Omaha daily bee., 1919-12-18
America and the Treaty


From the Manchester Guardian.
1t is of the first importance that there should
be clear understanding on this side of the
Atlantic of the deadlock over the ratification OF
the peace treaty in the American senate, which
threatens sadly to cripple the league of nations
at its birth. The Old World had looked with
confidence to the New for help in forwarding
that comfy of the nations which alone can
compensate the world for the ruin and carnage
of the war Instead, America alone of the great
nations designated to found the league meets
the project, when it takes practical shape with
a suspicion and hostility that may result in her
abstention and in loss to the prestige of the
league nothing short of calamitous. OF the
causes Of this overturn, the tendency of some
of President Wilson's opponents to seize the
opportunity which the treaty offers in order to
discredit his policy on the eve of an election is
no doubt real, but may easily be exaggerated.
But the root cause is deeper, and it is on which
liberal thought in Europe cannot but respect.
The control of parliament over foreign policy
is more firmly established and more jealousy
guarded in America than in any of the great
democracies. With congress lies the issue of
peace Or war and the negotiation of treaties.
1t is the supreme authority in all external at
fairs. Yet by the league covenant the authority
of congress may be transcribed at several
points, and it is the main object of the drastic
reservations that have been carried at the in
stance of the senate committee on foreign at
makes congress the sole judge, in the event Of
America withdrawing from the league, whether
she has fulfilled her obligations as member.
By the second the United States declines to as
sumo, under Article 10 of the covenant, any
obligation to preserve the territorial integrity
or political independence of any other state, or
to make use of her forces, or to accept any
mandate, except by action of congress The
third makes the United States sole Judge as to
what questions come within her domestic juris-
diction and removes these from the sphere Of
the league. Of the others-there are Is in all
the most important are those reserving the
right to break any agreement for the limiting
of ornaments if invasion threatens and to dis
regard economic boycott so far as it affects the
nationals of belligerent states residing in Amer
lea.
The sum total of these reservations espe-
cially when that directed at Article 10 is under
stood, is so destructive of the terms of the
covenant as to make it impossible for the presi-
dent to submit them for the formal acceptance
of the other powers. Two courses are open to
him. He may drop the treaty, secure the pas
sage of simple resolution declaring the war
at an end, and leave America to enter the league
if and when public opinion is ripe for the STEP
Despite Senator Lodges declaration that the
treaty is already dead" we believe such 4
course would be viewed with as much dismay
in America as in Europe. On the other hand
the president may secure the introduction of
second ratification BILL Incorporating such mild
err reservations as would not vitiate the treaty
in the hope that, faced with the alternative of
it in its new form A simple majority of the
senate is sufficient for the passage Of reserva-
tons, and this the presidents opponents have
majority of two-thirds is, however needed
for ratification and this the STRONG" reserva-
tionists cannot command without more support
from the democrats than they have yet re-
ceived. If they persist, therefore, they can kill
the treaty, but they cannot amend it. On the
other hand, if they are willing to compromise
the treaty may yet be signed and the immense
moral value of Americas participation in the
league from its beginning be secured 1t will
be the wish of all who have set their hopes on
the success of the league that this may be the
plan adopted.
Whatever the result it is essential for Eu-
rope to understand that American opposition
to theItreaty is in the main the outcome not of
narrow nationalism, or lack of Imagination, still
the faults p' Of the treaty. tse An Ensshman
may ask why America should be 50 sensitive to
limitations of her sovereignty by the council of
the league when the same sacrifice Is asked
and granted by other powers. The answer may
be summed up in the words by Senator Lodge,
the chairman of the foreign relations commit
tee, when he presented the majority report of
the committee to the senate in September. This
covenant of the league of nations" he said, "is
an alliance and not a league, as is amply shown
by the treaty, which vests all essential power
in FIVE great nations These nations also DOM
mate the league through the council. The COM
n1ittee believes that the league as it stands will
breed wars instead of securing peace, and that
it demands sacrifices of American sovereignty
and independence which would in no way pro-
mote the worlds peace, but which are fraught
with the gravest danger to the United States"
That is the basis of American hostility to the
league project in its present shape, and none
who in Europe have watched with misgiving
the ideal of the league obscured and twisted as
it took shape by the factors of arrogance, hatred
and fear will deny that there is truth in it. But
we believe that history will pronounce it
shortsighted view. The covenant was born in
an atmosphere of passion. Many of its articles
Are ambiguous impractical, inadequate. But the
dominating fact is that it has behind it in Eu-
rope not the forces of reaction or of imperial
ism, but the enthusiasm and aspiration of the
democracies who see in it the basis on which
fairer structure must and will be raised, and
who will count it disaster If the hand of
America is withheld from that work