The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1920-03-12
SEE HOPE
IN WILSON NOTE
Opposes All Efforts to Weaken
Treaty-Declares America Cannot
Escape Moral Obligations Ex-
pressed in Covenant.

lreaty-OeciareS America NdHHot
Escape Moral Obligations Ex-
pressed in Covenant.
Washington, March S.-President
Wilson restated for Democratic SEN
ators today his opposition to any
peace treaty reservations which
would weaken the full force Of arti-
Gle ten or otherwise materially I'M
pair the provisions of the league
covenant.
Without saying specifically what
qualification he would or would not
accept, he wrote in letter to Sen
ator Hitchcock, the administration
leader, that almost all of the reserva-
tions he had heard suggested were
<'in effect virtual notifications" of the
treaty articles to which they applied.
81 hear of reservationists and mild
reseryationists," the letter added,
"but cannot understand the differ
ence between nullifier and mild
nulifier."
Would Cut Every Heart" Out.
Discussing Article ten, particular
ly, the president wrote that there
was. "ne escaping the moral obliga-
tions which are expressed in positive
terms in this article" though there
could be no objection to explaining
in an Interpretation the constitution
al methods by which such an obliga-
tion would have to be fulfilled. The
Every heart" of the covenant, he
reiterated, would be imperiled by
weakening Article ten.
The president letter, written in re-
sponse to q request that he confer
with Senator Simmons, Of North
Carolina, in charge of the Democratic
side of the senate in current negotia-
tions for a compromise, follows in
full:
ffeSlQenS8 o Letter.
"My Dear Senator Hitchcock: I un-
derstand that one or two Of your
colleagues do me the honor Of desir-
ing to know what my views are with
reference to Article ten of the league
of nations and the effect upon the
league of the adoption of certain pro-
posed reservations to that article. I
welcome the opportunity to throw any
light I can upon subject which has
become so singularly beclouded by
misapprehensions and misinterpreta-
tions of every kind.
sThere is no escaping the moral OBJ
legations which are expressed in posi-
tive terms in this article of the cove
nant. We won a moral victory over
Germany, far greater even than the
military victory won on the field of
battle, because the opinion Of the
whole world swung to our support and
the support Of the nations associated
with us in the great struggle. 1t did
so because of the common profession
and promise that we meant to estab-
lish "an organization of peace which
should make it certain that the COM
bined power of free nations would
check every invasion of right and
serve to make peace and justice the
more secure by affording definite
tribunal of opinion to which all must
submit and by which every interna-
tional readjustment that cannot be
amicably agreed upon by the peoples
directly concerned shall be sane
toned" This promise and assur-
ance were written into the prelimi-
naries of the armistice and into the
preliminaries of the peace itself and
constitute one of the most sacred
obligations ever assumed by any ma
tion or body of nations. 1t is un-
thinkable that America should set the
example of ignoring such solemn
moral engagement.
Could Not Face Soldiers.
'For myself, feel that I could not
look the soldiers of our gallant armies
in the face again if did not do every
thing in my power to remove every
obstacle that lies in the way of the
adoption of this particular article of
the covenant, because we made these
pledges to them as we'll as to the rest
of the world and it was to this cause
they deemed themselves devoted in a
spirit of crusaders. l should be for
ever unfaithful to them if 1 did not
do NV ,1t,,aast ta fl,lfli tkH hiGh nilr=