Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-07-12
TREATY WITH
LEAGUE WILL
BE RATIFIED
Wilson VIII Accept Res
ervations- Senate VIII
Give Approval.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

NOOpyTlBnL. l9I5i Dy Ine ArguS.)
Washington. D. c., July 12.-Ap-
pearances are often deceiving evel
when considering so momentous a
thing as a peace treaty. For the
fact is that while President Wilson
and the senate seem to be far
apart, judging from public utter
ances, actually they are near an
agreement
No one expected the Republicans
to applaud the presidents speech
TO the senate, and they didn't. No
one expected their public state
ments afterwards to commend the
N2ddress-in fact it is whispered
soQe Of the statements were pre-
pared before Mr. Wilson concluded
his speech. And by the same to-
ken, no one really takes literally
Mr.. Wilson's remarks against res
ervations.
VIII be Ratified with Reservations.
Both sides in the controversy
have good deal of pride about
their position, but the remarkable
fact Is the disinterested observers,
the great majority of the men in
the press gallery who have looked
on disinterestedly in many analo-
gous situations, fully expect the
peace treaty, league of nations in
cluded, to be ratified, but with GER
tain reservations tackled on by the
Republican leaders. Irreconcila-
bic opponets of any league of ma
ttons, those who would strike out
everything in the covenant after
the preamble haven't a ghost of d
show to win. That is generally
admitted. But on the text of the
resolution by which the whole
treaty and league will be ratified,
there's where the real debate is
coming. What makes it possible
to report confidence in an early
agreement is the informal, not the
formal, comment of the senators.
Mr.. Wilson talked to many of them
and explained points about which
they had doubts
Both Sides Ready to Yield.
For example, the president tells
the senators that nothing in the
covenant takes away the constitu-
ti9Hal war-making powers of con-
$fess, that the league merely ad-
vises action in cases which may
come up, but that the final decision
to employ military and naval forces
rests with congress. If that is the
case, a number of men who have
been opposed to the league because
of article 10 would like to say so
as explicitly in the ratifying reso-
luton as the president says it in
informal conversation.
Nor is there much ground for the
supposition that because Mr.. Will
son as is his custom at the outset
of every legislative fight, gives an
impression of uncompromising OPP
position to amendment that he will
object ultimately to written inter-
pretations of treaty provisions
which is after all his oral inter
probation
VIII Accept Changes.
The president has explained in
conversation enough about the
mooted provision to make it posi-
BILE to phrase reservations to
which he could not consistently
object. Some of those who have
studied his methods in dealing
with congress say he always asks
a. the beginning for the maximum
ne amendment-but accepts
changes in the end. He has inti-
mated that he did not object to in
nocuous changes. The question of
what is or is not innocuous may
always remain mooted when once
the controversy is over and the
reservations are accepted. Indeed.
it is confidently believed that if the
president accepts the reservations
made by the senate, the allied pow
ers will do the same.
Opposition centers about article
10 and the phraseology of the
cause referring to the Monroe doc
trine. Language protecting the
latter more specifically is not going
to cause as much Of a rumpus as
has been supposed. Debate on