Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-08-22
REFUSES
SUGGESTION OF
LEAVING ALLIES
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
Copyrighted, 1919, for The Atlanta
Journa1)

r WASHINGTON. Aug. 21-Presi-
dent Wilson today took another step
which tends even more clearly than
anything that has preceded it to ac-
centuate the issue as between him
and the Republican party in the SEN
ate. He fatty refuses to proclaim a
state of peace if the pending treaty
is not ratified. His first reason is
that he has not the power. but that
is question of legal interpreta ton.
Il The second reason is along the line
of Mr.. Wilson's conception of moral
obligations" which he stressed at the
Tuesday conference with the senate
foreign relations committee at the
White House. He says it would be
stain upon our national honor which
we never could efface if after send
ng our men to the battlefield to
fight the common cause, we should
abandon our associates in the war in
the settlement of the terms of peace
and dissociate ourselves from all re-
sponsibility with regard to those
terms.
The president considers indeed that
1917, when she entered the European
war. Then she joined a League of
Nations, and if there were any sur
renders of sovereignty involved in
submitting American troops to the
orders of a French commander-in-
chief, or the American navy to the
orders of a British lord of the adj
miralty, hex would contend that those
steps of unity were as necessary to
put down common enemy two years
ago as they may become in the flu
ture to crush another militarist mis-
creant among the nations of the
world.
Cannot Withdraw
4Ir. Wilson is trying to disclose,
both by his answers to senatorial
questions on Tuesday and by his an
nounced conception today of our
moral union wit the allies, that the
cause of world freedom would have
sooner or later drawn US into the Eu-
ropean malestrom irrespective of the
attacks on American ships and that
having on become a "artner in
winning the peace of the w-rld. the
United States cannot very we'll
withdraw when the formulas for pre-
serving peace are drawn.
SO the president oppoe~~ sep
arate resolution by, congress declar-
ing state of war at. an end and
denounces itW it'll the same vigor
that he exhibited whenever the notion
of a separate peace with Germany
w suggested Will tn war was on.
Many a time it ,Ias asked whether
the United States in view of the fact
that she never signed any pledge
against a se"a rate peace would feel
free to make a separate peace with
Germany.
But again and again it was stated
officillv that while the United States
did not consider herself tally" she
was never the less an associate"
and as such morally bound to act in
unison with her associates ard
the common enemy.
But todav's declartion on the part
of the president that even if ne le--
gally could do SO. he never would
proclair a state of peace in separa-
ton of our European associates prac'
t; lily settles that point
1T also moves the controversy stage
forward. for if the Republican SEN
ators insist on putting reservations in
the ratifying resolution instead of in
a separate resolution, the president
could withdraw the treaty from the
senate and announce to the other
powers that new treaty with Ger
many would have to be drawn. so far
as the United States is concerned.