Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1919-09-17
Committee Report Says Treaty
Would Breed Wars.
DEBATE WILL START MONDAY
Declares Revision Will Not Necessitate
sembling-CounciI in Session
Six Months-Other Nations Will
Not BaIk, 1t Asserts.

curing peace, the German peace
treaty, including the covenant forRa
League of Nations, was formally re-
ported to the senate by the foreign
relations committee with forty-tive
amendments and four reservations
1t will be the first great document
of its kind to be discussed in the open
without the confines of executive
session."
Accompanying the treaty was the
majority report of the foreign Tela-
lions committee subscribed to by
every Republican member except Sen
ator McCurber of North Dakota, eX-
planning the amendments and reserva-
lions, all of which it was declared
were governed by single purpose
and that is to guard American rights
and sovereignty, the invasion of which
would stimulate breaches of faith, en-
courage conflicts and generate
wars"
Reserve Right to Withdraw.
The reservations propose:
/. Unconditional right to withdraw
from the league.
2. Defamation by the United States
to accept any of the legal or moral
obligations of the much discussed ar
ticle X, or to accept any mandatory
from the league except by action OF
the congress of the United States"
3. Reserving to the United States
the exclusive right to decide what
questions are within its own domestic
jurisdiction.
4. Absolute reservation of the Mon
roe doctrine to the judgment of the
United States alone.
The principal amendments are pro-
posed to provide:
Equal voting power for the United
States with Great Britain in the as
sembly of the league.
Giving to China instead of Japan
the province of Shantung.
Relief of the United States from
having representatives on commissions
deciding matters in which it has no
concern.
Others concern phraseOlogy
These amendments and reservations,
the majority report says, are submit
ted ito preserve American independ-
ence and American sovereignty and
thereby best serve the welfare of man
kind"
Fears that other nations may not ac-
cept an amended covenant the report
dismissed with the statement:
"That is one thing that certainly
will not happen. The other ma
tions will take us on our own terms
for without us their league is a wreck.
and all their gains from a victorious
peace are imperiled."
Need Not Consult Germany.
German delegates, the report con-
tends, could easily be brought to
Paris, and as Germany is not a mem
Der of the league she need not be con-
suited about changes of the covenant.
At the outset the majority report
deals at length with criticisms of delay
and points out that whereas the peace
conference took six months to agree
on the treaty, the senate foreign rela-
lions committee had Al working days.
Demands for speed Gin the most inn
portant subject that ever came before
the senate of he United States" the
report says, were largely the work
of the administration and it's newspa-
per organs"
A second "artificial'' demand for
haste, the report says, came from seer
tain great banking firms, which had
direct pecuniary interest in securing an
early opportunity to reap the harvest
in the adjustment of financial Obliga-
tons of the warning countries. The
third was in the "unthinking cutlery
of many excellent people who desired
early action and for the most part
had never read the treaty or never
got beyond the words League of Ma
TONS which they believed to mean
the establishment of eternal peace"
ITO yield helplessly to this clamor,"
the report, declared twas impossible
to those to whom was intrusted the
performance of a solemn public
duty"
Recounts Causes for Delay.
Recalling the senate's responsibility
as equal with the presidents, the re-
port recountS at some length the diff
culties the foreign relations commit
tee experienced in getting information
on the treaty. being obliged to send
to Paris for maps, being compelled to
get Imperfect information from
press reports and having at its dis
posal few official documents. Collat-
eral treaties having a bearing, the re-
port says, the committee was unable
to get. OF the information received in
conference with President Wilson and
Secretary Lansing the report remarks:
THE people themselves know how