The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1919-09-09
CLARK POINTS PERILS OF LEAGUE
AND TREATY

AND TREATY
President Wilson will not be able to
address greater audience here than that
which greeted j. Reuben Clark, Utah'5
international law expert, at the Salt Lake
tabernacle, for it was filled to overflow
ing. To saw that he shed much new light
on the League of Nations covenant ana
the treaty is to understate his achieve
ment. He pointed out the perlls OF the
covenant and treaty in way to make the
most enthusiastic covenanter pause ana
fear for the future of the country.
At the conclusion of the address, when
all expected to be dismissed in peace,
there came a challenge to war. B. II.
Roberts arose on the rostrum and an
nounced that he would answer j. Reuben
Clark con the whole matter of the COW
enant" in the near future. 1t was anus
ing because it was a sort of Il challenge
the winner" act of bravado. One could
imagine many in the audience shaking
themselves with an uneasy feeling at the
moment that they were not in the taber-
nacle, but in ringside at Toledo. No one
will envy the challenger the titantic task
he has volunteered to undertake.
Not even formed President Taft was
able to give such comprehensive exposi-
ton of the covenant as that which Major
Clark afforded his hearers, for at the
time that Mr.. Taft spoke here the coven-
ant had not been revised at Versailles and
even the original document was then but
imperfectly understood by its champions.
It will not have escaped the memory of
Utahns that the former President, after
leaving Salt Lake, began what tacticians
call "a retrograde movement" He saw
that all was not well with the document
which he had pronounced perfect and
soon he began urging amendments.
The former President, we believe, has
expressed himself as content with the
Versailles covenant and with mild reser-
vations Major Clark declared that, in
his opinion the Versailles amendment left
the covenant more dangerous instru-
ment than before.
Major Clark modestly stated at the out
set that nothing that he should say would
be new but everyone who attended the
meeting must admit that he discussed il
luminatingly points hardly touched upon
hitherto. For example, he gave us most
lucid explanation of the labor covenant
and showed how it was intertwined with
Tic ltdSue COVtlldllJ anu Tie treaty anu
might be used by an unfriendly nation to
force American domestic questions upon
the attention of the league council
Discussing the provisions of the labor
covenant, he startled his hearers by DEM
onstrating that the American labor dele
cation might be excluded from the gov
erning body by vote and that when do
nestle question, such as Japanese immi-
grafton, for example, came up, we might
have no voice in the governing body's
recommendation. That body could adopt
convention which would go to the Unit
ed States Senate. If the Senate rejected
the convention the matter would end the G
so far as the labor covenant was concern
ed, but Japan could then force the ques-
ton into the council of the League of Ma
tions on the theory that it affected the
peace of the world"
IF the council or the assembly decided
that we should negotiate and ratify the
convention, then our disobedience would
bring us into conflict with the league
which might in the last analysis use its
combined force to compel our adherence
said Major Clark.
From the outset the Citizen has taken
the view that the League of Nations was
league for war and an alliance to rule
the world Major Clark devoted large
part of his address to the demonstration
of these two propositions and the audi