Republican farmer., 1920-05-21
SAYS OPPONENTS ! OF TREATY ARE MISREPRESENTINC Hitchcock Claims President Has Not Refused to Al :
 low Any Changes. Wilson Approved Five
 Compromise Changes Bitterly Opposed To Those Reservations Offered
 By Lodge.

Washington, D. C., May 19.---He- peated statements made by ReplBoii- can m men1bers of the Senate that the President has refused to accept any change in the League of Nations cov- enant are disproved by the record it. self, asserts Senator Gilbert M. Hitch cock, who led the Democrats in the treaty fight. Senator Hitchcock says that he himself offered five compro- mise reservations to the peace treaty, and that they were approved by the President.
 Partisan claims that the President has demanded the adoption of the treaty without the dotting of an "T'' or the crossing of a "T," Senator Hitchcock declares, constitute an ex- ample of the campaign misrepresent- ation indulged in by treaty opponents.
 ''The Presidents recent letter." said Senator Hitchcock, declared his de- votion to the League of Nations and denounced the Lodge reservations. That is all it did. I denounce them. I will never consent to them and many other Senators never would and millions of people never would.
 But those Lodge reservations were match ed by reservations on this Dem ocratic side of the chamber. I had the honor to offer five reservations and they were endorsed by the Pres ident and they were tender of com promise. On article Ten I offered a reservation which was a compro' mise. There was some doubt as tt whether the President would accept that, but we on this side of the aisle were willing to stand for it. You did not accept it. Yet that reservation President of the United States (Wil- liam H. Taft), but you refused to ac- cept it. We offered all the compro- mise; the Republican side offered none. You refused aM''
 Quoting the claim of Senator Kno1
 that the President had kept the coun try in an alleged state of war for al most a year now because he would not yield one jot or little on the treaty, Senator Hitchcock said:
 How can a man say thing of tha' sort to the Senate with a straigh- face? The President came back here with the treaty and delivered it to tho Senate in July, 1919, and the Senate sent it to the Foreign Relations com mittee, of which the Pennsylvania Senator, MT. Knox, is a member. That | committee looked up the treaty with in the four walls of the committed l room for two months, although the, might as well have reported it out il one week. But they kept it there, de laying peace,
 ''The Senator from Pennsylva mia | author of the Knox peace resolution was one of the Senators whose vote: made that outrageous delay possible and when it came into the Senate il
 September it was debated until tn | 18th of November. It had been de
 bated even before September, and i
 was talked about for all these month
 and when finally patience ceased t.
 be virtue I offered a resolution O
 cloture to stop debate and the Sen
 ator from Pennsylvania voted agains l it. He did not want to stop debate
 He was not then afraid of delav'' For the second time, Senate l Hitchcock pointed out, the Senat 1 debated the treaty for weeks, finaIl
 rejecting it a short time ago. Sena | tor Knox, he said, voted against rati | flying in any form.
 ! "Yet he now talks about the Presi 1 dent of the United States keeping tn | country in a state of war; exclaime Senator Hitchcock, when he was in l strumental in continuing that per
 fectly outrageous delay, and if he ha
 had his way we would have been de
 batting the question even to this day!