Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 314, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1920 — Signing Treaties. [ARTICLE]

Signing Treaties.

Signatures on treaties have become ♦asy to arrange now that the system <rf alphabetical oMer is followed, but formerly the fight for precedence was a cause of grievous difficulty. The order in which names appeared on treaties used to be determined by the statps of the realms concerned. But this device involved such interminable disputes that other systems were suggested. and as long ago as 1718, at the signature of the quadruple alliance, each Power signed first the copy which was to remain in its possession. At Aix-la-Chapelle. in 1748. the contracting parties each signed one copy for each of the others. Finally the present plan of alphabetical order (according to the French alphabet) was adopted.