The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-03-11
Two Programmes; Mr.. wilson's and
the Peoples.

cate on this side of the Atlantic gu
neighbor the World, has at last dis
covered that the opposition which /
has been belaboring is not opposition
to league Of nations, but opposition
to the Wilson draft of a covenant fo
a league. The World says:
Senators and newspapers opposed
to a League OF Nations assailed the
covenant OF Paris so violently at frst
that they in effect proclaimed their
hostility to the whole plan.
Although a few Of them now speak
as though all that they want is
amendments. 1t Is assumed in most
cases that President WILSON is OBJ
stnately committed against any
change now or hereafter"
The World should read again thu
text of the resolution which thirty
nine Senators, representing twenty
eight States, declared they would have
supported IL it had been permitted tC
come to vote. Stripped of its pre-
amble, that resolution said:
Resolved. BY the Senate o, the
United States. in the discharge OF its
constitutional duty OF advice in re-
gard to treaties, that 1t is the sense
OF the Senate that while II Is their
49,
world should unite 10 promote peace
and general disarmament, the Consti-
tuition OF the League of Nations IN
the form noto proposed 10 the Peace
Conference should not be accepted by
the United States; and be il
Resolved further, That 1t is the
sense OF the Senate that the negotia-
tions on the part OF the United States
should Immediately be directed to the
utmost expedition OF the urgent bust
ness of negotiating peace terms with
Germany satisfactory to the United
States and the nations with whom
the United States is associated in the
war against the German Government.
and the proposal for League OF
Nations TO insure the permanent
peace OF tho world should be then
taken up for careful and serious con-
sideration.'
The italics are ours. and they arc
scarcely needed. Nothing could be
palmer than these words. written by
Senator KNOX and put to the Senate
by Senator LODGE They voice tho
sentiment of the great majority OF
Americans on two vital points:
l. That the Wilson draft, in its
present form, will not do.
.. That the horse must 60 ahead of
the cart, and that the most important
business of the world. the conclusion
of peace, must precede the calm and
careful preparation OF an interna-
tional agreement which will provide,
so far as mortal men can provide. for
the peace of the future. yet without
surrendering American principles.
IF Americans have assumed, as the
World says, that President WILSON
us obstinately committed against any
change, now or hereafter" in the
covenant recently presented, then Mr..
WILSON is alone responsible for that
assumption. In his speeches here he
referred, not 10 "a covenant" but
to 'the covenant"-his covenant, the
Wilson covenant. The treaty OF
peace, the really important work for
Paris TO do was mentioned in the
Presidents Opera House speech only
once, and then It was referred 70 IN
a defiance Of the opponents Of the
covenant:
When that treaty comes back gem
tlemen on this side will fnd the COW
enant not only in il, but 80 many
threads OF tho treaty tied to the
covenant that you cannot dissect the
covenant from the treaty without
destroying the whole vital strlIcture."
1.-THE covenant" or no peace: that.
confessedly, was the Presidents pro-
gramme.
Peace first and then an agreement
II be treaty, constitution,
covenant or what you llke-which
America can sign without surrender.
ing honor or strength; that is the