The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1919-06-14
THE TREATY SCANDAL

That was a fitting climax to what had gone before when
Senator Borah yesterday read to the United States senate a
copy of the proposed peace treaty as furnished to Germany,l
not the German version or translation, but the official English
translation. The senate, whose responsibility for the treaty is
co-equal with that of the president, had been asking for weeks
that it be informed of the terms it proposed; Germany was OIL
cially informed with copies of the treaty five weeks ago to-
morrow; the treaty had been made public throughout Ger
me;.y. and even neutral countries were informed, but the people
of America who had been taught to believe in open covenants
openly arrived at" were permitted only to read an "oflclal
SEMINAR proposed and interpreted" for them by the same
interpreters who had interpreted the original draft OF the
league of nations that was afterward junked because it was
given a different Interpretation in every country and in every
quarter where it was read.
Last week Senator Lodge startled the senate by the
declaration that he had seen a copy of'the proposed treaty III
the hands of certain business interests in New York. His
veracity was questioned, his motives impugned and Senator
Hitchcock, at the request of the administration, introduced a
resolution providing for an Investigation. Yesterday the
president cabled all the way from Paris commencing the
inquiry with the hope that it would be thorough. And the
committee on foreign relations started its inquiry by sum-
moning a lot of big business men from New York to ascertain
whether or not Senator Lodge had told the truth. And Acting
Secretary Polk had just informed: the probing committee of
the senate that the state department had received copies from
Paris but he was certain none of them had escaped. And the,
senate had formally requested some days ago that it be supplied
with copies and the department had not complied. And just as
this situation was fully developed it was announced that a news
paper correspondent was offering the treaty for publication
to any newspaper that wanted it keenly enough to pay for it;
and Senator Borah told the<senate he had it and started to
read it.
And one of the presidents fourteen points" declared for
"open covenants openly arrived at"
And the constitution of the United States provides that
the president "shall have power by and with the ADVICE
and CONSENT of the senate, to make treaties, provided
TWO-THIRDS of the senators present concur"
But not otherwise.
And the people, whose government this is, have witnessed
treaty after treaty discussed and amended and treaty after
treaty rejected or withdrawn.
And the people whose government, this is have had one
hundred and thirty-two years in which to change that pro-
vision of the constitution and they have never taken the
first step in that directon-and never will.
If that provision ever needed vindication, that vindication
has been supplied over and over and over again during the
last six months. a~at ~vr
The senate plainly advised the president not to expect
ratification of his league of nations covenant as a part of the
treaty that would definitely end the war that everybody wanted
on its own merits without. being tied to a treaty Of peace it
ought not to stand at all. The president replied with defiance
that the two would be so intimately interviewer that one could
not be rejected or amended without defeating both, and thereby
perpetuating a state of war.
The senator who yields his own patriotic convictions to
the dictates of the president will violate his oath Of office and
betray the trust of the people who elected him..
4
And the same claquers and propagandists who would
Justify withholding this document from the senate will be
the first to declare that the senate is responsible for prolong-
the treaty is finally submitted with request for its ratification.
Mark that prediction, and mark it well.
X 4
There is a treaty scandal" and it smells to high Heaven,
but the scandal lies not in the fact that somebody, after five
weeks, made it public among the people concerned, but in the
fact that it was not given promptly for discussion and exam
nation to that body, chosen by the people, who must approve
ii before peace can be restored to the world.