The daily times., 1921-08-30
JOKER IN THE LEAGUE
Perhaps in the Future a Dem
ocratic or Republican Ad-
rninistration May Find it
Valuable for an American
Representative to Sit in the
Council.
(By David Lawrence)
Copyright, 1921, by The Daily


Washington, Aug. 29.-Is there a
joker in the Hughes-Knox treaty
just signed between the United States
and Germany? The question is being
asked by many who have closely stu
died the text CT the document and
discovered that the United States has
not closed the door to possible mem
bership in the league of nations after
all and that at any moment the exc
cutive branch of our government can
consent to be bound by the covenant
without the consent of the Senate or
Congress.
The joker is contained in article
two of the new treaty which contains
permissive clauses so broadly phrased
as to permit a President or Secretary
of State to bring the United States
ring the matter to Congress. The Sen
ate once before foresaw such a posi-
bility and in the original Lodge re-
servations to the Versailles pact the
age that would have prohibited the
executive from assuming any obliga-
tions under the league covenant
without the express consent of Con-
! gress''. The Lodge reservations also
| prohibition any American cit
izen from ever serving the league
and forbade American participation
+, in any commission of the league
without the consent of Congress. The
opponents of the Lodge reservations
insisted that such viewpoint was in
consistent with the constitution
which gives the executive broad pow
ers to deal with foreign governments
but in the heat of the controversy
} the objections went unheeded
Now however when the final word
is being said about our treaty rela-
tions with Germany, no prohibition
lagainst future membership in the
league or any of its commissions is
made. The two important paragraphs
of the new treaty bearing on this
point read as follows:
''That the United States shall not
be bound by the provisions of part
one of that treaty covenant of the
league of nations in Versailles trea-
ty) nor by any provisions of that
treaty which relate to the covenant of
United States be bound by any action
taken by the League of Nations or
by the Council or by the Assembly
thereof unless the United States
shall expressly give its assent to such
faction
/. THAT while the United States is
privileged to participate in the Re-
paration Commission, according to
the terms of part eight of that
treaty, and in any other
commission established under the
Treaty (of Versailles) or any agree
ment supplemental thereto, the Uni
ted States is not bound to partici-
: pate in any such commission unless
it shall elect to do so.'
The above provisions make it clea1
that the United States isn't bound
by the covenant unless it gives it con
sent The Council of the League o1
: Nations operates any way under rule:
, requiring unanimous agreement sc
: America could not be bound anyway
: unless she gave her consent. But the
phrase "unless the United State:
: shall expressly give its consent tt
: such action significantly omits ref
e erence to Congress as was insisted
e upon so specifically in the Lodge re
servations. And the words United
States" have always been interpreted
to mean the President or Secretary O
r State unless a treaty were being ne
g gotiated.
e The signatories Of the original Yer
CONTINUED on page b