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Show favored ratification, and they felt equally certain that If the question were referred to a plebiscite, as De Valera might ask, a large majority of the people of southern Ireland would vote for acceptance of the peace terms. The opposition In the British parliament parlia-ment was voiced In the house of lords by Lord Edward Carson and in the commons by Capt. Charles Craig, brother of the Ulster premier. Already Al-ready the Ulster cabinet had sent word to London that Ulster would not enter the Irish Free State, and it protested bitterly against the making of an Irish Ir-ish agreement without its consent. It charged that the treaty violates the word of King George and Premier Lloyd George. In the Ulster note exception ex-ception was taken also to the boundary boun-dary commission plan, it being contended con-tended that to remove territory from any government without that goveriv ment's consent Is without precedent. Over here in America a lot of the professional Irish, like Justice Cohalan of New York, are wildly denouncing the treaty. Just what they want u to do about It whether to weep, or ts declare war against England thej have not yet stated. T TNLESS someone Intervenes, Chile and Peru are likely to have a war over the long disputed territory of Tacna-Arlca. Technically a state of war has existed between them since the Peruvian assembly decreed the reincorporation re-incorporation of Tacna-Arlca and Tar-apaca Tar-apaca In Peruvian territory. Now, though there are no diplomatic relations rela-tions between the two countries, Chile has Invited Peru to take part In a plebiscite in the territory, and has intimated in-timated that If Peru declines, Chile's only alternative is to annex Tacna-Arlca. Tacna-Arlca. No one expects Peru to accept the invitation, and the government's organ, La Prensa of Lima, characterizes character-izes the Chilean note as "a gross Insult In-sult following the deportation of Peruvians from the captured provinces." prov-inces." This journal suggests arbitration arbi-tration by the United States as the best way out of the tangle. r EPRESENTATIVES of 35,000 ralL way maintenance of way and shop laborers met In New York and voted to reject any wage reduction proposals pro-posals and to appeal to the railway labor la-bor board for Increases In pay. Two days later that board dealt the maintenance main-tenance of way men a hard blow In new rules It promulgated. Under this decision time and a half rates are to be paid after the tenth hour of work instead of after the eighth hour as under un-der the old national working agreement agree-ment The "basic" eight-hour day, however, Is reaffirmed ; but the new rules allow the carriers and employee! to make agreements for reduction of working hours below eight to avoid making force reductions. Tho starting time of any shift, too, is to be arranged by mutual understanding. This knocks out rigid hour stipulations in the old agreement. 'TP HE United Mine Workers of Amer-lea Amer-lea won a partial victory od Thursday when the United States Clr cult Court of Appeals at Chicago found Judge Anderson of Indianapolis was In error in enjoining the operation of the "checkoff" system and remanded the case back to him for rehearing. Thil action of the Court of Appeals was believed be-lieved to have prevented a general strike of coal miners, already started In Indiana and Illinois. Wives of the striking coal miners of Kansas, followers of the discredited and expelled Howat, were the leaders of mobs In the Pittsburg region which fiercely attacked miners who wished r work and raised such trouble generall) that state troops were sent there. NEWS REVIEW OF CURRENT EVENTS Pacific Peace Treaty Signed and Agreement on Navy Plan Is Announced. CHINA PROBLEM IS HARDER Irish Pact Before British Parliament and Dail Eireann for Ratification War Between Chile and Peru Threatend Over Tacna-Arlca. By EDWARD W. PICKARD STEADILY and sanely the Washington Washing-ton conference Is performing the great task which President Harding set for It. Such was the progress made last week that It seemed likely the major problems would be solved before the holidays and that the conference con-ference would adjourn, leaving details to be settled by experts and certain of the questions to be handled by future conferences. The way was cleared effectively by the quadruple agreement for stabilization stabiliza-tion of peace In the Pacific. This, In the form of a treaty, was signed on Tuesday by the delegates of the four powers and now awaits formal ratification ratifi-cation by the legislative bodies of those nations. That It will be ratified in Great Britain, France and Japan Is beyond doubt, and there are few who think that the American senate will not also accept It. Senator Borah of course has announced his opposition to the treaty, and Senators Reed and LaFollette stand with him. They profess pro-fess to find In Its second article commitments com-mitments similar to those in Article 10 of the League of Nations covenant, and even worse than the latter. So far no one else worth mentioning has discovered the terrible danger in Article Ar-ticle 2. Those who approve of the treaty and they appear to be decidedly decid-edly In the majority both In the senate sen-ate and In the country generally agree with Premier Takahashl of Japan, who says the pact Is "the grandest contribution to the cause of peace ever recorded in history." There were rumors In Washington that former President Wilson was advising ad-vising the Democratic senators to fight the treaty, but more reliable reports re-ports were to the effect that he had urged them not to commit themselves until the conference had completed Its work and the pact could be studied In Its relations to the other agreements readied. Of course Senator Underwood, Under-wood, the Democratic leader In the senate, cannot oppose the treaty for he signed It as one of the delegates. When President Harding will send It In for ratification Is not known. It may not be until after the holiday recess. WITH that