Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1919-09-17
LAST BIG BATTLE
OPENS over TREATY
League Of Nations Will Win, Is
Opinion of Close Observers
What Figures Show


committee has opened the last and
most intense engagement in the
Senate over the League of Nations.
This battle, consisting of series of
engagements, bids fair to last sever
al weeks, and outrival anything that
has come before the upper house Of
Congress in many decades.
Close observers, those who check
each doubtful Senator's qualms and
emotions daily are still strongly Of
the opinion that the League Of Ma
tions as espoused by Woodrow Will
son appears the winner. In this they
are assured by the admitted collapse
of the attempt to kill the Peace
Treaty without resorting to cover,
and the belief that all similar at
tempts under the guise of amend
ments and reservations appear equal
ly certain to fial.
The lodge or majority reports
stresses the point that the committee
has the Treaty but six weeks, where
as the peace conference took six
months to prepare the treaty. But,
it is frequently asked, when in all
history did it take as long to de-
stroy as to build? Considering that
the antagonistic Senators We're blind
ly assailing the League of Nations
months before they knew the details,
the complaint Of inadequate time has
not made an impression.
But the minority report takes up
the cudgels promptly and points out
the commercial unrest the world over
that can be directly traced to the de-
lay incident to preparing majority
report that all Senator Lodges
"kill-the-League-some-way" collea-
CUES could agree to, in the following
language:
"The industrial world is in fern
ent, the financial world in doubt, and
commence halts while this great de-
lay in the peace settlement has been
caused by the majority Of a COM
mittee known to be out of harmony
with the majority of the Senate and
the majority of the people. This is
government by obstruction as well as
by minority"
Not daring to openly assert that
President Wilson had kept anything
from them at the famous White
House meeting between the chief
executive and the members of the
foreign relations committee, the re-
port of the majority by implications
says that nothing was CLEANED on
that occasion, being another excuse
for delay in reporting the treaty.
What evidently was considered a
"bell-ringer" argument by Senator
Lodge and his cohorts already has be-
come a source of amusement. This
point was the amount of export busi-
ness transacted by the United States
with Germany since the armistice.
Between that event and the end
of July" announced the Lodge re-
port, tive have exported to Germany
goods valued at $11,270,624," thus
disapproving the Administrations
claim that channels Of trade with
Germany would be closed until the
Peace Treaty was ratified.
"The claim by the majority Of this
committee that we have exported
over eleven million dollars worth OF
goods to Germany since the armistice
and without peace settlement is no
doubt true. To other countries dur
ing the same period we exported
over five thousand million dollars
worth. What was exported to Ger
many as stated by the majority re-
port was practically nothing. 1t is
only ID cents worth of American
products for each person in Germany
in seven months or cents per per-
son per month, yet the majority Ne
port boasts of it as evidence Of trade
revival in spite of treaty delay. The
same statesman gravely assure us
that their figures prove that it is a
mere delusion to say we cannot trade
with Germany till peace settle
ment is made. Two cents per month
per person is hardly trading with
Germany.
Meanwhile another bit of perplexi-
ty has arisen to bother the irrecon-
cileable elements that Senator
Lodge has failed to whip into an
agreement to kill the League of Ma
tions, and hence the entire, Peace
Treaty. The "New York SUM-, >one
of the most violent opponents of the
League, recently propounded a series
of questions to "high French
government officiap in regard to the
Lodge amendments and reservations,
the replies to three Of which are
regarded as deeply significant
One Of the questions was "Would