Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1923-02-01

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invasion Of the Ruhr valley with its
possible and even probable conse-
quences. The administration and the
congress, party men and partisans,
now know the worst and the best Of
the situation and, as most of them
seemingly view it, the best is little
F.! better than the worst.
+! There are all sorts of views of the
! European proceedings in Washington.
! One Of them is that nothing can be
| done to avert troubles in the future
which shall be worse than the trou-
bles Of the present except a revision
! of the Versailles treaty, a revision in
which the United States shall have a
part. The idea is to keep what good
| there is in the treaty and to throw out
what is bad. There seems to be some
| thought here that if a revision in the
! interest of all nations should be at
tempted the United States would not
refuse to be a participant in the pro.
ceedings.
! This suggestion of a revision Of the
! Versailles pact with the United States
as a participant, of course, is a good
one or a bad one, according to the
viewpoint. One trouble is that moth
ing of the kind can be attempted with
! out the sanction of the senate, and
possibly without the sanction Of both
! the senate and the house, the neces-
| sity of a single or double sanctioning
depending on what form the plan might
assume. 1t is hard to think of any ar
rangement which could secure the sup
port of the Republican, Borah, on the
one hand, and the Democrat, Reed, on
the other hand, and Of good many
other senators of both parties.
Think Others Would Consent.
| Of course if such a thing as the re-
vision of the Versailles treaty is un-
dertaken, the other nations must con-
cur, but there still is a feeling in
Washington that the other nations will
do anything that the United States
would like to have done short of an
actual surrender of all their seeming
rights in the case. Notwithstanding
the aIoofness Of this country for five
years, Europe still seems to be In a
mood of willingness to listen to any
thing which Uncle Sam may propose.
It is probable that no partisanship
can be discovered in the statement that
for five years the United States has
been going to do something to help
Europe, and for five years it has done
nothing. Politicians have prevented
anything like participation in the en-
deavors of the European governments
to arrive at postwar understandings.
A Democratic President tried his
League Of Nations plan and it was de-
feated by the help of men of his own
political party.
A Republican President when he
was a candidate for Office suggested
! the beauty of an association of ma
lions. Nothing has been done to for
ward such an association and the rea-
son unquestionably has been the known
opposition within the ranks of the Re
publican party in congress to anything
of the kind. The Democrats were split
on the Democratic plan and the Re
pubIicans more than intimated that
they would be split on any approach
to such plan which the present Presi-
dent might submit.
No One Able to Suggest Cure.
1t has been somewhat irritatingly
amusing through the months and the
years to listen to senators and others
in Washington as they have preached
from the text of Let something be
done" and then haven't been able to
suggest anything to be done which
could secure the support of enough Of
their colleagues to give it sanction, or
support from any element large enough
in the American community to make it
appear that the country was willing.
TO change the figure of speech lit
tie, it can be said today there have
been a multitude Of doctors, no two Of
whom seemingly have been able to
agree on what should be done to cure
or to give even temporary relief to the
European patient. Onlookers in Wash
! ington of any party, Of all parties, or
Of no party look back five years and
realize how pathetically weak in re-
suits the efforts have been with those
who have desired to help Europe out
of the swamp.
Politicians here are worrying over
the present situation. They know that
Europe is worse off than ever and they
; know that nothing the leaders of either
party has suggested has been put to
the test for trial. OF course the pres
ent administration succeeded in secur-
ing attendance at the conference for
the limitation of ornaments, but this
. in part, while it helps matters econom-
ically does not materially relieve the
present troubles of the world. In fact
France has not yet ratified the con-
ference agreements.