Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-03-17

most distinguished craftsmen of tho
!, league shows that all its language
: reasonably construed delegates nc
power to these bodies to act for the
! league and its members without their
unanimous concurrence unless the
words used make such delegation
clear
Article VIII provides that the
executive council shall determine for
the consideration and action of the
several governments. what military
equipment and armament is fair and
reasonable in proportion to the scale
of force laid down in the program of
disarmament formulated by it. and
these limits, when adopted. shall not
be exceeded without the permission of
! the executive council. This leaves
wholly to the governments the ac-
eeptance or rejection of the proposed
! limitation.
Power i'm Congress.
Senator Knox says that as this
Recommendation will be made with
| the consent of our representative on
| the council, we shall be in honor
bound to accent the limit and bind
ourselves. 1t is difficult to follow
this reasoning. The body which is
| TO accept the limitation is the con-
gress of the United States. Why
| should the congress of the United
States be bound by a representative
selected by. the president to represent
the United States in this function, in
respect to a matter of great import
ance under the control of congress?
| THAT the United States should recog
| nize the wisdom of a/reduction of ar
| mament under a world plan for il
| seems manifest Our national failing
| has been not TO maintain enough ar
mament The argument of Mr.. Knox
| involves the conclusion that the Unit
ed States cannot enter into any agree
ment not to exceed certain limit
of armament Since 1917 we have
agreed by treaty with Great Britain
not to have warships on the lakes.
The validity of that treaty has never
been contested.
There are other troubles of the
same tenor. 1t is true that in the trea-
ty of 1877 either party Is able to with
draw from the treaty after a years
notice, but the principle would be
the same whether it was year or ten
years. / quite agree that a period
should be fixed either for expiration
of the obligation or a withdrawal
therefrom by reasonable notice, but
that we should have such agreement
II seems to me goes without saying,
and | don't know anybody better able
to make just recommendation for
our consideration than the executive
council.
Assumes No Obligations.
Senator Knox conceiyes that there
will be thrown upon the United States
obligations in respect to the back
ward countries in Turkey and In At
RIGA which formerly belonged to the
central powers, because it would be |
obliged to govern as a mandatory UNI
der direction of the executive council
might require the sending Of Ameri- |
can troops to these distant lands to
die in an unwholesome climate and to
expose themselves to all sorts of dam |
gers in remote countries. 1t is a suf-
ficient answer to this to say that there
is no obligation on the part of the
United States to accept obligations as
a mandatory. 1t does not covenant to
do SO and it is not likely to do so. If |
it did it would engage the country
over which it was a mandatory with
the fullest discretion. The high con-
tracing parties would lay down rules
in advance or the executive council
would grant a charter under which
the mandatory would discharge its
trust, but the United States, not being
obliged to act as a mandatory, would
decline to accept any charter to which
ii objected A mandatory is required
to make report at the end of year.
to show that it has conformed to the
limitations of the trust, but there is
no power on the part of the executive
council to direct the campaigns of
mandatory or to compel its armies to
go into the dangers so eloquently pic
tured by Senator Knox
Sovereignty Not Given Up.
"As long as all the branches of the
government function as the eonstitu-
ton requires, with the discretion fixed
in them by that instrument, the form
of the government is not changed and
the sovereignty is not given up In
the proper and true sense a lawful
contract does not interfere with the
liberty of the individual or the sover-
eighty of a nation when fully and
freely entered into. This league does
not intend to curtail the sovereignty
of the United States. The sovereignty
of the United States is a sovereignty
cry other nation. 1t should be sover-
eighty limited by international law
and international morality The
league only furnishes the machinery
by which this equal and just sover-
eighty among the nations may be pre-
served. 1t furnishes for that preser-
walton the sanction of a loose agree
ment between the nations under which
the united forces of the nations may
be sovereignty by any nation.
Senator Knox criticises the league
because it recognizes the possibility
of war and proposes to use war to end
war. Certainly there s no means of
lawless violence but by
lawful force, and any league which
makes no provision for that method
and recognizes its validity would be
futile. He points out that the plan for
the league is not warproof, and that
war may come in spite of it. Then
he describes the kind of league which
he would frame in which he provides
a league which will involve the Unit
ed States in quite as much war and
in just as great transfer of its SOW
eighty as he charges this covenant
with doing.
senator Knox's Substitute.
HE proposes to have compulsory
before an international
court of international differences, ex-
Guiding questions of policy. His I
court would not settle all diff
ferences likely to lead to war for
questions of policy, however, becausel