The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1919-06-07
THE SAFEGUARD Of
AMERICAN NATION

NN+Ns
following statement from its Wash
ington headquarters:
After a interval of $50 years we
realize as never before the marvellous
foresight displayed by the trainers Of
the Constitution in preserving indie
pendence to their posterity by con
stituting the Senate one of the CO.
ordinate tr~eaty-making agencies OF
the government. The President, under
the terms of that great instrument
can make treaties, but nothing that
he may do in that direction can have
binding force unless it shall receive
the concurrence of t%wo-thirds of the
senators present. We have so long
been aware of that senatorial check
upon the authority of the chief execu-
tive that it has become almost com
monplace in our minds. No n stops
to realize the situation in which the
country would now find itself had not
the fathers placed that safeguard to
popular government in the supreme
law of the land.
After months of indulgence in "di-
plomatic patois", to adopt a phrase
of our e%x-president, the peace nego-
tiators at Paris have evolved a treaty
of peace with our enemies. On May Z
the text of that treaty was handed TO
the German ENJOYS, and since that
date much correspondence has passed
between the representatives of the al
lied and central powers by way o.
explanation of its terms. But, with
the exception of the first article OF
the treaty, containing the league Of
nations covenant. the people of the
United States and the allies have been
forced to wait in suspense without
knowledge of the document that is to
have such tremendous influence on
the future of the whole world for q
hundred years. The length of the
treaty is v~ariously estimated at from
$4,000 to more than 1905 900 words.
but hardly a phrase has been per-
mitted to see the light of day and be
submitted for perusal to the people
who will lose or benefit by it's pro-
visions. 1t is true that a ~so-called
synopsis has appeared in print. but
how closely or to what extent the
exact nature of the treaty is re
vealed thereby is left to the reader
to guess.
Our president, the self-constituted
head of our peace commission, has
connive | with the other delegations at
the peace conference in keeping from
the world all real information of what
has transpired or the conclusions that
have been reached. Were he per-
mitted a free rein in the proceedings
until the treaty, with its league of
nations, became a reality, there can
be no doubt that the people would not
be let into the secret until they were
handed the completed document and
told that henceforth they would be
bound by its provisions.
But, however. much the citizens OF
other ~coutries may writhe under the
secrecy of negotiations that they
know are shaping for them their en-
tire lives, the people of the United
States rest serene in the knowledge
that, SO far as they are concerned,
the Wilson league-treaty is a mere
scrap of paper. 1t has for them no
binding effect whatever until it's
terms have been scrutinized, amended
and approved by their popularity
elected representatives in the United
States Senate. That this ~scrunity Is
to be thorough. that amendments are
to Be sweeping. and that nothing will
be approved that i~nterferes in the
slightest degree with the established
sovereignty and traditional indepen-
dence of thought and action possessed
by the American people is assured.
Is is any wonder that public atten-
ton will be focused on the senate
for the next few months? The frame
work that forms the solid basis of
our democracy uns throughout the
constitution. but there is no para
graph in that great document more
potent with power than that phrase,
Provided two-thirds of the senators
present concur" With it we are safe
without it we would lose our national
individuality. and be plunged by a
single autocratic individual into a
maelstrom of surging old World
prejudice and strife. never to emerge
a free nation.