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Show HEED DECEfflES iheoei rug i Says Covenant Would Give Control to Races Other Than Whites. Senator Hitchcock Accuses Him of Being Incon- sistent in Position. I ' I V. ASH I X rro.V, .May 1.--Th league f n.'ilioii.s v.;is drlja!.-,.! in t h: souat'j :i k;i in I f la y vj ; h an iii(.-f.'a.sin show of hitirjrno.-'s. S.:ita (ur Ciri'il, I (.'UiO'-.t;i I , ri .M issuurl, li a- k' il I In; irojjsa! in such vioroiiH tcrniN ihat lit- arou.soiJ repealed objftotioiifi . from s;nat(ii-.s supjiurt iiifi il. and dcvflopi'd . n. runuiiiR- delialo colurcd liy dramaLie a:--"usatiuiiM and heaU-fl r.ct orl s. The .M Is-sriurf Is-sriurf serial or doc larc.d the loa.ue would place I In; dost inies of the w Into race in the hands of inoi'anL and superstitious nations rt f black and yellow population, and acKU'-d that many I'ornurrats w-re su pj ioj-I 1 iik il for partisan rua.sons. In f rut u (M 1 1. iniei-ruptioii of .Senator Re.-d's .speech. Senator i I itelu.-oelt of Xcbi-aska. ra nkiiiR I Jr nine-rat. of the 1'nr-eifrn 1'nr-eifrn relations committee, insisted that tin- premises for tiiese charges- were false and that. I lie inferences d raw u were un- j fair a nd dangerous. 1 (e (Jn'W in t urn a reply from Sena lor Know Republican, of Pennsylvania, who sutfesied that sup-porlers sup-porlers of the league covenant should read it before they discussed il. Chair Asks Order. i So heated did the exehantjts become at one point ""that the chair rapped for order, nm:l Senator Reed declared that Senator Hitchcock had "lost, his temper." The measure which brought the league issue before I he senate was the resolu-rion resolu-rion of Senator Johnson, Republican, of California, requesting from the state department de-partment the full text of the pea.ee treaty. T here w a s no attempt to ijaeh a vo t c on the resolution, and the lUMHtire went ; over again as unfinished, business, to , come ui when congress . reconvenes ; Wednesday. ' Without speaking dii-eetlj' on the John- ! son resolution, Senator Keed made a general gen-eral attack on the covenant itself as a proposal to hand over control of the white race and the civilized world to ah assembly of nations where a majority always al-ways could be brought together on any race question in opposition to white supremacy. su-premacy. Assails Democrats. He declared support of the Man never could be explained at home by senators from the south, with its negro problem, or from the west, with its Chinese and Japanese problems. Turning dramatically dramatical-ly to bis Democratic colleagues, he continued: con-tinued: , "If a Republican president had brought it here If Roosevelt had brought it here there isn't, a Democrat, that would n' t have been standing - by my side fighting to the last ditch to rescue the country from' so monstrous and so cruel a thing." Southern Democrats particularly w ere chided for refusing to recognize the negro ne-gro as an equal at. the ballot box, but at the same ti me accepting South Africa Afri-ca and other nations where the black race predominates as members of the league assembly un an equality with the United States. J n his speech of nearly three ' hours, Senator Reed presented a mass of statistics sta-tistics n i id other information regarding the smaller members of the Jeague. The member nations in which the white race was predominant, lie said, totaled in population pop-ulation only "Sy,4SS.S00. while those where, other races are in the majority had a population of Sit, 425, 000. He said white nations Would have fifteen votes in the league and other nations seventeen. Cites More Nations. As the nations where white blood does not predominate, the senator named Liberia, Li-beria, Haiti, Hedjas. Pana ma, Honduras, Nicaragua, Gua tenia la, Ecuador, Cuba, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil. South Africa, Siam, India, China and Japan. In these countries, coun-tries, he asserted, the average of illiteracy illiter-acy was S" per cent, and he quoted extensively ex-tensively from reference works to show that many of them were overrun with su per.stition. While the rdlssouri senator was assailing assail-ing the league in the senate. Representative Represen-tative Madden, Republican. of Illinois, made a speech criticising it in the house and declaring the American people never could mingle on equal terms with the peoples of Kurope. No general debate followed, however. When the Johnson resolution comes up in the senate Wednesday Senator Robinson, Robin-son, Democrat, of Arkansas, expects to open debate with a speech supporting the league. Senator Reed told the. senate -that the revised covenant of the league had astonished aston-ished many students of i n tenia t ional affairs af-fairs on this allotment of membership in the league. He quoted figure1 'o show that iu many of the coun ! ries ad m i tred to full membership the illiteracy rate is very high. "An examination, however, of the mem-bet-ship of this present league will first astonish and thn arouse the indignation of every