Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-11-21
THE PRESIDENT CAN BREAK
THE TREATY DEADLOCK
There Can Be No Ratification Unless He
Will Meet the Senate Halfway

There is no doubt whatsoever about
this. We went to war with Germany in
conjunction with the other nations of the
civilized world. Our representatives, Sc
lected in the constitutional manner, join
ed with the representatives of more
than twenty other nations in laying down
the terms under which Germany could
have peace. 1t took many months for
the conference to come to an agreement.
There was concession after concession
and compromise after compromise until
the minds of the delegates came to-
gether.
There was agreement not only OH the
terms on which Germany could have
peace, but also on the constitution of a
league of nations, the purpose of which
was to make it difficult for any nation in
the future to break the peace of the
world.
No one reached out into the upper air,
drew down the terms of the covenant and
imposed them upon an astonished Peace
Conference. Agreements are not come
to in that way.
AS Governor Coolidge, of Massachu-
sets, has remarked, "Men do not make
laws; they only discover them"
The conferees in Paris sought to dis
cover how far the world was ready to go
in the direction of combination to pre-
vent future wars. The covenant is mere
ly formulation of the state of opinion
of the nations represented. They were
ready to go so far and no further. They
put its various sections in such form as
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act in accordance with its constitutional
restrictions in order that the agreement
might be workable.
This is the document which was sub
mitted to the Senate by the President
in July. The Senate, which is half of
the treaty-making power of one of the
scores of nations affected, set out to re-
write certain sections of the treaty and
TO make its interpretations of certain
other sections.
1t has a perfect right to do this. 1t
has a perfect right to rewrite the whole
treaty from beginning to end and send
it back to the President.
And the President has an equal right
to refuse to submit rewritten treaty to
The Senate in the past has rewritten
treaties and the President in the past has
put the treaty so changed into a pigeon
hole and forgotten it. The minds of the
Senate and of the President must come
together before any treaty can be put
into effect.
The action on Wednesday night has
produced deadlock between the Presi-
dent and the Senate. The responsibility
for this situation is divided.
The President himself cannot escape
his share of the blame. He did not take
the Senate into his confidence in the first
place. He did not put on the peace COM
mission any distinguished representative
of the majority party in the Senate,
neither senator nor party leader out
of Office. This was a tactical blunder of
the worst kind as events have proved.
AS result the Senate has been resent
full. 1t has tried to put the President in a
hole.
The spokesmen of his own party have
blundered continually because the Presi-
dent has not taken them into his conf
dence. For weeks Senator Hitchcock was
backing and filling without knowing in
which direction he was expected to move.
He could not get any guidance from the
White House. While the Republicans
were trying to prove that Wilson had
blundered in Paris, the Democrats were
houndering in despair. There was no lead
ership on either side worthy of the name.
No one rose to the occasion and demanded
that all personal and partisan feeling be
ignored while the grave issues involved in
bringing a world peace be considered on
their merits.
And thus the United States is humili-
atcd in the eyes Of the world today.
There is only one way out, and that is
the way of compromise.
The Senate has refused to ratify the
treaty with the Lodge preamble, with the
fifteen amendments and reservations at
tached to it. 1t has also refused to ratify
the treaty without reservation or amend
ments. That is, it will not have the treaty
without some explanation of what the
United States understands it to mean,
and it will not have it with the kind of
explanations contained in the rejected
resolution
It remains to discover what kind of
explanations both the Senate and the
President will consent to, for it is evident
that there must be some interpretatve
resolutions adopted if the treaty is to go
through.
Senator Lodge has remarked that the
treaty is dead unless the President can
find some way to circumvent the Senate
rules. But the country is not going to
consent to the slaughter of the treaty.
Senator Lodge and the rest of them will
discover this before many days. And we
are of the opinion that the President will
discover it also. Each must come down
from his high horse, get his feet on the
ground and face the situation.
The technical procedure for getting the
treaty before the Senate again. is of less
than little consequence. 1t can be sub
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