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Show ,ue Opponents Seek Knife Covenant by Amending It, Paul Says ersity Professor Declares Same Tactics Have eiiUsed by Politicians to Defeat Many j " Treaties in the Past. re mere dishonesty on thrir i .art io reject re-ject The lenguo under a r-retenpe of -irnend-ing it. Hy a mending and v tar tin g the leaguo document on the irnnthH ( i all the national U gislatures thn t mu;-t thi-n ratify our amendment, the s( ri; le will i have killed the len erne while pretending i to remedy pome ailegt-d detect. Near' a wck ago the gener-il committee commit-tee of the state h-aguc to enforce peace accepted the view that to amend the leaguo coveranf before ihc league itself has become a reality and after l. representatives rep-resentatives of all the nations eonei ued have t--one to their o.ui countries would oi to Kill it. 11 st ni::ht, from a circular to Secretary Grahnn, we learned that the national lepgue to enforce peace takes precisely this view. It ussen s t hat for our senate to try to amend the covenant further at this critical stage is to destroy the project for a league of mi t ions. Said Wash inc. ton of the constitution In 1787: "Let us raise a standard to winch the wise and honest can repair; the event la in the hand of God." So it is with the league covenant. Though it is perhaps per-haps the most nearly perfect of all th ', great documents of history, yet it will I be changed as Lime und experience may I teach. Tod.'iy it is our duty tc accept it as it stands. Otherwise we cannot accept it at all, unless it be in some far away and as yet undetermined Ume, which may never come. Mtrumenl, he hopes to escape the respon- 1 slbillly for Its assassination. Chi this point I he to should ho no mls-undei mls-undei 'standing. To add amendments now is either to kill tho league altogether or ; to throw Amerlea out of it. Senators know this, and their constituents ought to know it. Especially does Senator Lodge know It, for he has figured In the senate for t wenty years as the wrecker of treaties. H was Lotl Ke who defeated President MeKiuley's mvn treaties the Kasson reciprocity treaties with Franee, Spain, Portugal and other countries. These were held up in the. senate and" died there, killed by Mr. Lodgers tactics. Likewise the J lay-rauncefole treaty for an isthmian canal, negotiated by President Presi-dent McKinley in llion, was so amended! by tho senate that it was rejected by the' British government. It had been written by Secretary Hay and from the standpoint of a merican interests. Senatorial "pre- roRative" killed it; but two years later another treaty was negotiated and passed. In 1904. and still under the Ixdge leader- ! ship, the arbitration treaties negotiated with France, Croat Britain, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Norway, Portugal and Sweden were so amended in the senate that a year later tbev were all abandoned as worthless by President Roosevelt. The arbitration treaties negotiated by President Taft were opposed and weak- . ened hy the Podge amendments. In the presidential campaign that followed, Mr. Roosevelt denounced them as "unctious and odious hypoocrisy." Today the same Senator L,odgc, who has wrecked so many pence treaties, declares that the league covena nt as amended amend-ed Is worse from the American standpoint stand-point than It would have been without any of the amendments that have thus far been added to it. This is new and strange doctrine. Charles E. Hughes, the Republican candidale fur president, risked for seven amendments . . Making explicit ex-plicit the requirement for ura.nimky of decision. 2, explicitly excepting- the internal in-ternal affairs of nations from league action. ac-tion. 3, assurance as to the security of the Monroe doctrine; 4. no European Intervention In-tervention in America except upon American Amer-ican invitation; 5. omitting the gu-irantee of the territorial independence and sovereignly sov-ereignly of nations made by A rt. V, 6. In relation to mandatories; 7, provision for tho withdrawal b mem he is from the league. These were :dl adopted, e?;pressl or by necessary Implication, except No. 5. which Is the very essence of the league . the defense of any nation in the league from attack and could not be changed without taking away the power of the league to defend lis members. To say that tho adoption of six out of the seven of the ickas proposed by Mr. Huijhes lias actually made tho league covenant worse than it was before is to use false if not treacherous language; and all who believe be-lieve In the ability and Integrity of Mr Hughes will note well what :ir. Pode now says and tries to do. Must Accept Present Covenant or None. As amended the covenant undoubtedly meets all the Hughes objections except the one that would have deprived the league of tho power to enforce Its decrees. de-crees. The covenant Is probably now acceptable ac-ceptable to the grea t majority of the people The issue therefore is: The present pres-ent league or none. There is no Immediate Imme-diate possibility of getting any other form of league. If tho objecting senators are honest, they will accept or reject tho league document as it stands. It will By J- H. PAUL. Ulv.r.lty of Utah. "cater knows that to amend V161 'L league covenant, before 1 1 'for or against it in its pre,-' pre,-' " rm. is to kill tho league. To J ' new amendments to the ;'r' 'ore it shall hv been rali-'"L' rali-'"L' nations and thereby made a r', likely to defeat tho whole ' ,.e senate now to declare some J "'".TOndment necessary. This r.'miM require acceptance by v nation in the proposed league ) ' ir "t be made a part ot the t u is the lesislatlve as- every other nation Involved I would have to discuss our amendment lids would result in a worldwide liumle uikI would probably produce an endless chain of other amendments. If va open tho door to amendments, other nations are likely to amend further. How many years, or decades, this process would re-oiuirc. re-oiuirc. even if it should happen In the end to be successful, no one. can surmise. lut if the senate should first ratifv" nnd thereby make the. league a reality' the covenant could be amended. If so desired, de-sired, a few months hence, at tho first meeting of the league itself, as provided in the covenant. At this stage of the proceedings, no senator sen-ator can propose amendment and still successfully suc-cessfully maintain that he favors a league of nations. He who proposes now to amend is really seeking to knlfo the document. docu-ment. At the same time, by professing that ho wishes merely to improve the in- |
