Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-09-12
With Other Editors
"His Treaty"
New York World).

Senator Spencer insists that President Will
son must accept certain reservations 'or else
his treaty will never be ratified" The mis-
chievous spirit in which most of the Republican
senators are dealing with the treaty OF peace
could not be better illustrated than in the
words used by the senator from Missouri, who
is by no means the most partisan of them.
They persist in regarding the treaty of
peace as the presidents treaty and its ratih-
cation as a personal and political issue be-
tween them and the chief magistrate. In or
der to defeat the president they are ready to
destroy the treaty unmindful either of their
responsibilities or the consequences of their
action.
This treaty is not President Wilson's treaty,
even though he was so injudicious in his or
ganization of the peace commission that he
did not give the Republicans the representation
to which they were entitled. 1t is the whole
worlds treaty. 1t affects the destinies of hun
dreds of millions of people. 1t controls the
lives Of children who are yet unborn. 1t is the
basis of the only peace that there is any pos
sibility of attaining. 1t affords the only means
of reestablishing the political stability of a
civilization that is in grave danger of crum-
bling under the assaults of anarchy.
1t is President Wilson's treaty only in the
sense that he helped to negotiate it. but one
might as we'll call the constitution of the
Unitel States George Washington's constitu-
ton because he presided over the convention
that framed it and submitted it to the several
states
Instead of dealing with this treaty as the
treaty of peace a majority of the Republican
senators are trying to deal with it as a per-
sonal recommendation from the president of
the United States Of no more public impor-
tance than the nomination OF a postmaster in
the home town of a member of congress. Al
though q nations. through their representa-
tives signed the treaty, the only signature that
these senators can see is that of Woodrow
Wilson. In seeking the defeat of the presi-
dent they are willing to afront all the other
nations, to isolate the United States, to lay
the foundations of and give the world
over to political and economic chaos.
There is no element of discomfort to which
they have not appealed There is no element
of hyphenated Americansm for whose support
they have not bid. Hidebound reactionaries
gladly join hands with bolshevism, pro-Ger-
manism and l. W. W.ism in a common cause
against the treaty of peace for no better reason
than that it is his treaty" and this unholy
alliance then has the impudence to pose as a
super patriotism protecting the super-rights of
a experimentation.
The action of the senate on this treaty will
be making history long after President Wilson
is dead, long after every senator is dead long
after the generation that fought the war has
passed forever from the scene. What the Re
publican senators are trifiing with is not the
political fortune of President Wilson, for no
mans political fortune counts for anything at
this time. They trihing with the fate of
the world with the blood of 1000 900 men
whose lives were sacrificed that peace might
again be established, and with 100000 GOO 900
in human labor that was swallowed up in this
gigantic catastrophe. Yet all they see in the
final act of this stupendOuS tragedy is the OPP
portunity for political quarrel with the pres
ident of the United States over a treaty of
peace that is to be regarded simply as his
treaty" and dealt with accordingly.