The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1919-08-23
Will SON ANSWERS
SENATE QUERIES
SAYS HE SEES NO REASON
/ ABLE OBJECTION TO Res
! ERVATI0NS ON LEAGUE
CONFERENCE At WHITE HOUSE
President Asserts United states Sur
renders no Powers and May
Withdraw at Will

Foreign Relations Committee Of the
senate, met at the White House Tues
day to discuss the peace treaty.
The president opened the discussion
by impressing on the senators the ur-
gency of prompt ratification of the
treaty without amendments and with
out reservations that would require re-
submission of the treaty to the other
signatories, especially Germany.
The president said that the interest
of every class of people, the farmers,
industrial workers and employers de-
mand prompt ratification to the end
that stable conditions of industry ag-
riculture and employment be re-estab-
lished. The presidents address which
was in effect an address to the coun-
try, follows:
Mr.. Chairman hope that this
conference will serve to expedite your
consideration of the treaty of peace.
/ beg that you will pardon and in
dulge me IL | again urge that prac-
tically the whole task of bringing the
country back TO normal conditions of
life and industry waits upon the deci-
sion of the senate with regard to the
terms of the peace.
venture thus again to urge my ad-
vice that the action of the senate
with regard to the treaty be taken at
the earliest possible moment because
the problems with which we are face
TO face in the readiustment of our ma
tional life are OF the most pressing
and critical character. will require for
their proper soltion the most intimate
and disinterested cooperation of all
parties and all interests, and cannot
be postponed without manifest peril
to our people and to all the national
advantages we held most dear.
The copper mines of Montana, Ari-
zona and Alaska, for example, are be-
ing kept open and in operation only
at a great cost and less in part upon
borrowed money; the zinc mines of
Missouri, Tennessee and Wisconsin
are being operated at about one-half
their capacity; the lead of Idaho, Illi-
nois and Missouri reaches only por-
tion of its former market; there is an
immediate need for cotton betting and
also for lubricating oil which cannot
be met-all because the channels of
trade are barred by war when there
is no war. The same is true of raw
cotton, of which the central empires
alone formerly purchased nearly four
million bales, and these are only ex-
amples. There is hardly a single raw
material, single important food stuff
or a single class of manufactured
goods which is not in the same case.
Our full, normal profitable production
waits on peace.
Our military plans, of course, wait
upon it, We cannot intelligently or
wisely decide how large a naval or
military force we shall maintain or
what our policy with regard to milf
tary training is to be until we have
peace not only, but also until we
know how peace is to be sustained,
whether by the arms of single ma.
tions or by the concert of all the
great peoples. And there is more
than that difficulty involved The
vast surplus properties OF the army in.
clude not food and clothing merely,
whose sale will affect normal produc-
ton, but great manufacturing estab.
lishments also, which should be re
stored to their former uses, great
stores of machine tools and all sorts
of merchandise which must lie idle
until peace and military policy are
definitely determined.
There are large areas of Europe
whose future will lie uncertain and
questionable until their people know
the fnal settlements of peace and the
forces which are to administer and
sustain it. without determined mar
kets our production cannot proceed
with intelligent osnfidence. There
can be no easy or normal industrial
credits because there can be no con-
Tdent or permanent revival of bust
Bsss. There can be no stabilization
of wages because there can be no set
tied conditions of employment
The nations that ratify the treaty,
such as Great Britain. Belgium and
France, will be in position to lay |
their plans for controlling the mar
kets of Central Europe without COM
petition from us, if we do not pres
emily act. We have no consular
agents, no trade representatives
there to look after our interests.
Nothing, l am led TO believe, stands
in the way of the ratification of the
treaty except doubts with regard to
the meaning and implication of certain
art cles Of the covenant of the league
of nations; and l must frankly say
that / am unable to understand why /
such doubts should be entertained. /
You will recall thet when l had the
pleasure of a conference with your
committee and with the committee of
the house of representatives on for
eign affairs at the White House in
March last. the questions now most
frequently asked about the league of
nations were all canvassed with a
view to their immediate clariacation,