The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1919-12-05
TREATY DEFEAT LAID
AT DOOR OF PRESIDENT
Capital Believes He Made as Great
Blunder as When He Wrote Let
ter In 1918

ter in 1918
Washington, d. C.-The much
vaunted treaty of peace and League
Of Nations, which in their combined
beneficence were to bring a new
world order, are killed as the result OF
the determination of President Wilson
to have his own way at all hazards.
AS q result the United States is
about to enact concurrent resolutio
declaring the war at an end and vii
then return to its domestic and for
eign problems with view to its ow
welfare, untrammeled by the neces
sity of gaining the consent OF any
other nation. - '
In the opinion of official Washingto
the President made as great, If not
greater blunder than made by him i
his letter of 1918 calling for the cleo
ton of Democratic Congress because
the Republicans had not supported
the Administration as he thought they
should, though they were as loyal
After going to Europe without asking
the advice or consent of the Senate
as to the course to be pursued, he
brought back document the adoption
of which would have permanently
changed the traditional policy OF the
the country. Though it had been
composed in secret and though the
future of the United States, in the
view of some of the soundest states
men in both parties, was jeopardized
and menaced by it, he demanded, up
on his return that it be ratified ex-
actly as he presented it. The consti-
tuition stipulates that the President
shall be but part of the treaty
making power and that the Senate
shall be the other part, but he decreed
that the Senate must do his will. But
the Senate did not do his. Will. On
purely patriotic grounds it sought to
make reservations in the treaty so
that American rights would be pro-
tected. These were very simple. They
provided that the United States be
permitted to withdraw from the
League of Nations at the will of Con-
gress, that it assumes no obligation to
preserve the territorial integrity of
other States throughout the world,
that no mandate to govern other lands
.be accepted without the consent of
Congress, that this country reserve to
itself exclusively the right of sole
jurisdiction in all domestic questions,
that it refuse to submit to arbitration
the Monroe doctrine, that it withhold
full action in regard to China and ia
pan, that it's participation in official
representation in the league be sub
jected to Congress, and that if threat
ened with invasion it should not have
to ask the consent of the league to in
crease it's armament, and preventing
the British Empire from having six
votes to our one.
In spite of the fact that the remain
der Of the treaty as drawn at Versail-
les remained intact, the President, on
the last day of the session, when the
Senate was about to make it's momen-
tous decision, sent letter to Senator
Hitchcock, the Democratic leader, in
which he said that ain my opinion, the
resolution in that form does not pro-
vide for ratification, but rather for
the notification of the treaty" To
this statement Senator Lenroot, of
Wisconsin, took issue for the Repub-
leans. "The time has gone by" he
declared, "when general statements
like that, having no foundation in
fact, can be longer made and the
American people be deceived thereby.
/ shall be sorrow indeed if this issue
must get into a political campaign.
1t ought not to, There ought not to
be any partisan considerations in a
matter of this character. But if need
be that the Republican party must
again assume the obligation to stand
for Americansim, and the Democratic
party choose to stand upon this trea-
ty as it was drawn and defeat it be-
cause we have Americanized it, we
will welcome the ISSUE"
Only eleven Republicans voted
against the treaty as it was Ameri-