Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-03-11
Senator Oxen Pleads
For PACT Ad0pt10n, MN
Or WIth0ut Reservations
(The Atlanta Journal News Bureau)
623 Riggs Building.
BY THEODORE r1LLER

InEOeS COudy as the senate set lnE
stage for the final struggle on res
ervations to article ten. Both side!
| talked indefinitely of compromise
hut remained as far as ever apart
Disposition of the treaty, which ir
all probability will throw it into the
presidential campaign, promises tc
come before the end of the week.
President Wilson is unyielding anC
il the senate late Tuesday Afternoon
Senator Lodge, leader of the opposi-
ton, served an ultimatum that the
Republican side would never accept
article ten as it stands.
Senator Owen, an administration
supporter, furnished a development
On the Democratic side by saying he
to the defeat of the treaty and he
was willing to vote for ratification
either with the Lodge reserva tions
the Hitchcock reservations or the
Interpretative reservations referred
to by the president. Senator Over
said it was futile to throw the treaty
into the campaign, because it is i'm
POSSIBLE to elect a senate this fa;i
that would ratify the treaty as writ
ten. 1t would be a "ruinous handi-
cap" he said, to enter the campaign
on treaty without reservations
issue.
Administration senator's, while
there was still talk Of compromise
We're handicapped by the fear that
the president would fail to accept
the treaty with any sort of treserva-
lions having what the senate con-
siders teeth in them. The presidents
letter to Senator Hitchcock encour-
aged the fear.
Absentee Republicans Summoned
All the reservations, except that
to article ten, were today out Of the
way. Senator Curtis, the Republican
whip, sent kilograms to all absentee
Republican senators requesting them
to return to Washington Friday.
This indicates the beginning of the
end.
There was no improvement shown
in the treaty situation. A resume of
the developments indicates the
treaty. having been resurrected, is
its resuscitation and all the talk it
brought on was in vain. Here are the
high lights Of the apparently hope
less deadlock in the senate:
Senator Lodge gave final notice
that the Republican side would never
accept article ten as wanted by the
president. That article, he said, was
one of naked force" The president,
he added, had admitted as much in
his letter to Senator Hitchcock and.
Senator Lodge averred, 1.-The issue
can be yelled no longer"
By vote Of 81 to 20, the Repub-
licans, with the aid Of seventeen
Democrats, wrote into the treaty
reservation No. IA, relating to
equalization Of the voting strength
of Great Britain and the United
States in the league, This reserva-
ton was slight modification of the
Lodge reservation as previously
drawn. ~
The group of a bare half dozen
Democratic senator's originally will
ing to accept reservations has now
grown to seventeen to nineteen.
Senator Hitchcock is holding in
line sufficient Democrats to join
with the irreconcilables and defeat
the ratification resolution-the Dem
ocrats defeating it because they do
not want the Lodge reservations, and
the Republican bitter enders because
they do not want the treaty at all.
So long as twenty to twenty-five
there cannot be ratification with
multiplying reservations"
The seventeen Democrats voting
with the Republicans approximately
represented the opposition strength
on the minority side shown in sew
era1 previous notes.
Last Chance offered
Republican forces are offering the
Democrats a last cnance to compro
mise, as they say, on article ten.
This move is evidently to put the
Democrats and the president in the
attitude of refusing to compromise,
transferring the onus for treaty de-
feat from G.. o. P. to Democratic
shoulders.
democratic leaders assert, how
ever, that the compromise offered is
merely one of phraseology; that it
makes no substantial concession and
is the Lodge reservation in new
dress. The Republicans so far have
no assurances of recruiting additional
votes on the minorit..- side.
That the president will pocket the
treaty should it come to him with
the so-called compromise reserva-
ton is the privately-expresse belief
of Democratic leaders.
NO Way Out Seen
Having gone thus far with the
president, slightly more than a score
of Democrats seem willing to see the
struggle through. At this point the
progress seems again to refuse rati-
fication in the senate Of a treaty con-
tanning the Lodge reservations, in
stead of ratifying and putting the
president to the necessity of pocket
ing the document. From no angle,
consequently, does the treaty situa-
ton appear satisfactory today. The
lineup is substantially the same 1t
was in November. From the ultima
tum of Senator Lodge on article ten,
the eXultant unyielding of the Re-
publican irreconcilables, on down the
line to the steadfastness of the ad-
ministration Democrats who are still
voting IN harmony with the presi-
dents views, there seems no way out
of the deadlock.
The presidents letter to Senator
Hitchcock was discussed at some
length by Senator Lodge and it was
in this speech that the majority lead
err said: There must be no obliga-
ton imposed on the United States
to carry out the provisions Of arti-
Gle ten"
Senator Owen, Democrat, who has
stood rather consistently with the
administration forces, also discuss
ed the presidents letter, and said
he was now ready to vote for the
treaty with Or without reservations
Owen Opposes Delay
LAS far as am concerned" said
Senator Owen, "as an American sena-
tor who for many years has ardently
and strenuously served my party and
m country and supported the admin
istration on all suitable occasions,
[ decline to assume the slightest re-
sponsibility for delay or defeat of
the treaty. I refuse to be a party
to the defeat of the treaty or it's de-
lay. 1 am ready to support it in any
form, to follow any leader who leads