The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-12-10
WILL SENATE
RATIFY, ASK
ARMS ENJOYS
Proceedings in Newly AS
sembled Congress Watched
With Interest by Foreigners
Recall Versailles Treaty.
WHAT MAY HAPPEN
By MARK SULLIVAN

WASHINGTON. Dec 10.-The pro
ceedings in the newly assembled sen
ate this week have been watched by
no one with more interest than by the
foreigners who are here for the con
ference.
They have watched the senate not
with mere curiosity over an alien and
unfamiliar form of national legisla-
ture; they have watched it with an
eye to getting an answer to the ques-
non: What will the senate do about
It" BY lit is meant the form in
which will be cast whatever is to be
the outcome of the deliberations of
the conference.
Il just happened that the re assem-
bling Of the senate came on Monday
of this week and conceded with the
first high tide of rumor to the effect
that the form which the outcome of
the conference would take would be 4
four-power alliance, or-including Chi
ma five-power alliance.
It was on that day that the British
newspaper men began TO cable the
most confident and unqualified dis
patches TO their home newspapers
Naturally when they and the other
foreigners thought they had grounds
10 expect that the outcome of the CON
ference would be an alliance, or a
treaty of a fairly rigid kind, they in
stantly began 10 wonder what the SEN
ate would do about such a treaty. if
the outcome of the conference should
take that form.
The foreigners at all times have a
deep concern about the senate II
would not be too much to say they
fear the senate. For this they have
good reasons based on painful expert
ences
They have seen Wilson. when he
vas president, negotiate a league of
nations. To express il from their
point Of view. they have seen Wilson
use his power as president of the
United states to more or less force 4
league of nations on them against
their own desires and better judgment.
They saw Wilson sign his name to
the covenant and they thought the
thing was done. In their countries,
when the head OF nation signs his
name to treaty, the thing is done.
In the majority Of foreign countries
the signature of the head of a nation
is final. Even in those nations which
nave ratification by another body. that
ratification is perfunctOry. It comes
As matter of course.
When the foreigners saw Wilson
ign the covenant at Versailles, they
thought it was final. They thought
that America was from that moment
member of the league OF nations
Thought Formaity.
When their attention was called to
the fact that all such covenants and
treaties must be ratified by the senate,
they thought this would be a mere
formality. Yet later. when they saw
the debate in the senate drag itself
out. month after month, they still
thought the senate would ratify.
They believed it to be incredible
that the senate should repudiate the
act of the president, especially when
that act was taken under the circum-
stances that are now familiar 10 the
world When finally the American
senate did repudiate the presidents
act-when the senate presented our
membership in the league OF nations
the foreigners were more deeply
shocked than courtesy permitted them
to say Since that time they have
feared the senate as something whose
ways are mysterious and not to be
calculated.
At a dinner in Washington last
spring, when Viviani and his assOci-
ates were here to try to persuade us
10 enter a tripartite alliance, several
members of the foreign affairs com
miltee Of the United States explained
10 NJ Viviani, with forceful vigor ar
great length and with much detail
about American constitutional pro
Cedure just how large a part this com
mittee and the senate as a whole have
in the management of our foreign re-
lations
French Viewpoint.
After the dinner I heard one of the
Frenchmen say. with humorous but
nevertheless panied resignation, we
understand now perfectly. We know
that France has but two things to
fear one is God, the other is the
United States senate-and God is far
away
II is this understanding of the power
and function of the senate that ac-
counts for the question that is on
every foreigners lips, what will the
senate do?"
am certain that as to some of the
foreign delegations, when they come
here they expected to demand rati-
fication by the senate of whatever
agreement should be arrived at be
fore they themselves would sign it.
At least they expected either actual
ratification or satisfactory assurance
hat it would be ratified before they
should commit themselves by their
own signatures
They had this attitude not in any
spirit Of turbulence, but in the sincere
belief that the question of China
could not be satisfactorily settled. eX-
cept by an agreement so formal and
% binding and SO necessary to be
lived up to for a longer period of
years that it would be necessary to
have ratification of it by the senate.
Fear Chaos
The foreigners, and especially the
British. held this conviction not in
any spirit of turbulence. and not in
any wish for selfish advantage, but
out OF real regard for success in what
. they were undertaking.
They believed that if the thing that
happened about the league of nations
was unfortunate, the same thing hap
peniag about China and the Far East
Continued on Page Fourteen)