Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-12-21

ton of giving the week the
once over and continue the
process over a moderately extended period of
time. they will make this discovery: That a
high percentage of the major news of any
given week is merely new instalment of
story which started several numbers back and
that brand new feature in the events of tho
week is rarity. Upon the ability of Jim and
Jane to read the news developments of each
week in the light of what has happened during
the week or the month or the year before. de-
ponds their ability to extract from that news
Its full significance. This fact is pointed
lest. recognizing such old friends the subjects
treated below The Mexican Situation or
THE Peace Treaty" THE Coal Strike Jim
shall assert 'shucks. last week Why
don't he spill sumthin' new?" and Jane. opining
her lord speaks the truth. shall with him pass
on to the comic section.
Take this as an explanation apology
or what you will. my friends the proof of
what has been said lies before you.
x x x \
Take the peace treaty. We have seen. since
the inception of these articles. the Sixty-sixth
Congress called to order in it's first regular
meeting with the treaty, undisposed of in the
hectic extra session which endured from May
to November. being battered and bruised upon
the Senate table. wherever that is. We have
noted the presidential failure mention it in
his message incident to the opening of Con-
gress. and the loathness of Senators lay hands
upon the job before them. We have stressed
the unqualified desire of the public that the
treaty be disposed of. and that quickly. And
we have urged all concerned to timber up suf-
hciently to enable them to function properly
as servants of the hundred and ten million
Now what has the past seven days brought
forth?
Early in the week it became apparent that
the gentlemen in the upper house of the
duplex establishment on Capitol Hill were
growing restless under the public insistence
mat senatorial dexterity in passing RESPONSE
bilites from one side of the chamber to the
other is not all they want to be shown. The
popular clamor for definite and constructive
action of some sort another. seemed about
to jolt its way into the complacent minds of
those who seemed to feel that the treaty de-
served a good long after the manhandling
1t received in the extra session.
Into the midst of this chatty and restful
atmosphere came the latest Wilsonian bomb
shell. in the form of the White House an
nouncement that the President proposed to sit
pat and that he had compromise or con-
cessions of any kind in mind. The restful at
mosphere Of the Senate chamber forthwith be-
same surcharged with uncontrolled energy and.
thoush It's chattiness in no wise decreased, it
took on the form of talking to the point. For
the first time in several weeks the fact that
the Senates business is the Senate's business
seemed to have percolated into the senatorial
consciousness.
Now what the President his proxy said
to the Senate in the shortest message to that ,
body record has been much misunderstood
by the public, if not by those to whom it was
Immediately addressed. 1t has been asserted
broadcast that Wilson has announced he will
accept compromise. He made such an
nouncement. What he said to the republican
majority and the democratic minority of the
Senate-and his words were addressed prmari-
ly to the aforementioned proportion of that
gathering-was, in effect, this:
DO your work. I've done mine. l
made treaty, presented it to you and ex-
planned it to you and to the country 1t is up
to you to approve disapprove of my work.
You are the ones to make any reservations that
to be made. if any to be made. You are
the ones to compromise among yourselves any
difficulties which are preventing you from COM
petng your share of the job that world
which has suffered too much is waiting for.
This is your opportunity and your turn to act.
When you shall have acted it will be my turn
again-my turn to decide whether your action
constitutes approval of the treaty drawn or
disapproval, my turn to act upon that decision.
Do your own work. gentlemen and do it the
best you know how
And the events of the balance of the week.
which have shown the Senate to be co-ordinat-
ing itself for one final effort, prove the wisdom,
if not the tactfulness of the Presidents course
in bidding the senators play their own part
Assuredly they have sufficiently emphasized
their constitutional right do so without
executive interference.