treaty out of Its way, the conference resumed consideration consid-eration of the naval reduction and limitation plan. The Japanese pleaded plead-ed earnestly to be permitted to retain their new pet dreadnaught, the Mutsu. For several days the Americans held out against this, but finally it was agreed to, with the understanding that, to maintain the 5-5-3 ratio, the American Ameri-can navy should retain the super-dreaduaughts super-dreaduaughts Colorado and Washington Washing-ton in place of the Delaware and the North Dakota, and that Great Britain should retain two of the new Hood type battleships already planned. But those Hood vessels as designed would be more powerful thaa either the Colorado Col-orado or the Mutsu class, so it was suggested that they should not be built any larger than the Colorado. This plan was accepted by all tad the naval agreement was formally announced an-nounced to the conference. The pact Includes the provision that there shall be no increases In fortifications and naval bases In the Pacific region, including in-cluding the British case and fortifications fortifica-tions at Hongkong and Kow Loon. This restriction does not apply to the Ilawaiian Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Zea-land, and Japan proper, nor to the toast of the United States and Can- China's delegation stepped forward again on Wednesday with formal plea to the Far Eastern committee for the abrogation of the treaties growing grow-ing out of the twenty-one demands of Japan in 1915, which China says she was forced to accept. By these treaties Japan retains her hold on Shantung and Manchuria. The Japanese Jap-anese delegates quickly and sharply objected to the Chinese proposal and the committee adjourned sine die. Meanwhile the negotiations between the Japanese and Chinese outside the conference are continuing, the latter putting forward a plan by which Chinese Chi-nese bankers propose to purchase from Japan the ownership and control of the Shantung railroad the nub of the whole controversy over that province. It was said the Japanese had so far receded from their original claims for retention of half ownership that they were now willing to give up the road, with certain reservations concerning the methods and security for payment, and also preferential rights of investment. invest-ment. These rights might result In giving the Japanese actual control of the management, but China realizes that she cannot get all she asks. The members of the conference evidently evi-dently feel that the best they can do for China now Is to adopt a new "bill of rights" for her which will enable her to organize a stable functioning government, and that to such a government govern-ment may be left many of the country's coun-try's problems and troubles. To further complicate the Chinese problem came from the soviet government govern-ment of Russia a protest against discussion dis-cussion of the Chinese Eastern railway rail-way by the conference. The road, which is of immense strategic and economic Importance to Russia, China and Japan, was built by Russia and legally speaking belongs to Russia. For several years It has been managed by an Interallied board whose chairman chair-man Is John F. Stevens of America. Both the United States and Japan have spent large sums on the upkeep of the line. Secretary Hughes made public the main points of the agreement entered Into between the United States and Japan concerning Yap and the other Islands north of the equator assigned to Japan by the treaty of Versailles. It confers upon the United States equal privileges with Japan in all those islands but Imposes on It no obligations or responsibilities. DRITISH and French statesmen and financiers have not yet been able to come to anything like agreement concerning the German reparations, and from both countries come unofficial unoffi-cial but Insistent calls to America to take part in the discussions. The hope Is expressed dally that President j Harding will call another conference to handle this problem and that of world finances generally. Meantime the senate finance committee Is fussing fuss-ing with the administration's foreign loom refunding bill and trying to do tilings to It which Secretary of the Treasury Mellon does not like. He especially objected to a proposed provision pro-vision requiring foreign nations to make payments of Interest on their Indebtedness to the United 8tates semi-annually. He said this would seriously handicap negotiations for refunding re-funding the loans. "D OTXI the British parliament and the Dail Eireann, the "peasant parliament" parlia-ment" of Ireland, met last week to receive the reports of the peace delegates dele-gates and to act on the treaty they drew up. The British lawmakers were urged both by the king and Premier Lloyd George to ratify the treaty and, despite the opposition of a few "die-hards," "die-hards," there was no doubt that they would do so. In Dublin the agreement was not having quite so smooth a path. From the outset De Valera made plain his opposition. If not to the whole treaty, at least to certain of Its provisions, and he accused the Irish delegates of exceeding their powers In signing It before submitting it to the dail cabinet. Collins and Griffith, leaders of the treaty supporters, vigorously upheld their action and the debate became be-came so warm that the dail went Into secret session to set'le that point, with the understanding that the debate on the acceptance of the treaty should be public. Observers were confident that a majority of the dail members j4 GOVERNOR HARDING of the fed- eral reserve board, whose annual report was made public last week. Is fairly optimistic. He says basic busl- j ness and financial conditions through-out through-out the country have Improved greatly during the past year, though normalcy hi yet to be attained. "Until the purchasing power of the j farmer improves," he continued, "It will, of course, be Idle to look for any rapid or substantial Improvement Id I domestic trade. I think, however, that the outlook for the farmjrs is mora hopeful." I |