Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-01-02
PEACE DRAWING NEAR.

PEACE DRAWING NEAR.
The allied council at Paris hoped to finish the
formalities of peace by Christmas and then by
New Years day, and now they have moved the
date forward to the end Of the first week in the
present month The war began in August, 1914.
The fighting finished on November, 1913 1t
has taken more than year to get the treaty OF
peace in operation, and there is much yet re-
naming to be done, including the details OF the
peace with Turkey. With that Uncle Sam has
nothing to do, never having declared war against
the Turks However, Uncle Sam is not IN the
present peace proceedings anyway, because 1t
has never ratified the peace treaty In that re-
spect it is alone. All the other belligerent ma
tions involved in the great war have ratified
the peace treaty except the United States. More
over, our former allies are going ahead to car
ry out the provisions of the treaty just as though
the United States had ratified it. The league
of nations is getting ready to function and a
meeting Of the new body will be called in few
weeks. The treaty says it is to be called by Pres
ident Wilson to meet at Washington But oW-
ing to the fact that this country has never &C
cepted or finally rejected the treaty and we can
not participate in the first meeting OF the new
international body officially, at least it is an
nounced that change will be made and the
meeting called by Premier Clemenceau. Some
Of the Allies have suggested that President Will
son might call it unofficially, but we think he
would not consent to do SO as an individual. 1t
would hardly be dignified.
During the senate debates it was frequently
announced on the floor of the senate by oppon-
ents of the treaty that the other nations of the
world that fought by our side would accept any
changes we made in the treaty because it could
never be enforced without our cooperation and
support. Our former allies admit that their task
is made great deal harder by the absence OF
the United States, but they have shown no hes
itation about going without us, as they hope
the United States senate may change its mind IN
the near future or at least after the next presi.
dental election. They are not saying much about
our refusal to act with them. Evidently they &c
not wish to antagonize sentiment in this country
by hostile comment. But the quiet way in which
they have gone straight ahead in carrying out
the treaty while ignoring the sulky attitude OF
the United States senate must get under the
skin Of some of our senator's unless they have
very thick hide. That they feel the sting of the
allied quiet procedure without their help is evi
dent by the new move of the senate to revivse
their reservations with the hope that they car
ratify the treaty in manner acceptable to oul
former allies. Whether this can be done or not
at least the league of nations will soon be an &C
complshed fact and proceed to function along
the lines laid down in the treaty. Switzerland
is the latest nation to make application for mem
bership in the league Of nations, and it attached
to the application some reservations. We do not
know just what they are but the peace council
at Paris neither accepted or rejected the appli
! cation for membership, but informed Switzer
land that it would pass the application on to the
league Of nations itself to decide whether II
wished to accept Switzerland as member un
der the conditions attached to the application
Most of the neutral nations during the war anl
all of the belligerents except the United States
have now made application for membership o.
notified the peace council Of their purpose to b
represented at the first meeting of the league
Eventually the United States will be represented
at the table Of the league of nations we have NJ
doubt, and this feeling is shared by our allie!
in Europe