The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-07-16
VERSAILLES
PACT TO BOB
UP IN SENATE
Treaty, Shorn Of League Of
Nations, and with Other
Qualifications, Certain To
Be Submitted, Belief.
HOSTILITY IS GONE
nv MARK SULLIVAN

lef that sooner or later the Versailles
treaty. shorn of the league of nations.
and with other qualifications, will be
submitted TO the. senate.
Many different sets of facts point
strongly toward this belief The first
Of these is that probably President
Harding and Secretary Hughes want
to do II. Any estimate of the present
state of mind of these two men must
be qualified to mere probability, for
there has been no recent public ex-
preston of their state of mind
IL is n matter of record. however,
that so late as April, Harding believed
tEis the best way to build a new
bridge between America and Europe.
AS TO Secretary Hughes. it is Il
matter of record that last October he
believed that TO be the best plan.
1t If also of record that Mr. Hoover,
who IS thought to have good deal
of voice in our foreign affairs, also be-
lieved some time ago that this was
the best plan.
Hostility Is Gone.
Assuming that President Harding
and Secretary Hughes believe the
most practicable way for US to renew
our relations with Germany is by
adopting the Versailles treaty, minus
the league Of nations, then the only
fact that would restrain them would
be doubt as to whether or not the
senate would ratify it,.
On this point, the senate is in a
state of mind that changes from day
10 day, and all these changes are in
the direction of greater tolerance for
the Versailles treaty with the league
of nations omitted.
The senate is gradually settling
down from that state of high and
angry emotion in which it rejected the
league of nations. and in which it
was hostile to anything connected
with tho league of nations.
Public Gains Down.
Moreover, that part of the public
which shared the senate's feeling
about the League Of Nations, which
backed the senate up and justified
their rejection of the League Of Ma
tions, has been going through the
same process OF calming down.
This part Of the public would still
reject the league, but it is now so ex-
cited that it would reject the treaty of
Versailles merely because it was as
sociated with the League of Nations.
This kind of subsiding of angry
emotion is a familiar political phe-
nomenon, and good politicians take
advantage of it. For example, in Great
Britain in December, 1918, there was
an election which was fought and won
by Lloyd George on two issues.
These two issues were that the
Kaiser should be put on trial for his
life. and that Germany should pay the
entire cost of the war. BY that elec-
ton the British people were brought
into such state of excitement that it
hung like a shadow over the peace
conference and made impossible, at the
beginning of the peace conference,
many things which, through the soft
ening passage OF time, later became
feasible.
Today the British people do not ex-
pect or insist that the Kaiser shall be
put on trial for his life, and they
realize that TO make Germany pay the
entire cost of the war is an impossible
thing
Emotions Soften.
This same kind of softening OF
angry emotion, stirred up by the
violence of an election, has been going
on in America, and nobody knows
better than so good politician as
Harding that the time either has come
or soon will come when the American
PEOPLE viii not lack with such intense
intolerance on the Versailles treaty
as they did during the election last
November ....
No one understands better than Mr..
Harding the fact that the art of poll
tics lies in recognizing great tides of
public feeling and taking advantage
of them
II still remains true, of course, as il
always has been, that an implacabIe
opposition on the part of one-third of
the senate can prevent the ratification
of the Versailles treaty. But the SEN
ate is subject 10 the same law of tides
OF feeling as the public, and there are
fewer senators today who would get
excited over the re-introduction of the
Versailles treaty than there were a
few months ago.
Practically all the Democrats, except
few like Reed would support it, and
the number of Republicans is small
who could or would resist a declara-
tion by Harding that the best policy
Is TO ratify the Versailles treaty with
reservations, excluding the League of
Nations and other undesired features
To Perform Surgery
One of the most irreconcilable of
the bitter-ender senator's was asked
the other day this question: DO you
take the position that out of the entire
100000 words of sthe pease treaty it
is not possible to detach, say 10000
words which would be acceptable to
you" This senator's reply was. We'll,
let me see the 10000 words"
Everything points towards the prob
ability that just this thing will hap
pen. but Secretary Hughes will per
form on the peace treaty as a whole
a feat OF surgery hitherto quoted tnat
he will take out of it and cast aside
all that pertains to the League of Ma
tions, and that he will save from it !
all that is necessary and desirable for
us TO re-establish our relations with
Germany and the allies on a practi.
cable basis, that this residue will be
sent TO the senate, and that the senate
will ratify. For this prediction there
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