The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-05-07
TREATY ISSUE 70
BE DECIDED BY
NATIONS VOTERS
Speech of Senator Knox on
Peace Resolution Marks.
Step Toward Great Contest
at Polls.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
Especial Correspondent of The News
crin,ifarN

NIpCSid' correspondent OF ne NEWS
seimitar)
WASHINGTON. May President
Wilson has waited in silence for the
men who defeated the treaty of Yer
sailes in the senate to offer an al
isrin1s1iTs 5i1snNs,t course Of action Senator or
of state, and Republican leader, a
member of the group irreconcilaby
opposed to the treaty with or with
out reservations has spoken in de-
congressional resolution.
In so far. as this brings out at last
the lines of battle, 1t marks step
forward toward the great contest at
the polls, where the issue will be de-
cided; in so far as it emphasizes the
hopeless deadlock between the rex
ecutiVe and legislative branches of the
government, it breathes anew the pas
sion of personal strife and party Bit
terness which has prevented agree
ment for so long.
The Pennsylvania senator's speech
made deep impression 1t was care
faily prepared and skillfully peced to-
gether But 1t was avowedly a de-
structive criticism-an analysis of what
had been done, what might have been
done, what should have been proposed
at Paris.
1t doesn't propose any concrete or
general plan for action in the face of
todays situation beyond a vague sug
ence some day wherein European ma
tions shall be persuaded to give up the
provisions of the treaty which they
have already ratified and are now exc
cutting. and set up a new basis of in
, ternational law.
But Senator Knox makes an honest
presentation of the viewpoint of the
irreconcilables. He does, not take
refuge behind the cry for proper res
ervations." He brushes aside as "un-
fol n At11ar ri 1izit,
the. treaty with reservations" INDUCED
IN by Messrs Lowden,. Harding, Wood,
Will Hays and others,
He Defines the Issue.
He defines the issue exactly as Sem
ator Hiram johnson has SO persuasive
~ put it in his successful primary cam
paign. He is against the whole treaty
and the league.
Here is the most interesting para
graph in the speech:
Ut has been said that reservations
psaPosed in the senate Americanze
the league. This, of course, is not
true. a more accurate statement of
the effect OF those reservations Is
that they tend to make 1t safer for
America to enter the league by re-
fusing to be bound in many impor-
tant matters by its action. But it is
not enough that the league shall be
made safe for America; it must be
made. safe for all who enter it and
safe for the world, As / see it. moth
ing could be fraught with more
danger than any nation having spe-
elally insured relation to league
mAeresftne Other members are subject
70 the dangers against which the Inn
mune nation attempts to secure IT.
The foregoing is exactly what Presi-
dent Wilson has contended in his op-
position to reservations and will ex-
plain to the historian OF the future
why Senator Knox and the irreconcil-
able Republicans voted with the ad-
ministration Democrats against the
Lodge reservations and thus prevented
the treaty from getting the necessary
Two thirds majority. 1t makes 1t pos
sibleA for the president to insist that
the Republican, party is dominated by
The viewpoint of Senators Knox and
hiram Johnson and not by Senator
Lodge. 1t foreshadOws the division OF
voters into three parties on the treaty
issue at least,
Senator Knox marshaled precedent
after precedent to prove that peace by
joint resolution is as effective legally
. as treaty of peace. There isn't
bit OF doubt that if the president hap
! pened to be on the other side of the
/ fence these same precedents would be
marshaled by him
No doubt exists here that hostilties
nave ended in the war with Germany
Nnd that for all practical purposes the
VAR is at an end. But unfortunately
TIE Constitution of the United States
isn't very explicit and both sides can
debate from now until doom's day about
the respective powers of each branch of
the government.
And there is no way to decide the
dispute unless a case were brought to
the supreme court of the United States
something that would take MANY
months to bring about SO the presi-
dent is determined to veto the peace
resolution If it passes the senate as
1t did the house, and everybody ad-