Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1919-10-08
SEVERAL LISTED IN FAVOR OF
PACT AS 1T STANDS LINE UP
WITH OTHER GROUP.
WANT MILD RESERVATIONS
These Will Probably Be Adopted,
Since the More Radical Members
of the Foreign Relations Committee
Haven't Full Support in Senate.
BY EDWARD 3. CLARK


shift in senatorial scenery on the stage
from which is presented the sinter-
national drama of the League of Ma
lions.
1t looks today as if the covenant
Of the league and the pact of peace
are to be sanctioned by the senate of
the United States, but with reserva-
lions of a kind which will set forth
definitely the understanding which
the United States has of certain ar
tfcles of the document and by which
this country intends to stand in the
future.
The reason for the belief, shared
by all parties to the controversy, that
reservations will be adopted, is to be
found In the recent pronOuncementS of
several senators who were supposed
to be favorable to the covenant as
it stands, that they cannot support it
unless certain reservations are in
Guided. Several Democratic senators
counted on from the first as supporters
Of the presidents position already have
announced that they are in favor of
certain milder changes which have
been recommended by other senators
who from the first have been in favor
of the league but who also from the
first have declared themselves as
favorable to what they call American
reservations.
The report of the majority of the
committee on foreign relations has
been made to the senate; accompany
ing it there is a minority report. The
majority report recommends certain
reservations which some men hold to
be so radical as to necessitate the.
recOmmittal of the treaty to the rep
resentatives of the great powers. The
minority report favors the treaty as
It stands.
Three Factions in the Senate.
In the committee on foreign rela-
lions the proportion of members who
are opposed to the treaty, and there
fore necessarily to mild reservations
thereto, is greater than the proportion
In the senate proper. This means that
the committee majority cannot hope in
the open senate for the solid majority
support of its reported reservations
that It secured in the committee.
The fight is now on, and largely it
centers on the compromise which
must be made if mild reservations
are to take the place of the drastic
ONES recommended by Committee
Chairman Lodge and his supporting
committee colleagues. There are three
factions fighting and they are not di-
vided according to party lines. There
are at least four senators who would
!like to see the treaty killed out of
hand; one Of them is a Democrat
while the other three are Republi-
cans. although it is much more than
q probability that another Demo-
cratic senator, who thus far has not
said much on the subject, also is OPP
posed to the league in toto. There
have been almost as many sugges-
gestions concerning compromises rs
there are senators who are in favor
Of such compromises.
Today, however, it looks as if the
reservations which finally will be
adopted will follow the lines to
certain extent of those proposed by
Senator McCumber and acquiesed in,
in considerable part, at least, by Z
number of Republicans, and. it is be-
leved, by several Democrats
Changes In Senate Personnel.
Newspaper correspondents and 9TH
ers whose duties frequently take
them to the capital wonder sometimes
If the people realize the changing ma
ture of the personnel of the senate.
The senate always has been consid-
cred q body not so thoroughly repre-
sentative of the people as the house,
and yet the changes which occur in
the membership of the senate are
something like startling.
Today there are only eleven United
States senators who were in the upper
chamber sixteen years ago, when the
writer of this first came to Washing
ton as correspondent. This means
that there are eighty-f1ve men in the
upper chamber, who were not there six
teen years ago, and, as a senator's
term IL SIN y GaIS t1lS IdCI Is ludQe even
the more remarkable. To put it an
other way: There are eighty-fve sena-
tors in the upper chamber who have
started their services for the country
since the year 1903.
The thing might be put also in an
other w.. While there are eighty
five senators who have been in the up
ner chamber less than sixteen years.
there have been any number of Sena-
TORS 10 come and to go within that pc
riod. One must so into the hundreds
when he figures on the changes which
have been made in the membership
of the senate in the last sixteen years.
This makes things look as if the peo-
pie bad something directly to say about
who should represent them in the up-<