Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1920 — WHERE RESPONSIBILITY RESTS [ARTICLE]

WHERE RESPONSIBILITY RESTS

Whatever differences of opinion there may be as to the forin in "which the treaty of pieace with Germany Should be ratified, there is no "question at all that the responsibility for affirmative, decisive action belongs to the United States senate. The Republicans in that branch of congress are' bound to the extent of their control ‘to take the initiative and restore the treaty to' the category of subjects upon which the senate is expected to act. They have at their command all the machinery of the senate, including the foreign relations committee, which they “packed” last spring to make

sure that its report and determination with regard to the treaty should be in accord with the majority’s ■ plans and purposes. In the hope of escaping their duty the Republican leaders in the senate are pretending now to hesitate lest the majority’s mode of ratification may fail of executive approval. This attitude might win more credence if it were not that these same leaders a few months ago made it a matter of boast that they nothing for the president’s views except to criticize and reject them. The demand for the ratification of the treaty (has not only not abated buc has grown steadily more general and . insistent. The acceptance of the treaty by the former associates of the United States in the war and the resumption of diplomatic and commercial tween! those nations and Germahy. has left this country the only power , at war with her. There can be no return to normal conditions — | political, economic or financial —in this country until peace has been' re-established in form as well as in substance. It is the function and the duty of the senate to bring about peace. It is the responsibility of the majority of the senate to undertake the task. Playing politics has been a costly game for every interest of the nation. It promises to be equally costly for the Republican majority which ihas thus far used its predominance in the senate not to promote but to Jeopardize the hojjor and welfare of the United States.