thoughtful man," . he continued. "Il will come as a distinct shock, first! t)i a t thif is a colors-1 league of nations. Tha i is to isay, the majority of the nations na-tions fomposing Hi league are a conglomerate con-glomerate of the bla:k, yellow, brown and red races, frequen tiy so intermixed and comniingkrl as to constitute an unelassi-fiable unelassi-fiable mongrel breed. "How will senators from the sout h. who represent states which contended that the white race alone is fit to control con-trol the destiny of the states of America." contend that Liberia, Haiti and other negro or seminegro . nations should be permitted to sit at the council table of t lie world and en ch cast votes the equal of that of tiie United States? Dark Races in Majority. "How can the representatives of the Pacific states, who have contended, and who still contend, tha t neither Japanese nor Chinese shall land upon their shores and that both are totally ' unfit for citizenship, citi-zenship, justify their conduct if they shall , now vote that in the council of the world Japan and China shall each cast a vote ! equal to the vote of the United States? "In any contest which may hereafter arise involving the equality of race is it not perfectly plain that the dark races will all unite and declare for race equality equal-ity in every part of the world ? It must be remembered that this is a living and burning question ; that Japan has expressly ex-pressly reserved It for future consideration considera-tion and that- if it comes before the league of peace as now organized the dark races will have a 'majority. "Who can justify the doctrine that the 110.000, 000 intelligent free people of the United Stales shall be represented by one man and that the representative of Hedjaz with a population of 300,000 shall cast a vote equal to the United States? "Who can justify giving to the 450,000 ignorant half-castes of Panama a '. ote equal to the United States? "What sort of insolence is that that proposes that 50.000 civilized or semi-civilized semi-civilized negroes of Liberia shall in the council of the world have a vote equal to the 110,000,000 people of the United Slates? "How can Great Britain ask us to permit per-mit the ignorant and superstitious hordes of India, Incapable of self-government or self-defense, to cast a vote equal to that of the United States?" The rate of illiteracy among the so-called so-called nations in the league, Mr. .Reed declared, de-clared, averages about 85 per cent, while in the "joke nation" of Liberia, it was said to be as high as 9S per cent. Although Al-though many of these nations, he said, "are the victims of superstition and steeped in barbarism," the league would make them "the new governors of the world." Hitchcock Replies. Senator Hitchcock of Nebraska, retiring retir-ing chairman of the foreign relations committee, interrupted the Missouri senator, sen-ator, accusing him of being inconsistent in his opposition. Senator Hitchcock said' Senator Reed in first opposing the plan declared the league was to be controlled by the monarchs of Europe, but now claimed that nations controlled by other than the white race would predominate. "I want to see which rock he is standing stand-ing on," said Senator Hitchcock. "Oh, I stand on a rock solid enough so you can't push me from it," retorted Senator Reed. "When Senator Reed reiterated that small and ignorant nations would have an equal vote with the United States, Sen-: Sen-: ator Hitchcock again objected and the exchange became so heated that the -chair rapped for order and Mr. Reed charged the Nebraska senator had "lost his temper, tem-per, his voice and his usual good nature." "Let's have It out," said Senator Reed. "Answer me, has the league or has it not anything to do?" "The league itself has little to do," replied re-plied Air. Hitchcock. "Then the league is a fake, isn't it ?" "No, the executive power is in the hands of a council of five great nations." "Then," said Mr. Reed, "instead of a league. you have powers that have banded themselves together to rule the world." Knox Intervenes. Senator Knox, Republican, of Pennsyl-, Pennsyl-, vania, pointed out that any question which could be considered by the 0010- oil couid also he referred tu the assembly, assem-bly, in whirth each meinher nation would have one vote. "But in that case," said Mr. Hitchcock, Hitch-cock, "the same rule would apply mi Hie council and the vote would have to he unanimous." Senator Reed insisted this meant I he hands -ot the United Stales "could ho tied by the vote of the gentlemen from Liberia." Li-beria." In this view he was supported by Senator Knox, who said the smallest member nation could by its vote "prevent "pre-vent justice being- done the greatest nation na-tion in the world.'' "It is my opinion." continued Senator Heed, "that you could buy the representatives repre-sentatives of Liberia at any time with a peek of potatoes if somebody didn't bid a. bushel: and the represciital ivc of Tialti for a like amount if somebody wasn't there to raise the ante." |
