Evening star., 1920-01-04
THE STORY THE WEEK HAS TOLD

The question as to whether policemen. hre-
men, coal miners, railroad employees or any
other group of labor upon whom the security
and health of the nation depend have the moral
right to plunge the nation into black chaos Is
held by the general public to admit of no argu-
ment Whether not there should be adoed
to the moral restrictions which justice, honor
and the principles of the nation have already
placed upon them the. additional legal barrier
proposed by the senator from Iowa is matter
for Jim and Jane to consider very gravely
For upon their decision will depend the final
action of Congress.
kolchak has fallen, and with his fall the
present Russian civil war seems to be near Its
end. That, at some future and not too distant
date, leader will step forward to con-
duct Russia from the darkness in which 1t
writhes today must be believed. But for the
present facts must be faced, and the facts are
that the war which has been fought for year
and half by coalition of anti-bolshevik
groups in Russia has been lost and that Lenin
is victorious for the present
1t is now too late to apportion the blame
for this collapse. But that it should never have
been permitted can be stated with view to
future policy when new opportunity to aid
in the defeat of sovietism may present ITSELF
For the present. America can play its part most
effectively by sternly resisting such powerful
make peace with government which stands
for all that this nation despises.
Informal conferences with view toward
eventually discharging their duty to the nation
they are assumed to represent continued among
the senatorial factions during the holiday week.
OF compromise proposals, offered in substitution
for the Lodge reservations there are an abund-
ance. Elihu Root has set William H. Taft
has another, Senators McCumber King and Pitt
man have third, fourth and fifth. sixth
substitute proposal is ascrbed to a group of
anonymous democratic senators, not including
either Hitchcock or Underwood.
The so-called strategy to be tried out on the
bill subsequent to the reconvening of Congress
will, in the opinion of excellent authorities.
probably be this: Each side will hold back
brief while waiting for the other to trot out
concrete proposition. With one substi-
tute proposal made by say. the democratic side
one will be volunteered by the republicans
Then every who has anything to offer will
get in quick, in order that his pet scheme may
be considered along with the rest by joint con-
ference and conciliation committee composed of
equal numbers of republicans and democrats.
From that committee will emerge the basis of
ratification. to which the Senate must even
tually agree. Then and then only, it will be up
to President Wilson
There is no indication that the plan of the
"irreconcilables" to hang up the treaty until
after the presidential election will get more
than fourteen republican and one democratic
vote The Senate, overlong hypnotized by the
music of it's chorus, is today fully aware
that the nation demands treaty, and that there
can be no treaty until it discharges its func-
ton of ratification. 1t may also be stated with
assurance that so-caled form of ratification
which vitiates the treaty presented will
ever gain the adherence Of the necessary sixty
four senator's. So it may be assumed that the
final act of ratification will be satisfactory to
the President and that America shall have the
peace it longs for.
\ X X
January has been fixed the date for
signing the protocol and exchanging ratifcations
of the German peace treaty in Paris. Some
preston of doubt has been made to whether
the German delegates in Paris have full power
to act. Should this prove to be the fact the
exchange will be delayed but briefly at worst
and Europe will have achieved the peace which
we are still denied.