The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1919-08-28
Says He Sees No Reasonab!e1
Objection to Reservations
Concerning League
of Nations.
CONFERENCE AT WHITE HOUSE
President Asserts United States
Surrenders No Powers and
May Withdraw al Will.

Washington, D. c., Aug. 19.-Presi-
dent Wilson and the members OF the
Foreign relations committee OF the
senate met at the White House Tues
day to discuss the peace treaty.
The president opened the discussion
by impressing on the senators the
urgency of prompt ratification of the
treaty without amendments and with
out reservations that would require re-
submission of the treaty to the other
siSnatories, especially Germany.
The president said that the interests
of every class Of people, the farmers,
industrial workers and employers, de-
manded prompt ratification to the end
that stable conditions Of industry, agri-
culture and employment be reestab-
Nshed The presidents address, which
was in effect an address to the cOun-
try, follows:
IT hope that this conference will
serve to expedite your consideration of
the treaty of peace. l beg that you
will pardon and indulge me if | again
urge that practically the whole task of
bringing the country back to normal
conditions Of life and industry waits
upon the decision Of the senate with
regard to the terms Of peace.
II venture thus again to urge my
advice that the action Of the senate
with regard to the treaty be taken at
the earliest practicable moment be-
cause the problems with which we are
face to face in the readjustment Of our
national life are of the most pressing
and critical character. They will re-
quire for their proper solution the
most intimate and disinterested CO.
operation of all parties and all inter-
ests and cannot be postponed without
manifest peril to our people and to all
the national advantages we hold most
dear
, "The copper mines of Montana, Ari-
iona and Alaska, for example are be-
ing kept open and in operation only at
O great cost and loss, in part upon
borrowed money. The zinc mines of
Missouri, Tennessee and Wisconsin
are being operated at about one-half
their capacity. The lead of Idaho, III
inois and Missouri reaches only por-
ton Of it's former market. There is an
immediate need for cotton betting, and
also for lubricating oil, which cannot
be met, all because the channels of
trade are barred by war when there is
no war. The same is true of raw cot
ton, of which the central empires alone
formerly purchased nearly four million
bales; and these are only examples.
There is hardly single raw material,
O single important foodstuff or single
class of manufactured goods which is
not in the same case. Our full, normal
profitable production waits on peace.
"Our military plans, of course, wait
upon it. We cannot intelligently or
wisely decide how large q naval or
military force we should maintain or
what our policy with regard to mill
tary training is to be until we have
peace not only but also until we know
how peace is to be sustained, whether
bY the arms of single nations or by the
concert of all the great peoples And
there is more than that difficulty in
volyed. The vast surplus properties Of
the army include, not food and cloth
ing merely, whose sale will affect nor
NAL production, but great manufacture
ing establishments also, which should
SDe restored to their former uses, great
: stores of machine tools and all sorts Of
! merchandise which must lie idle until
peace and military policy are definitely
Z determined
'The nations that ratify the treaty,
: such as Great Britain, Belgium and
France, will be in a position to lay
s.their plans for controlling the mar