The Dominion SATURDAY, JULY 12, 1919. AMERICA'S PART

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 247, 12 July 1919, Page 6

The Dominion SATURDAY, JULY 12, 1919. AMERICA'S PART

Much depends upon tho manner in which the Treaty of Versailles is dealt with by..the. United States Senate, to which., it has now, been formally submitted by President Wilson. Just as America had an essential part to play in- the war, in her own interests and those of humanity, so' she. has an essential part to play in assisting to re-estab-lish peace and security in tho world. What America, is really asked to do is not to undertake the moral leadership of the world, as President Wilson appears at times _ inclined to suggest, but to enter into an effective partnership aiming at the preservation of peace. Wcro American co-operation refused, the League of Nations would perish still-born, and dark prospects would be opened for the-whole world, not least for the United States. That fact is a measure of the responsibility now cast upon the Senate, and of the significance of its impending decision.

Tho state of affairs which confronts President Wilson in his own country now- that he is asking for tho ratification of the Treaty is in some respects peculiar, and even extraordinary. No one doubts that in regard to the whole scope of peace issues and foreign policy he still exerts an enormous influence over public opinion in the United States. Yet as a result of tho popular vote cast at the last Congressional elections it rests immediately with his political opponents to say whether tho international undertakings, into which he entered as the representative of his country at the Peace Conference shall be ratified or repudiated. The Republicans are in a majority of two in the Senate, and in the House of Representatives they have a majority of close on fifty. So far as the main Treaty and the League of Nations covenant are concerned the Senate is.the final authority. Anything that the President has agreed to on behalf of the United States becomes operative only when it has been confirmed by a two-thirds majority of the Senate. This means that thirty-three American Senators could repudiate the Treaty and flic League of Nations so far as the United States is concerned. While the Senate has undivided authority over treaties, one item in the peace settlement concerns Congress as a whole. This is the undertaking given to France by tho American and British Governments that she will be assisted should Germany in the future subject her to unprovoked attack. In the United Stales power to make war is vested in Congress as a whole,- and on tin's account it. is assumed that the agreement between the three Powers will be submitted to tho House of Representatives as Well as to the Senate. _ In all likelihood, however, it is in the Senate that the crucial issue will be determined.

According to a canvass of Lhat body made recently by the American League to Enforce Peace, twelve Senators have declared against the League covenant, twenty are doubtful, and sixty-four have declared in its favour. If this position is maintained, or improved upon, the Treaty, with the vital covenant it contains, will be ratified. The danger remains, however, that a recalcitrant minority may be able to occasion delays which would have serious results in intensifying and lengthening out the conditions of unrest and disorder which are doing ko much to hamper efforts at reconstruction over a great part' of Kurope and in other narU of thr world.. How. far the President's political opponents are prepared 1.0 go in this direction remains to lie Eocn._ Undoubtedly there is a fairly widespread desire in the llepublican ranks to make party capital out of the peace settlement, ;nid with a minority this desire outweighs all other considerations. On the, other hand, some .of the foremost leaders of tlie Republican Party, men like Takt, Hoot, Hughes, and others, have definitely discouraged the attempt to turn the League of-' Nations info a partisan issue. It-is noteworthy Mint soon after forty Republican Senators

had signed a Hound llobin protest against, the original draft of the, League covenant, the licpublican National Committee issued the following statement: —

lllt'orls In make it appear Hint h'epubiiciiu Senators are considering Ihe coveniiiil. for Hie League of-Nutions from 11 partisan sliuiilpoiul will fail. The qucslions involved transcend partisanship. Senate Hepublicans expect to confer ami lake counsel of one another's views, but llie.v say that any notion that there will lie iinv attempt, to caucus ami bind members lo du (his or that is without foundation.

In their extreme form denunciations of the League of Nations arc so obviously based on personal and parly rancour thai they have been freely ridiculed. The New York liveniiif/ J'ust not long ago cordially thanked one voluble Senator for liis "beneficial attacks upon the League." A good cause, it observed, is always aided by ridiculous and unscrupulous opposition. Even where American-critics of the League have been relatively temperate they have failed signally to make put a case, and in their efforts to do so have, been led into apparent contradictions.' They have argued in one breath that the creation of the League will destroy American, nationalism, and in

the next that the League of Nations is dead, and lies ".like a pricked balloon,'' worth no man's while to kick. There is neither obscurity nor contradiction in the arguments employed by American supporters of the League. They point out, to quote, a- typical 'utterance, that: "Thousands of American homes today hardly know where their dead lie. because the world has been 'charting its course' by the 'sure and steady lights' of nationalism." As to the alleged weakness of. the League, they contend that it amounts in fact to flexibility, which will make for its efficient operation. Above all, they maintain that there is no chance of getting real peace without the League, and that it is not a question of "this League or none, but it is this League or no lasting peace in the world." Competent observers agree in declaring that the, idea that the League is essential to a secure peace commands the adherence of an overwhelming proportion of the American population. An American correspondent of the London Time* gave recently an account of the. impressions he gained in a ten-thousand-milc trip through the United Stales, in the course of which ho visited thirtyfive of the largest cities and the majority of the States, and talked to people in all walks of lifc._ His opinion was that the great majority of the people were not acquainted with the larger questions involved' in the .Peace Treaty and the covenant of the, League of Nations, but they approved of both documents, on the ground that the present war is ended by them and the effort to prevent lurther wars begun. The same correspondent remarks that opinion is in the main unfavourable to the agreement to aid France in case of an unprovoked attack by Germany, though it may change when Mr. Wilson explains the details of the proposed undertaking. On the whole, the state of public sentiment in the United States seems to ensure not only that the Treaty will be ratified and the League, covenant upheld, hut that definite limits will be set to partisan obstruction.