The Washington times., 1920-03-09
Text of the Presidents Letter to
Hitchcock on Article \

My Dear Senator Hitchcock:
l understand that one or two OF
your colleagues do me the honor
OF desiring to know what my views
are with reference to Article y
or the League OF Nations and the
effect upon the league OF the adop-
tion OF certain proposed reservs-
tions TO that article. l welcome the
opportunity to throw any light I
can upon a subject which has be-
come so singuisrly beclouded by
misapprehensions and misinterpre-
tations OF every kind.
There is no escaping the moral
obligations which are expressed in
positive terms in this article of the
covenant. We won a moral victory
over Germany far greater even
than the military victory won on
the field OF battle, because the
opinion OF the whole swung
10 our support and the support OF
the nations associated with us In
the great struggle.
1t did 80 because of our COM
mon profession and promise that
we meant to establish ian organ
ization OF peace which should
make II certain that the combined
power of free nations would check
every invasion OF right and serve
to make peace aud justice the more
secure by anordinE a definite tri-
bunal of opinion to which ALI must
submit and by which every inter-
national readjustment that cannot
be amicabiy agreed upon by the
peoples directly concerned shall
be sanctioned"
This promise and assurance were
written into the pre!iminaries OF
the armistice and into the prelimi-
naries OF the peace itself and con-
stitute one OF the most sacred OBJ
legations ever assumed by any ra-
tion or body of nations. II is I'M
thinkable that America should set
the example OF ignoring such q
solemn moral engagement
Recalls Pledges Msde.
For myself. feel that 1 could
not look the soldiers OF our gallant
armies in the face again IL did
not do everything in my power TO
remove every obstacle that lies in
the way OF the adoption OF this
particular article OF the covenant.
because we made these pledges TO
them as well as to the rest OF the
world and II was to this cause they
deemed themselves devoted in q
spirit OF crusaders. l should be
forever unfaithful to them II l did
not do my utmost to fulfil the high
purpose for which they fought.
think, my dear Senator. we can
dismiss from our minds the idea
that 1t is necessary to stipuiate in
connection with Article X the con-
stitutional methods we should use
in fulfilling our obligations under
IT. We gain nothing by such stip-
ulations and secure nothing which
Is not already secured. 1t was uH-
derstood as a matter Of course at
the conference in Paris that what
ever obligations any government
assumed or whatever duties 1t un-
dertook under the treaty would Of
course have to be fulfilled by it's
usual and established constitutional
methods OF action.
Once or twice in meetings OF the
conference. when the treaty was
under consideration. reservations"
were made to that effect by the rep
resentatives of individual powers.
and those reservations" were in
variably received in the way In
which men who have met for bust
ness and not for talk always receive
acts OF scrupulous supererogation,
listened to with Indifferent silence,
as such men listen to what is a mat
ter Of course and was not necessary
to say.
There can be no objection to ex-
planning again what our constitu-
tional method is and that our Con-
gress alone can declare war or de-
termine the causes or occasions for
war. and that IL alone can authorize
the use OF the armed forces OF the
United States on land or on the sea.
But to make such a declaration
would certainly be work of
appropriation.
Declares Articles NulliAed.
I am sorry to say that the reser-
vations that have come under my
notice are almost without excep-
ton not interpretations Of the ar
ticle to which 1t Is proposed to at
tach them but in effect virtual null
LITIGATION of those articles.
Any reservation which seeks to
deprive the league of nations Of the
force of Article X cuts at the very
heart and life of the covenant it
self. Any league OF nations which
does not guarantee as matter OF
incontestable right the political In
dependence and integrity OF each o
its members might be hardly more
than a futile scrap of paper. as in
effective in operation as the agree
ment between Belgium and Ger
many which the Germans violated
in 1914.
Article Y as written into the
treaty OF Versailles. represents the
remuneration by Great Britain and
Japan. which before the war had
begun to find so many interestes
in common in the Pacific; by
France. by Itaiy--by all the great
fighting powers OF the world OF the
old pretensions Of political con-
quest and territorial aggrandize-
ment. 1t Is a new doctrine in the
worlds affairs and must be recog-
nized or there Is no secure basis
for the peace which the whole
world so longingly desires and so
desperately needs.