Evening star., 1920-02-01
BY NEWBOLD MOVES.

HHERE Is viewpoint to be cultivated
in reading the news of the week that
makes that hour devoted by Jim and
Jane of a Sunday morning to the busi-
ness Of reviewing the passage Of major news
items less of task and more of game. It
springs from the conception that news, wet
from the presses. tells in very truth a VITAL
swiftly moving story. The form in which the
news is, of necessity. served to the public all
too often leaves the casual reader the impress
sion of hodgepodge of Incidents of a crazy
quilt of events. Yet if one will search with
reasonable patience it is not hard to discover
that the story which is being told has in the
big news at least a central plot; and that a
single thread leads smoothly from each major
item to the others. till all linked together.
The game for Jim and Jane to play together is
to follow that thread till the story the weeks
are telling may become to them, from an ac-
emulation of unrelated facts, a tale of which
paragraph and chapter and volume follow each
other in ordered sequence, each essential to
the full understanding of the others.
X X X X
Senatorial bipartisan conferences. by which
1t had been believed the deadlock in the mat
ter of the peace treaty was to be broken
came to an abrupt end upon Friday, when
Senator Lodge definitely and finally refused to
consider any change in his reservation upon
week, when announcement was made that the
senator, presumably as q result of the in
sistence OF the bitter-enders. had reached a
decision to yield no ground concerning the
context of this reservation. The balance of
the week till Friday afternoon was consumed
in succession of announcements and denounce-
ments. threats and sidesteppings on Capitol
Hill. And then upon Friday afternoon, just in
time to give one of the principal actors in the
drama time to catch train west, on "im-
portant business bound, the final die was cast,
the conferences definitely split upon the rock
OF either republican or democratic obstinacy,
as you wish. and the latest effort at treaty
ratification was pronounced a failure.
There are those who claim. however, that
despite the final smash much has been accom-
plished. Senator Hitchcock is reported to be
preparing to make the effort to bring the
treaty up IN the open Senate on February 10.
and in this connection it is pointed out that
ne Will be in position to ask that those points
upon which the conferees agreed be accepted
by the Senate: Should such succeed
the job then ahead would be limited, it is said
to reaching a compromise article x, the
Monroe doctrine provision and two
point 1t is held that the effort of the bipartisan
confeEses has not been fruitless.
White House that President Wilson, while
determined to keep his hands of in the con-
step. which would speed up % ratiacation. ID at one % jim
and Jane. part Of that national pulse which
which clamoro-6o -fulAIl1neRt by the Senate
OF its function will echo the implied insstence
+ y X
While the primary consideration before
the Senate these days is the peace treaty, it
must not be overlooked that recently all neRo-
tiations toward a compromise that sub
ject have been conducted at informal confer
ences. and that both houses of Congress have
been free to take up the many other measures
pressing for action. Early in the week the
Americanization bill, carrying an appropriation
of $6,500000 for years work in bringing
home the significance of America through edu-
cation, was passed by the Senate. The bill
for the establishment of a more adequate scale
of pay for the personnel Of the Army and Navy
came up for consideration in the north wing
of the Capitol and the proposition Of creating
a separate and distinct department of aero
nautics discussed
The Senate military affairs committee by
vote of to 5. ordered favorable report
upon the Army reorganization bill, virtually
as reported to it by it's subcommittee but
differing radically from the reorganization bill
as submitted to Congress- by the War Depart
ment The bill as approved by the committee
provides for compulsory military training for
youths between eighteen and twenty-one years.
Following the reporting of the bill to the
Senate the leader of the House republicans