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Show 'NO CHANGES' IS fflLSOfS STAND President Is Confident of Ratification Without Amending. By AETHUB, SEAES HENNING. (Chicago Tribune Special Service.) WASHINGTON, Auj. 17 President Wilson is confident he can defeat his senate adversaries all along the line and win ratification of the poace treaty and the league of nations covenant "without a single amendment or reservation. This confidence, it was learned tonight, to-night, follows the study lie has made of the attitude of the various groups of senators and of the weak points in the defenses of the greatly divided opposition. op-position. He has planned his strategy in detail and- is ready for the battle which opens this week. The president has decided not to await presentation of the treaty to the senate by the foreign relations committee commit-tee before vmlimbering his batteries. He will begin his committee maneuvering maneuver-ing as soon as that body gets down to consideration of amendments and reservations, reser-vations, following the examination of Mr. Wilson by the senators at the White house on Tuesday. No Textual Changes. Mr. Wilson will endeavor to defeat toxtual amendments in the committee, and all reservations with teeth in them, attempting to confine the committee's recommendations to mild interpretative reservations. To defeat amendments to upset the Shantung settlement, and to equalize the votes of the United States and Grea't Britain in the league, the president will need to win over one Republican mom-ber mom-ber of the committee. The lineup is now il to 8, with Senator McCumbcr, Republican, voting with the Democrats. One more Republican defection would give the Democrats a m.-siority of one. Senator Harding, Ohio, is the Republican Repub-lican upon whom all administration hopes are now centered. He deserted the Republicans on the motion to summon sum-mon Colonel House, and the Democrats have hopes that he will weaken still further and vote against amendments and radical reservations. Radical Move Lost. There seems to be little chance of the radical program of divorcing the league from" tho treaty succeeding, for only seven of the seventeen members of the committee are committed to this proposition. propo-sition. To defeat the Lodge program of reservations res-ervations will be more difficult, but here again the Democrats are counting count-ing on the aid of Senators McCumbcr and Harding to whittle the reservations to the status of mild interpretations. I WASHTNGTOX. Aug. 17. (By the Associated Press.) What promises to be one of the crucial weeks of the peace treaty fight in the senate beR.in today wtth the Issuance of a formal s:aiemcnt bv Senator Hitchcock of Xehraska. the. ; administration senate leader, declaring I conditions throushout the country de-1 de-1 innnded that the treaty be brought out of ! the foreign relations committee promptly I and rai'fied. ! T-'or rive weeks. Per.ator HitchcocK said, tiie treaty had been "in cold storase" in a poir.niitiee contro'.Ud by its enemies. Action on it should be the frst step, he asserted, in dealing with the hVKh cost of living. Turinff the wee'e, the outstanding feature fea-ture of which Is to be the White House conference Tuesday between President Wilson aud the committee. Senator Hltch- (Couriuucd on Page . Column 4.) 10 CHffiS' 15 PRESIDENT'S ST1I (Continued from Pane One.) cock Is expected to make a sofiate speech urging that the treaty be brought to a vote and voicing opposition to any amendments. Tomorrow the committee will resume Us hearings, questioning Thomas F. Millard, a writer on far eastern subjects, regarding regard-ing tlie treaty provision which gives Japan control in Shantung province, China. Against this provision Republican senators declare opposition is Increasing, , and they figure that interest fully war-1 war-1 rants withhold Ing committee action regarding re-garding It until the possible facts have been uncovered. Later in the week four other witnesses are to be heard. So that committee consideration may not be interrupted, leaders said the senate sen-ate might have only a brief session tomorrow to-morrow and then adjourn until Wednes-; Wednes-; day, when Senator Gore,. Democrat, I Oklahoma, has given notice he will speak I on the league of nations. I Interest in Tuesday's White House con-j con-j ference increases as the time draws , nearer. It is expected Mr. Wilson will be I asked to disclose many of the inside de-! de-! velopments in the peace negotiations which the members say they have failed to get from the witnesses examined. Mr, Hitchcock, in his statement, said it was the hope of the administration forces to beein voting in committee this week on proposed amendments preparatory prepara-tory to having the treaty reported to the sen-ite in n week or ten days. "It- is of little importance," the senator sena-tor continued, "what the committee does as long as it docs something. If It recommends rec-ommends amendments, the senate will reject them. If it mutilates the treaty, the senate will cure the damage done. The chief harm that the committee can do is in causing delay." |