The Washington herald., 1919-09-21
sacrifice of national sovereignty is in
volved in ratification.
COwaeNuen~es NJ nefus.u

sacrifice OF national sovereignty is in
volyed in ratification.
Consequences Of Refusal.
Suppose that the average Ameri-
can. debating without having his
mind muddled by politicians the is
sue of whther he is willing in Or
der to preserve world peace to have
his army and navy placed under
the orders of a world council. has
about decided the question in the
negative. He is very sorry, but he
isn't sure whether the league will
work and thinks this country ought
to be left free to judge every in
Sternational crisis as it arises, and
he cannot stomach the idea of his
country being under a moral oblis
cation" to send it's boys to fight in
the Ukraine or Finland when II
doesn't want to send them.
Our imaginary citizen thus finds
himself opposed to the treaty as it
stands. He favors amendments or
reservations. He now ought to con-
slider further the consequences of
our refusal to ratify the treaty
upon the other nations in the
~oIlu. lhcse Consequences may not
be so terrible as the President
fairly ignored by the Senate oppo-
sition. Again without political
bias, let me point out what they
will be or may be.
or the three courses open to the
government If the Senate alters the
treaty, to break with the allies and
make or simply declare peace with
Germany appears the simplest But
| for the President to do this would
| be to admit that his trips to Paris.
all our negotiations lasting for
months, were useless and futile. 1t
would almost be to admit that we
made a mistake in lighting Germany
| at all, IL we are unable to associate
ourselves with the peace made by
our allies. And it would undoubt-
edly bring about extreme confusion
among the signatory powers; such
as could not but rebound to the
profit Of wtetever Germans or Boil
sheviks might be seeking to upset
/ the terms.
/ This confusion would be newt
able. because all the bargains weld
ed into the treaty are depe ndent
on each other. II America backs
out. for example, England may say
that she accepted a mandate over
the Pacific islands in order to get
the armed support of the United
, States for the league, but since
+ America retires she now prefers
direct annexation. France would
be sure to clamor that she made
most important territorial conces-
sions to Wilson to get American
support, which being withdrawn
she must have all the left bank of
the Rhine and a much larger n
demnity. No country. great or
small, but would demand revIsiCr
and better terms for itself because
CT the action of the American Sen
ate.
! The next step. therefore. il we make
a separate peace with Germany. must
be another Peace Conference. But
the prospects of that conference end
: ing without another world war grow
, ing out OF 1t would be extremely re-
( mote. Every country would want
more than 1t got before, including
/ Germany; no country. or at most one
or two. could be satisfied, for new
( concessions would have to come at
/ the expense OF other allies, since Ger
many and Austria have already been
milked dry.
/ Knowing these facts as 1t does,
! do not think the Washington gov
erDment would make a separate peace
/ and break loose from France, Eng
, land. Italy and the smaller allies.
/ II we did it might be worse in the
! end for those countries than If we
J never had come to their aid at all.
| There remain two courses of action for
, Wilson, If the Senate turns down the
, treaty or amends il: either to call
! another Peace Conference. at which
we would be present. or get the other
powers one by one to agree to what
( the senate does without themselves
insisting on other changes.
/ The latter course would be the
| easiest from our point of view. but
! probably impossible. The reasons why
/ England. France and Italy could not
tamely submit to emasculation of the
| treaty by the Senate without demand
| ing a general revision have been indi-
Gated above; counting as they all
now do upon our armed support Of
| the new world order. they would all
| feel that if we withdraw into our
shell the cornerstone of the treaty had