Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 237, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 October 1919 — WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR DELAY IN PEACE TREATY? [ARTICLE]

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR DELAY IN PEACE TREATY?

Just now the administration organs, taking their cue from President Wilson and such court journals as the New York Times, are declaring that the world is drifting into anarchy because of the delay In the ratification of the peace treaty. The senate of the United States has, it is true, taken a few weeks to discuss and deliberate upon this treaty and covenant. Fully half of the time occupied in debate has •been taken up by administration senators. But President Wilson is directly responsible for a delay of months in formulating a peace treaty. And that peace treaty settled nothing because many of the troublesome problems that could have been adjudicated by the peace conferenc were left as unfinished business for a league of nations, the very existence of which had not yet been determined. The failure to settle these questions is responsible for the unrest and upheaval in Europe. No nation but Great Britain has as yet ratified the, treaty and covenant. That the senate of the United States is guilty of unnecessary delay is false. That President Wilson delayed the completion of a treaty of peace for months is

unquestionably true. That he is 'delaying it today by attempting to ‘prevent the senate from ratifying .the treaty with amendments protec- ' tive of American rights, interests and ideals is equally true. Much of this world-wide unrest is due to the raising of vain hopes by President Wilson rhetorical prospectuses. He has talked of “self--determination of nations” and of j many other themes which have , caused expectations throughout the -world impossible of fulfillment. He has talked about going over the heads governments to the people, another nam e for revolu ti on. The ' mentarianonEurapeanaffairs, ~an erstwhile champion of the league of nations, Frank Simonds, places the responsibility for the European upheaval on the frightful misconceptions which prevailed at the peace conference, the responsibility for which he places largely upon President Wilson. To attempt to unload from his shoulders to those of the senate responsibility for the frightful mess of things made at the Paris peace conference, or for the spread of revolutionary radicalism in the United States, is the very limit of mendacity and effrontery.