Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1920-03-28
TREATY DEFEAT
BRINGS TO FRONT
DOMESTIC ISSUES
Reaction To Senate's
Vote Opposite of
That Expected
BY H. N. RICKEY.


WASHINGTON, March 27.-It
has been assumed that the final re-
fusal of the senate to "advise and
consent" to the ratification of the
peace treaty would inevitably result
in the treaty being the paramount
issue. in the coming presidential cam
paign.
1t has also been assumed that the
logic of the situation would make
President Wilson the Democratic
candidate for a third term on ratl-
fication without reservation plat
form.
Nothing better illustrates the con-
fusion of thought on the subject of
the coming presidential campaign
than that what nearly every one
who thinks politically was thinking
and saying a few short weeks ago
hardly any one is thinking or saying
new.
The Senate has refused definitely
to "advise and consent" to the
presidents treaty and sent the doc
ument back to the White House.
The treaty probably will not be
paramount issue in the coming
campaign and President Wilson prob
abIv will not be a candidate.
The treaty will not be the para
mount issue, because when the fl
nal test came in the Senate the on
ly Democratic senators, with two ex-
ceptions, who by their votes ac-
knowledged the presidents leader
shin. are from south of Mason and
Dixon's line.
NORTHERN DEMOCRATS
REPUDIATE WILSON.
BY Joining the Republican reserva-
ton senators, and voting to ratlfy
the treaty with reservations which
the president said he would not ac-
cept, the northern Democratic sena-
tors repudiated the presidents lead
ership
Strange things happen in politics,
but even in politics impossible things
do not happen.
\ And in view of what happened in
the Senate to the treaty, it does not
seem possible that the Democratic
convention will adopt platform call
ing for the ratification of the treaty
without reservations.
Even if President Wilson's health
would permit of his being candi-
date, which it probably will not, he
certainly would not be candidate on
a platform which did not unqualified
ly demand treaty ratification without
reservations.
1t is not clear just what is to be
done, if anything, toward straighten-
ing out the tangle of our relations
with the rest of the world between
now and the conventions of the two
parties.
But whatever is or is not done
cannot create a situation which will
give the voters a chance to decide
between the treaty which the presi-
dent signed and the treaty with the
so-called Lodge reservations, for
which every northern senator but two
voted.
The first reaction among the lead
ers of both parties to the Senate ac-
ton on the treaty is to bring purely
domestic questions to the front as
the basis for discussion as to politics
and candidates.
UNCERTAINTY AND
INDIGESTION REIGN.
This is exactly the opposite of the
reaction that was expected and pre-
dicted up to a short time ago and is
another illustration of the confused
thinking among the political leaders
on both sides.
II is doubtful whether in the his
tory of latter-day, American politics
the near approach of the national
conventions was fraught with SO
much uncertainty and indecision in
respect both of platform and candi-
dates as exists at this time.
The old guard of both parties have
been trying for months to get con-
troll of their respective situations, but
neither of them has yet found a
formula that works.
In> each party there are a half
dozen or 50 avowed candidates for
the presidency and not one of them
has aroused enough popular enthus-
iasm to furnish the wadding for
toy pistol.
In spite of the huge sums of money
that are being spent in the contest
for delegates, state after state is
electing uninstructed delegates.
1t seems altogether improbable
that any candidate will have enough
instructed delegates in either con-
vention to put him within gunshot
of the nomination on the first ballot.
This is all to the good from the
standpoint of the great rank and file
of voters who, if they bring enough
pressure to bear, may have chance
to vote for a man who represents
their views. instead of the views of a
small group of professional polite
ians.
Formulation of More