Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-07-25
MIR. TAFT'S INTERPRETATIONS"
POINT WAY FOR REPUBLICANS

! Former President Has Risen to the occa-
sion When There Was Need for Lead
ership Of Vision and Practical Sense
| MIR. TAFT'S letters to Will H. Hays,
AS1 the chairman of the Republican ma
tionaI committee, have shown to the Re
! publican senator's a way out of the mess
into which they have got themselves.
! With great shrcwdncss and tact, he re-
/ Trains from charging them with sole re-
! sporsibi,ty for the present unsatisfactory
conditions. He takes the view, which will
be accepted by the historian of this
epoch, that the primary responsibility
rests upon the President.
Mr. Wilson has made Erievous mis-
takes in his dealings with the body which
shares with him the responsibility for
negotiating treaties. There was no law
which required him to take the Senate
into his confidence. The constitution does
not require him to appoint senators on
treaty making commission. In fact, 1t
has not been customary to employ sena-
tors for this work. But one Of the most
important treaties to which this nation
has been a party was to be negotiated.
The Senate naturally desired to know at
first hand something about the processes
by which agreement was reached on its
various sections.
The President has kept it in ignorance.
Not even the leaders Of his own party in
the Senate were kept informed. The as
-ociates of the President on the peace
commission were not men who repre-
yentcd the sentiment Of any considerable
number of persons. Mr.. Lansing is an
international lawyer of no political stand
ing. Colonel House is personal friend
of Mr.. Wilson. Henry White is a super
animated diplomatist who has lived
abroad so many years that his Repubh-
canism is only nominal And General
Bliss is an army officer of the second or
third rank The peace commission was
Mr.. Wilson, with four other men with
out force enough to impress themselves
upon the negotiations and without any
ability to represent national sentiment.
! IT, as Mr.. Taft suggests, man of the
! standing Cf Mr.. Root and two members
of the foreign relations committee of the
Senate had gone to Paris with the Presi-
| dent there would not have been the dead
! lock between the White House and the
! Capitol, which must be broken before the
treaty can be ratified.
Mr.. Taft has addressed himself to the
breaking of the deadlock, which has
arisen largely because of the personal
limitations of the President. He begins
by agreeing with the Presidents personal
critics in the Senate No one can charge
him with fighting Mr.. Wilson's battle.
! He is fighting for the peace of the world
and for the participation Of this nation
in the preservation of that peace. He is
seeking to lift the league-of-nations cove
! nant from the ruck of partisan politics
into the purer air Of a national policy in
order that the presidential campaign next
year may be fought upon domestic issues.
He assumes with good reason that the
American people as a whole favor some
league nations plan. And he insists on
what he has said from the beginning,
that the covenant provides satisfactory
foundation on which to build a perfected
structure But there is conscientious
belief in certain quarters that it does not
protect the rights of the United States
sufficiently. He proposes a series of Gin
terpretations" He does not call them
reservations" for reservations would
have to be accepted by the other nations.
There is much virtue in a word and he has
found the right word to meet the case.
His six interpretations meet substan-
TALLY every fair-minded objection that
has been raised to the covenant. The
first article provides that any nation may
withdraw upon two years notice pro-
vided its international obligations have
been met. Mr. Taft would have the
United States understand that this coun-
try would be the sole Judge whether its
international obligations had been full.
filled.
He dsposes of the dread that the
British empire would dominate the league
bv suggesting that we understand the
covenant to mean that the self-governinf
colonies and the mother country could no
be represented at the same time on thu
league council He meets the fear tina
we might be compelled to go to wa
AGAINST our will to defend a member o
the league by rewriting that part o
Article X which provides that the counci
shall advise a course of action when
nation is threatened by external aggres
sion and by providing that the decision o
the course of this country should res
! with Congress.
He would have this country interpre
f the Monroe Doctrine clauses as meaning
I that the administration of that doctrin
is to be reserved to US, and he would max
a IL clear that immigration, the tariff an
y other domestic questions should not
q submitted to the league for settlement
A He would have the Senate, taking advan
: tage of the provision that any countr
might withdraw on two years notice, Civ
a notice now that the United States re
' aaruras tie RIGHT to Withdraw unnnnd