The Alaska daily empire., 1920-03-23
DEFEAT OF THE TREATY

The voting in the United States Senate has shown that fully seventy-five United States Senators Ia vored a League of Nations and the ratification oi the peace treaty. Nearly all of the Democrats who voted against the treaty did because they felt that the Senate with the reservations to Article x destroyed 1t. There many things, very 1ew of them creditable to those concerned responsible for failure register the will of the people or of the in the premises. The primary cause of the failure. however. that the treaty reser- yations dictated by enemies of any sort Of League of Naions-by Senators who finally voted against the reservations they forced on the Senate This was due to two things. First, the majority of the Republican members of the Committee on Foreign Relations opposed League of Nations, and second Senator Lodge Chairman of that committee, was also his parys leader in the Senate. and he srove to keep the party united Two or three times the mild res eryationiSts' among the Republicans, who consti- tuted ma jority of that partys membership of the Senate and the supporters of the League of Nations among the Democrats majority of that partys mem- bership, the point of agreement once Senator Lodge presented a reservation to Article X to- the Senate which would have been accepted by Democrats but he withdrew it because the ire concabes served notice him that to press 1t to passage would disrupt the party In other words Senators who opposed the League of Nations, forced those favored it. but thought of preventing the party rupture than they did of the treaty to withdraw the proposal.
 Democratic friends of the League of Nations off, fefed set of reservations prepared by former Presi dent William Howard Taft, the last Republican Pres ident reservations that understood to have the approval of Judge Charles Evans Hughes. the last Republican candidate for the Presidency and 1t is said reservations that a majority of the Republican Senators willing to vote for, but the threats of rreconcliable Senators caused it be be rejected for partisan Then those irreconciliable Senators voted against the treaty with the reserya- ticns they had helped to force into the treaty.
 President Wilson is accused of lack of tact and leadership in handling the situation. His friends believe that the principal of failure In this respect due to the circumstance that he was III for so many months when the debate and contest were at .their heighth AAs
 7 The failure of the United States to ratify peace that has been agreed to by all the other bell ligerents, and a League of Nations that practically trals have accepted after contest that has contin- ued with few weeks interruption since last July more than eight months-is of the results of parsanship Washington, the conduct of the coun- trys business by statesmen who are politicians and politicians who not statesmen" If a bunch of instead of politicians had had the treaty and the League of Nations under consideration, 1t would have been disposed of early in August if not before that time and the country could have had the benefit of six months of time devoted to the reconstruction problems