Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-10-07
Some Heartenmg OmenS
For the Treaty Of Peace
ERTAIN Developments of the past week

augur we'll for the adoption of the
~ Treaty of Peace and the Covenant OF
the League of Nations. The decisive majority
by which the Senate voted down the Fall
amendments shows at least that the bitter
end" opponents of the compact, those who
would change it so radically as to necessltate
a reopening of negotiations, are in an i'm
potent minority. Nor is it to be wondered
that few Senators, however intense their par
tsan or personal dudgeon against the Presi-
dent are unwilling to take the responsibility
of amendments which would throw the
Treaty back into international debate and
hazard the priceless achievements OF the
Paris conference. A course obviously
fraught with peril will naturally be avoided
by all except those whom prejudice or pas
sion has hopelessly blinded.
1t remains to be seen, however, just what
the foes of the Treaty and the League can ac-
complish under cover of so-called reserva-
tions. Those who are set in their resentment
and jealousy of the President will not give
up the fight until every resource is exhaust
ed. IF they can carry through a destructive
amendment by calling it a reservation, they
will readily adopt the milder term. There !;
reason to hope, however, that discerning
majority of the Senators, Republicans and
Democrats alike, will defeat this subterfuge
as Overwhelmingly as they did the Fall pro-
posals. We do not mean, of course, such in
terpretative resolutions as are designed SIM
ply to make plain Americas obligations and
rights under the Treaty and the League
Covenant. 1t is quite proper that ambigui-
ties, II any there are, be cleared up, and that
the fundamentals of American policy be az
firmed with due emphasis, if a shadow of
doubt seems cast upon them. But this
kind of reservation, embodied in resolutions
distinct from the Treaty so as not to compli-
cate it, is altogether different from the kind
for which the Lodges and Reeds contend.
Ihe latter is merely a roundabout way of
.ry1ng = S:aend the Treaty so drastically as
20 destroy " and to wreck the great hopes of
which 1t is the haven. Reservations" of that
anlmus should be resisted by every stanch
TREND OF stable and righteous peace
More significant in some respects than the
defeat Cd the Fall amendments was the vote
of three hundred and seventy-two to fifty
three by which the French Chamber of
Deputies ratified the Treaty, including the
League Covenant. Premier Clemenceau
had his opponents in that body just as Presi-
dent Wilson has in the Senate. But they
based their opposition upon grounds alto
gether different from those of the obstruc-
zionist faction in the Senate. Their COM
plant was, not that the sovereignty of
France was jeopardized or her independence
in any wise involved, but that Germany had
not been rendered duly powerless to renew
the war and that the proposed reparations
were not sufficient. The noteworthy point is
that the Deputies of France, holding her in
dependence and her sovereignty as dearly as
we do ours, accept the Treaty and the
League with all their obligations. Previously
the British House of Commons took the same
step. We are called upon to relinqush no
more privileges and to assume no more re-
probabilities than these, our associates in the
war for freedom. Surely, as a great and
honor-loving nation we do not wish to do
Jess than equals part in the effort to uphold
peace and justice.
me King of Belgium has had enough army
training no doubt to endure all the addresses
he will have to hear in America