Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 190, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1920 — MORE WILSON DUPLICITY [ARTICLE]

MORE WILSON DUPLICITY

FORMER AMBASSADOR DECLARES PRESIDEN’S CLAIMS TO TREATY AUTHORTY ARE INVALID.

Washington, Aug, 7.—More evidence of the duplicity of President Wilson in pleading for the ratification of the league of nations without change and in claiming that he had received full authority to bring about such a result are supplied by David Jayne Hill, former ambassador to Germany and Secretary of State. He says: “In his famous appeal to the electorate, of October 25, 1918, he ha<f said to the people: ‘lf you approve of my leadership and wish me to be your unembarrassed spokesman in affairs at home and abroad, I earnestly beg you will express yourselves unmistakably to that effect by returning a Democratic majority to both the Senate and the House of Representatives.” “In November, the country had expressed itself, ‘unmistakably’; but it offered no mandate to an ‘unembarrassed . spokesman in affairs at home and abroad.’ ‘A Republican Congress,’ he had said, ‘would divide the leadership.’ It was thus made perfectly evident to the President that, if the wishes of the people were to be respected, ‘the choice of policy/ as he had said, would not rest with him alone. “There was in the country, and the President well understood it, a wide-spread conviction that he had never at any time rightly comprehended the international situation. His theories were closet theories. Either he had not known, or had not cared, when laws were disregarded, that they were part of a solemn compact with this country. He had attempted even to silence our consciences, on great questions of right and) wrong, by imposing a personal neutrality in thought as well as deed. He had for a long time expressed ignorance of what the war was about. At a time when the whole world was in commotion, he had sent abroad diplomatic representatives of our country who either did not know the condition of Europe, or were afraid to inform him, lest he would consider that their minds were no longer going along with his. It is no exaggeration to say, that, after all the vast sacrifices of the war, the mind of the country was disturbed with the thought that the President personally intended to control the negotiations for peace. “I shall not dwell upon this ungrateful theme. But I repel the accusation that ‘the honor of the country is involved in this business in any manner that reflects upon the majority of the Senate of the United States, or upon any who, in a temperate spirit and m the light of knowledge, have resisted the ratification of this treaty, with the obligations which the President

has personally endeavored to impose upon the country. If honor has anywhere - been compromised, the American people will judge by whom and wherein. “While it is clearly within the province of the President of the United States to negotiate treaties, it is not within his constitutional power to promise the ratification of any of their contents; for the reason that the process of treaty-mak-ing is a joint procedure, in which it is necessary that two-thirds of the Senators shall concur. It is, therefore, a malicious act to censure any Senator for a refusal to give his advice and consent to any treaty, or any part of any treaty, which he may for any reason regard as prejudicial to the interests of his country. On the other hand, since the President is thus restricted by the fundamental law from forcing his own ideas upon the country, it is his plain duty not to exaggerate his powers when dealing with foreign nations, but to remind them that all his work is tentative and incomplete, until his co-partners in the treaty-making process have concurred. Further than this, he should, as far as posaihle seek that concurrence before he has committed himself upon a pointywhich may affect his country’s hdnor.” ’