The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1919-03-08

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1919
reputation of his policies. The people accepted the chal-
lenge and told him they preferred to retain control of their
government, regardless of opinion abroad. He sails for
Europe today with the full knowledge that the senate Will
not ratify the agreement he has proposed as a result OF
many weeks of watchful waiting while chaos and anarchy
and Bolshevism were supplanting government by law in the
wartorn countries of the world. .
There was a way for Mr.. Wilson to know whether the
other branch of the treaty-makng power of the nation
would support his proposals. Other presidents have found
the way, even when congress was poltlcaly opposed 70
them. But Mr.. Wilson some years ago, when ne was VIII
ing a book on Congressional Government" wrote this:
His ohe presidents) only power of compelling comph-
nee on the part of the senate lies in his initiative in negou-
alton which affords him a chance to get the country into
such srapes, 81 pledged in the view of the world to certain
courses of action that he senate hesitaes to bring about the
appearance Of dshonor, which would follow a refusal to ratiy
rash promises n to support the indiscreet threats of the de-
partment of state.
The Tribune would regret to believe that the president
had carried into the White House with him and into his cam
paign abroad this theory of the surest way of compelling
compliance on the part of the senate" in a matter which the
senate at heart did not approve. And yet there is much III
his attitude toward that body that lends color to the thought
see
Many a parent has been embarrassed by a wilful child
who would assume liberties in the presence of strangers that
would not be tolerated or attempted in the family circle. But
sometimes the wilful child has presumed too far ana the
Christening rod has fallen in spite of the family PRIDE. Are
we facing that situation before the world? If so we will
make the most OF 1t, for there are 10 senator's CHOSEN ny 'le
people and responsible to the people who are bound by a
sacred oath to stand between them and one-man government
in our dealings with foreign nations. And it takes two
thirds of them to bind us in Washington to what the presi-
dent may promise in Paris.
Mr.. Wilson is quoted as having told the cabinet on his
return last week that everywhere he went in Europe he
found public approval for the plan, and the people of Europe
are pinning their hopes OH the constitution for the league as
submitted" Possibly SO. But the very policies that America
has cherished until they have become almost as dear to us
&c op hocio oy itcolf fhn dOcfmpp Of W0ShjOOtO and
Monroe-the surrender of these would find nothing but
approval there, as it will find little but opposition here. And
Grover Cleveland once risked war with England and Roose-
welt risked a war with Germany rather than surrender them.
Both England and Germany yielded after a display OF force.
Mr.. Wilson may be right and the senate may be wrong,
but if so then Washington was wrong, and Monroe and john
Adams were wrong, and Lincoln and Grant were wrong. Ands
the peace of the world should not wait until Mr.. Wilson can
convince America that what they and Seward and Gresham,
and Olney and Hay and other statesmen who have guild
ed us to our present position of power-peace should not
wait until Mr.. Wilson can convince us that they were wrong.
1t was four months ago that the armisice was signed.
There have followed four months of cropping for light on
what the terms of peace would be. Thousands of men in
industry are beating time, waiting to know what governments
are going to do before they may know what they can do.
Millions of men are without employment or plans for the flu
ture, w%atchfuly waiting for the proclamation that will for
mally end the war. Germany and her allies may be told in
short order what the terms of the surrender and cost of their
crimes shall be. And having started the wheels of industry
and provided employment for those who are idle, and those
others who soon would be, the league or society of nations,
or whatever plan of security may seem best, may be dis
cussed in soberness and without haste and with smaller risk
of future regrets.
Deplorable as the developments of yesterday are, the
Tribune believes that the action of those senators who gave
notice to the president and his associates in Paris that a
treaty of peace and the close of the war should be first on
their program will do more for a war-sick world than all
the weary weeks of oratory and watchful waiting that must
follow the submission of a peace treaty handicapped by a
rider Such as the president DrODOSed.