Pueblo chieftain., 1921-09-04
HARRISON WILL LEAD
BATTLE FOR PUBLIC
PEACE MEET SESSIONS
Democratic Senator from
Mississippi Makes Cues
ton Party Issue
tBY MARK SULLIVAN

Pat Harrison of Mississippi is the
Democrat who is going to lead the
fight so far as his party is concerned
for public sessions of the coming con-
ference for the limitation of arma-
ments. Senator Harrison is the light
horse cavalry of the Democrats in the
senate. He plays Stonewall Jackson to
Senator Underwood's Robert n. Lee.
In a rather unusually serious senate
there is nothing more entertaining
than the smiling and ingrauatinS ur-
banity with which Senator Harrison
rises to every opportunity to make a
guerilla raid across the aisle into the
Republican lines and to make a little
ammunition store away in the congress
sional record against the time next
summer. when his party will be fight
ing to regain control of congress.
Once in a while something the SEN
ate is doing reaches down TO some
deep conviction in Senator Harrison
breast. On such occasion he Will night
with as much earnestness as Mis-
sissippi bearcat, but for the most part
he waits for time when Senator
| odge or some other Republican lead
err has his back to the wall on party
issue or something that can be made a
party issue Then Senator Harrison
uufolds the length of his lean figure
from the depths of his senate chair.
And. with a smile that is like rip.
ping wave on his agreeable counten-
ance proceeds TO throw knives that
almost trim the whiskers of his PIN
ipned victim. He does it all with
gentle irony, With mock sympathy
and an elaborateness of considerable
for his opponent. such that the gallery
has come to smile in pleased expecta
tion whenever the Mississippi senator
arise.
OF course. Senator Lodge might have
made a safe escape from Senator Har-
risou's making "A Democratic issue of
publicity for the coming conference by
aying he could not tell vet just what
degree of openness IL would be possi-
bic to achieve He could undertake to
guarantee that IL would be more open
than MIR Wilson'S Paris conference.
But Senator Lodge is not the kind of
man who makes that kind of answer
II he we're, Senator Harrison wouldn't
seek SO many occasions to have fun
with him. Senator Lodge made an
elaborate and serious reply. And TO
large extent 4 good reply. He said. in
the first place that the method of pro-
cedure is for the conference itself to
determine after it assemblies, and that
II isn't courteous for the United States
senate to try to forestall IL. In the sec
ond place. he said that a senate appro-
pria ton bill. providing for the ex-
penses OF the conference. ought to be
unconditional and that Senator Harri-
sons amendment calling for secrecy
was bad form or worse. Finally, SEN
ator Lodge made a reply that was
specious It was the sort of argument
that Senator Harrison in his sianSS
vny might effectively have called old
stuff" II was the familiar debating de
vice of stating. your opponents case
what really is not your opponents
case at all. and then triumphinE over
the man Of straw
Senator Lodge said; TO say that the
conference shall never meet in com
nrittee: That they shall never hold
converse tions: that one man or one
delegation shall not talk with another
man or another delegation: TO say that
some agreement cannot be reached
without being printed verbatim in the
newspapers, is. of course. to propose a
system which everybody knows is i'm
practicable
Now. Senator Harrison is not saying
that the delegates to the disarmament
conference shall never meet the com
rnittee." He IL not saying that they
shall never hold conversations" Hc Is
not saying that "onc man shall not
talk with another man He is not
saying any of tho things that Senator
Lodge says he is saying. Senator Har-
nobody else Is saying these things. No
body IS demanding that the disarmt
rent conference shall he any more
open for example than tho United
States senate. And in the United
states ali tho things that Senator
every day. They arc properly done and
inevitably done. If the disarmament
conference should decide to have its
session open as are those of tho
United States senate, should adopt tho
senate procedure as their procedure.
then that would satisfy. and moro
than satisfy everybody who Is argu-
Ing for publicity. and still the con-
ference would have. as the senate has,
executive sessions which are serrct.
l.. IL.
caucuscs of half or more Of tho body
which arc secret. agreements between
individual members which are secret
and agreements between tho two
parties which arc secret. All these
things happen in the United States
-enate.
They happen in every other body
where mon come together. They arc
proper and desirable. n any ono denies
that they arc proper and dcsira Bile. he
must at least admit they are unprc-
vent8hlc.
There arc some who demand that tho
sessions Of the disarmament confer
rnce shall he as open the Sos
s'ons Of the United States senate.
There arc few who demand that they
shall he even more open than tho
senate. for there arc some outside tho
sonnte and outside of II who would de-
rnand that the senate should never
have any executive sessions. and WHO
would demand that party caucusos
should be public.
But the great mass OF the demand
for open session of tho disarmament
conferences come from persons who
arc entirely reasonable. They appreciate
that there must be cautious feeling
Of the wav on the part of the delora-
tions to the conference. They realize
that some points of view must be put
forth tentatively. with the expectation
~ changing the latter They realize
that some decisions must he tentative.
md that other decisions taken from
fsv to day will be contingent on larger
iecisions to he taken later. They real
sc that as resrsrts all these things
here mus, be abundant opportunity
or informal negotiations on the part
II the conference as whole and on
n. psrt Of various groups within the