Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 212, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1919 — HIS BITTER HARVEST. [ARTICLE]

HIS BITTER HARVEST.

On the whole, it seems probable that the peace treaty will be ratified; yet its acceptance by the senate is in any event problematical and can only be accomplished after a display of domestic antagonism which puts our nation before the world in an unenviable light Other nations present a united front to the world; we present an internal conflict, no doubt inexplicable to any but those initiated in American politics. Whether the treaty will be ratified or not, however, any glory the Wilson administration might have hoped to acquire from it is hopeless'.y dimmed by the hostile Attitude of the senate majority. This, it is fair to assume, is the object aimed at by the republicans. They have so mussed the situation up: so affronted the nations with whom the president had established himself at Paris on terms of friendship and mutual respect; so manipulated the various provisions of the treaty and of the league as to plant m all minds all sorts of sinister and ominous aspects to its almost every part, that any joy there may have been latent in its prompt acceptance has long since departed. All of which, candor compels the admission, is just what the senate has been aiming at. Such is its disposition toward Woodrow Wilson that the humiliation of him and of his administration seems to the sen-, ate as the chief end in sight, rather than any supposed benefits to the United States or to the world from the settlement. For this lamentable effect the responsibility must be apportioned in about equal share between the president and his inveterate foes. The unreasoning and often cruelly unjust procedure of the league’s opponents finds its explanation in the presidential aloofness and antagonism of the past two years. The hope of the country and of the world lies, of course, in prompt acceptance of the treaty by the senate; in the display of common understandings and desires on the part of those who represent the United States in official power* and responsibility. There ought to be co-opera-tion and * united BO

a matter. There would .‘be glory enough for all, if each side w*ere disposed to off er- its part in fair and co-operative spirit, each recognizing equal authority, equal patriotism, and welcoming the right of the ot! er side to credit for the re-

sult. ' If we ask where the first refusal to entertain this reciprocal status of powers and duties obtained, the truth is that it came from the white house itself. Not until the fruits of the council came to be gathered, not till the way of the treaty and of the league seemed best with insuperable obstacles in the senate, did the presidential attitude incline to change from one of supercilious aloofness to one of confidence and mutual respect. We heard a great , deal about co-operatioh and willing-1 ness to discuss and receive counsel; but we saw nothing but the apparent determination that -the - administration itself was supposed to derive all credit for both treaty and league and that there was no choice in the senate but to put the rubber stamp of approval upon all that the president had done. The president flouted the senate, and now the senate flouts the president. After all has been said that may be said and ought to be said about the insufferable insolence and spitefulness and mischievousness of the senate, there remains the undeniable arrogance and aloofness of the president himself at the really crucial time when the treaty was in the process of formation and when the opinion and attitude of the senate w*ere being formed against, the hour of need, _The senate is making a spectacle of itself, but what it is doing is the simplest possible exhibit of human nature. The president doubtless thought he, had put the senate in a hole from which it could not extricate itself but by bowing meekly to the yoke he had deftly presented to * its outstretched .neck. But you csn put a man in a hole so deep that in squirming out hh will splatter you up about as much as he does himself. Every day that passes adds to the humiliation of the president, as he reflects upon what he is getting from the senate and what he had the right to expect, if only he had accorded it the consideration which he expects himself

from it in his turn now. From a reckless sowing he reaps a bitter harvest. —Indianapolis Star. .