The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1920-01-09
Why Blame the I
United States Senate?
lCOntinuCd from paye ID

| by signed statement 0. more than
| onet third of the Senate that such
body would refuse to ratily a t.caty
containing certain provisions regard
ed as un-American and unsafe which
the treaty now has; but disregarding
this warning by the body which the
Constitution says has equal power
with him in treaty-making, the
Treaty was negotiated and the Sen
ate informed that it must not be
amended or changed. The President
has opposed every effort of the Sen
ate to modify the instrument and
protect American interests Their, in,
even taking the stump in an attempt
to coerce Senator's to his view point
and heaping upon them abuse; and
his partisans have steadfastly up
held him.
When finally the Senate had sue
cecded in somewhat Americanizing
the instrument and had made it
somewhat less unsafe to sign, rather
than consent to ratification with such
reservations, the fiat went forth to
slaughter the resolution of .ratifca-
ton, and for the most part the in
structions were obeyed by his fol-
! lowers. There can be little doubt,
that if the President had intimated
that ratification with reservations
would have been satisfactory to him,
the Treaty would have been ratified
long since. Under these circum-
stances, the man who by his own un-
yielding cgotism has stood in the
way of ratification, and not the SEN
ate, is responsible for delay in rati-
ication. Senator Lodge and those
who followed him certainly cannot
be blamed, for they voted for ratifi-
cation and only those following the
Presidents leadership voted against
it.
| 1t may be that some are willing to
| trust our country's action on vital
matters to straw-votes in newspapers.
The majority of Americans, however,
will be disposed to feel that the Con-
stitutional method of having our duly
elected Senators pass upon matters
of this kind after thorough discus
sion of the merits, will be safer and
more likely to protect American in
tcrcsts. but even the newspaper votes
referred to in your editorial repudlatc
the attitude of the President and
sustain the Senate, for the vote OF
the Chamber of Commerce admitted
w was five to ore in favor of ratifi-
cation with reservations, and tn"
Caledonian poll was quite similar, so
that in no respect can such votes be
deemed rebuke to the Senate. The
action of the Senators having been
upheld in the only instances of out
side action cited, it is difficult to UNI
dcrstand why they should be called
unstatcsmanlike and accused of play
ing politics. 1t would have been OF
interest had it appeared how many
of the eighteen hundred members OF
the Chamber of Commerce who voted
had ever read the Treaty and analyz-
ed its contents. A poll without such
information is of little value either
way
"Play BALI is a good slogan, but
the majority of the Senators do not
need the advice. Let the Captain of
the team get into the game permit
his adhcrcnts to do rs they ought
and the delay will cease, the treaty
will be ratified with pr per rcscrva-
tons and will be "madc safe for
America" which after all is as laud-
able an ambition as making the
world safe for democracy"
CHAS. A. SHIELDS.
St. Johnsbury, Jan. s, 1920
Use Nazol for ratarTh. adv