New-York tribune., 1920-10-07
Spencer Right
In Wilson Row.
Says Cravath
Former Member of Col.
Houses Mission Declares
President Pledged Aid to
Serbians and Rumanians
Treaty Speech Is Quoted
Obligation of Congress to
Declare War to Uphold
League Is Pointed Out


Paul DF Cravath issued statement
last night supporting the contention of
Senator Spencer of Missouri that Presi-
dent Wilson told the Rumanian and
Serbian representatives at Versailles
that the United States stood ready to
send troops in case of attack. This
contention was denied by the President
and Secretary Tumulty.
Mr.. Cravath was a member of the
Colonel House mission representing
the United States government at the
Inter-Allied Conference in Paris IN
1917. He spent the fall of 1918 as ad-
visory counsel to the United States
Treasury mission abroad. Mr. Cra-
vath's memorandum follows:
president Wilson admitted to the
Senate committee that Article x would
impose AN absolutely compelling moral
obEgation which he said was superior
to a legal obligation-and has a greater
binding force l am sure the President
would be the last person to contend
that Congress would be free to refrain
from declaring war if the result would
be a clear violation of the absolutely
compelling moral obligatlon' thus as
sumed. 1t is instructive in this CON
nection to consider what the President
himself has said regarding the obliga-
ton to go to war to vindicate Article
\. AT Versailles on February H. 1919,
when first submitting the draft plan to
said.
Armed force is in the background
in this program, but it is in the back
ground, and if the moral force of the
world will not suffice the physical
force of the world shall
Armed Intervention Assured
upon the same occasion Leon
Bourgeois, distinguished French
jurist and member of the committee
that drafted the covenant, after point
ing out, in President Wilson's presence
and without evoking any dissent, that
the proposed covenant provided that
all the states take
a definite pledge to guarantee to
each other the integrity of their
territories as established by the
settlement of the present treaty,
and ?lso to guarantee their po-
litical independence against future ag-
gression,' said:
If one state Ct may be the small
est and most remote O. all the states)
is attacked without justification, then
the whole Of the League of Nations is
being attacked. and will resist
Later the President defended the
treaty whereby the United States and
Great Britain agreed TO come immedi-
ately to the assistance of France in
of an unprovoked attack by Ger
many which clearly confer. plated war,
as merely Fastening the action to
which we should be bound by the
League of Nations
"On May 81, 1919, the President, in
explaining the treaty and the league
TO the repre- entatives Of Rumania and
Serbia, made the following statements,
which are recorded in the minutes Of
that session:
If the world is again perturbed, if
the conditions that we consideEas fun
damental are again nut into question,
the guaranty which is given to you
means that the United States will send
their armies and their feet from one
side o. the ocean to the other
Many Opportunities for War
The language last above quoted is
the basis of the recent colloquy be-
tween the President and Mr.. Tumulty
and Senator Spencer
at is difficult to see how upon this
record the President can now seri-
ously contend that there is nothing
in the covenant which in the least
interferes with or impairs the right
Of Congress to declare war or not de-
clare war, according to its own indc-
pendent Judgment or that it is not
possible for other nations to lead us
into war, whether we will by our own
independent judgment or not.
There can be no escape from the
conclusion that in case external ag-
gression' threatened the territorial in
tegrity and political independence of
any of the states that are parties to
the league the obligation of the United
States to 60 TO war. ii necessary to
make its guaranty effective, would be
automatic. IT, in such a case, the
American member OF the League Coun-
Gil refused to vote for war simply to
keep his country out Of trouble he
would be welcher, and if for the
same reason Congress refused to de-
clare war it would be guilty of ma
tional dishonor."