Evening star., 1938-07-07
By WILLIAM C. McCLOY.

By WILLIAM g. McCLOY.
The Sixty-sixth was the most sensa-
tional Of United States Congresses. 1t
aroused intense interest all over the
world. The effect Of its deliberations
was profound and widespread. The
full results Of those deliberations 1t is
yet too soon to judge. Only recently
have We begun to realize their value.
The story of the Sixty-sixth Con-
gress, born Of the midterm elections
during President wilson's second term,
is the story Of the League of Nations
that attempt at international cooper
alton of which 50 much was hoped
and which seems. in these tumultuous
days, to be shorn both Of power and
prestige. Over the doorway Of the
Leagues new building at Geneva
might fittingly be inscribed for all the
world the ancient epitaph: How Many
Hopes Lie Buried Here!"
President Wilson believed the League
Of Nations was the great forward
movement Of the age. He had heard
it acclaimed as . panacea for war At
home and abroad and he used all the
power he possessed At the moment to
force its adoption by his own and
other nations. In his anxiety to for
ward his cause. Just before his last
midterm elections, he called upon the
electorate to choose none but the sort
Of Democrats who would support his
measures.
Coalition Against President.
This was Z major blunder, and his
Republican opponents used his call as
a rallying cry. Every faction Of that
party-and there were many factions
just then-forgot its grievances and
joined together against the President
The Presidents opponents won both
Houses Of Congress-the Senate by two
votes and the House by IS. And this
was the Congress which was to decide
the terms Of the peace treaty ending
the World War and the fate of the
League Of Nations 70 far as the
United States was concerned.
When the President returned to the
United States from Paris in February,
1919, for brief stay, he found a for
midable array against him in the newly
elected Congress. The combinat tions
were both curious and ominous. Both
Republican and Democratic reaction
aries were lined up with the Progress
sive isolationists. Never had politics
known such strange bedfellows before
as Senator La Toilette and Lodge,
Borah and Mccormick, Knox and
Hiram johnson.
On March 2. 1919. on the eve Of the
Presidents return to Europe, . round
robin, signed by SO Senators was
handed to him. It demanded that the
peace treaty be kept separate from the
covenant Of the League Of Nations. To
which appeal. the President replied
sharply: When the treaty comes back,
you gentlemen will md the covenant
not only in 1t, but 30 tied to it that
you cannot dissect one from the other
without destroying the whole struc-
ture."
Treaty and League Combined.
In July the President came back to
America with the treaty and the
League Of Nations covenant In one
indissoluble document as threatened,
and upon July 10, 1919, he submitted
it to the Senate. It had already been
printed by order Of the Senate and
had been discussed throughout the
country.
Before leaving Paris the President
had decided upon . speaking tour of
the United States on behalf of the
league, but upon arriving in America
leading Democrats were able to per-
suade him to postpone the tour. He
waited in the White House while Con-
gress discussed his pet project with q
vigor and bitterness unparalleled in
politics.
The discussion dragged on from
day to day without changing any,
body's opinions. But the President
would admit no compromise. From
first to last he stood for the document
as drawn.
Some one has said that . Demo-
cratic convention Is . convention Of
oratory. President Wilson was true
to this political tradition. In terms
as uncompromising as his attitude to-
ward the treaty, he let the Senators
know what he thought Of them. Some
Of the tributes were uttered in public,
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