The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1922-02-24
A NARROW PLEA

MT. i1ardlng, pleadlng before the
Senate, asking that body to accept the
treaties promulgated by the Arms
Conference, not only indicts and repu-
dates his entire career as a Senator
and presidential candidate, but con-
tradicts himself as an advocate of the
agreements he asks the Senate to ap-
prove.
"The world has been hungering for
better relationship for centuries
since it has attained its larger con-
seriousness. The conception of the
League of Nations was a response to
Il manifest world need" said the Pres
ident, and then spoke of the "Ameri-
can unwlllingness" to enter the
League. Who developed that alleged
unwillingness, if not Mr.. Harding and
his party, to serve low partisan pur-
poses? "The treaties submitted today
have no semblance of relationship
save as to the wish to promote peace
has been common inspiration" Is not
this precisely the underlying purpose
of the League covenant? Only the
partisanship and personal malice of
Mr.. Harding and his fellow-Senators
injected anything else into the League,
so far as the judgment of the people
was concerned.
Speaking of the four-power treaty,
the President said: "There is no COM
mitment to armed force, no alliance,
no written or oral obligation to join
in defense, no expressed or implied
noccitment to arrive at any agreement
except in accordance with our con-
stitutional methods" The advocates
of the League of Nations contended,
and contend now that there is nothing
more than these self same elements in
the League. Their sole objection to
the four-power treaty is that it IS too
limited in its scope, and because of
the fact that it is subscribed to by on
~ four powers it becomes an alliance,
which must be backed by force, when
ever any similar combination of ma
tions chooses to assail the rights of
these four nations in the Pacific. The
four power agreement is an invita-
ton to the other powers of the world
to enter into similar agreements, and
the result will be. the old-time sys-
TEN of alliances and balances. The
advocates of the League of Nations
in the United States never would have
supported our entry had they believed
that it contained any obligations
which could not be discharged in COM
pliance with our own constitution. MIR.
Harding denied the contention we
made, but he sees in his own arrange
ment a plan involving mutual coun-
sci, and mutual efforts to adjust con-
so as to meet what the
President calls "a menacing situation"
This is exactly what we claimed the
League of Nations to be, and Mr..
Harding denied it. He agrees to
in a four-power agreement
which he denies and rejects in an
agreement to which the whole world
He prefers cooperation
among four nations, under circum-
stances which make their unity an al
lance, but rejects cooperation among
all the nations of the earth. What
strange conception of world states
Is the four-power treaty an alli-
ance? Mr.. Harding at first denies,
hen gives voice to remarkable
statement:
at is easy to believe, however.
hat such conference of the four
powers is a moral warming that an ag
nation giving affront to the
our great powers ready to focus
world opinion on a given controversy
would be embarking on a hazardous
"a hazardous enterprise" indeed;
what other force would be required in
treaty &C alliance? -
The President will find it as diff |
.ult to reconcile these two statements |
IS he will to meet the demand that |
he United States either refrain from
nv form of international agreement |
or the purposes indicated; or else
ubscribe to one which has the ad
ference of the whole world, in which
here can be no combinations or bal
noes or segregated greatness, in
which there can be nothing but a
ommon purpose, in which any and all
nav share. There are dangerous
in these hazardous en-
seen by the President in
the action of powers
pposing the claims of the parties to
he four-power agreement State
ournal.
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