get the Senate amend
ments and reservations accepted by
informal negotiation with each great
power separately.
In early dispatches from Europe
the writer will present the views of
French and British statesmen as to
the fight in the Senate. and the effect
on the world of our ratification, or
failure to ratify. In this story. writ
ten before sailing, I shall try to
make clear what the position between
the President and his Senate foes
really comes down to. writing with
out political bias either way.
Neither the Republican leaders nor
the President, up to the present, have
been entirely frank with the American
people. The Republicans are playing
politics and take a partisan attitude
towards the treaty and the league. but
the Bullitt Testimony was not needed
to convince anyone who knew some
thing Of our negotiations in Paris that
the President is not saying all that he
thinks, or telling all that he knows.
The issue in Washington is this:
Will the United states. to guarantee
the peace and stability of the world,
back up with her own material force
. and moral authority the present set
tlement. thus making it impossible
for any nation to tear up the treaty
without having America on her back?
This very simple conception under
y lll5 llAt treaty IS COllluStu III - bN 4NS
opponents. who cry out and cut them
selves with knives because the
wicked European nations have en-
tangled us in plot. But these OppOn-
ents 70 further and complain that the
independence of the United States Is
at an end because We are to be bound
to send troops and engage in wars
/ whether We like it or not at the behest
of a league council on which. We are
IT, a minority. Here President Will
son enters and to my mind makes the
confusion very much worse.
The President is a master politician.
and he seems to have felt that in this
point about America being bound to
fight under orders from a foreign
council his enemies had a weapon that
might defeat him unless he put up a
] successful defense. Accordingly, in
/ his debate with Senators and his
! public speeches. Wilson has split
( hairs about legal obligations" ana
/ moral obligations" has denied that
! our sovereignty was impaired, has
! contended that without changing a
word of Article 10 We can remain as
{ much masters OF our own destinies as
We were in 1914.
: And so no wonder the public is con-
/ fused. First the Senate rushes after
a red herring, and then the President
/ also leaves the main trail and pursues
I the Senate because he sees that the
Senate's herring is an important pO-
: litical fish
/ Iyet me set down briefly. without
argument for or against. just what
! the cold. naked. roCk-bottOm elements
Of this situation are. with all the poll
tics left out. Why should a CORE
SpOndent dO-~this when eminent public
men in every State and territory are
sitting up nights doing it. too? Be
! cause the correspondent has no axe to
grind. He seeks only to reduce things
/ to their simplest, most easily under
standable form. without considering
whether when so reduced they will
meet the approval or disapprOval of
/ the public. He tries to steer between
/ the ScyIla OF Senatorial obstruction
and the Charybdis of Wilson'S unwiI-
( lingness to explain or admit implica
/ tons in the treaty that the President
! thinks might please the American n
( people
( OF course. the free will and indie
! pendence of foreign control formerly
enjoyed by this country are curtailed
under the treaty There the warning
Senators are right. and the President.
rather than make what he considers
dana ginE admission. takes refuge
/ in clouds OF rose-colored yerbia Ee.
But opposition Senators should not
stop to enjoy their triumph on these
/ points; they should go further and
| honestly ask themselves whether in
! this new world. under conditions as
! they are. the United States can long
continue in the old path, aIoof from
others, without witnessing anarcl '
and collapse that sooner or later must
recoil on her own head.
Perhaps the fundamental question
upon the answer to which depends
whether every man is for or against
the treaty can best be posed by sub
stitutinS for the more complicated
political tangle an economic proposal
recently made that will be clear to
everybody.
Let all the allied powers pool their
war debts. and eacG nation pay a
share proportionate to its wealth and
! sacrifices in the war.
This suggestion emanating from
! London and Paris is a formula for
! placing upon the United States a bur
! den several times the one we now
| bear and proportionately tightening
1 the crushing impost upon the backs
! pf Ia pVit nj