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THE PROPOSED ALLIANCE
WITH FRANCE

N transmitting to the Senate the special treaty with France by which the United States would agree to help in defending France against German aggression, the President urged it not only on the ground of our special obligation to France, but also on the ground of the special exigency which will exist pending the organization of the League of Nations. He declared that it was an arrangement "not independent of the League of Nations, but under it." Announcing that Great Britain volunteers the same promise, he interpreted the agreement as follows:

Two Governments who wish to be members of the League of Nations ask leave of the Council of the League to be permitted to go to the assistance of a friend whose situation has been found to be one of peculiar peril, without awaiting the advice of the League to act.

For some reason not as yet forthcoming it has been assumed that this proposed special treaty with France was withheld from publication in the United States when it was known in France and England. On July 24 it was read as news in the United States Senate by Senator Brandegee. As a matter of fact, it was published in the United States broadcast on July 3 and 4, at the very time it was published in the London "Times" and in the "Figaro" of Paris. This complaint concerning an imaginary grievance has diverted public attention from a complaint which, whether justified or not, has a basis of fact.

According to this agreement as framed in Paris and accepted by the President, it is provided (in Article IV) that "it shall be submitted to the Senate of the United States of America at the same time as the Treaty of Versailles shall be submitted for assent to ratification."

On July 10 President Wilson submitted the Treaty of Versailles to the Senate, but did not submit the FrancoAmerican treaty. In fact, he distinctly said that he would reserve submission of that treaty to a later date. Of course, although the individual Senators were aware of the treaty and might have had the text of its provisions before them, neither the Senate nor any committee of the Senate could officially act upon it or have it under consideration as a matter of business which has any parliamentary rights until it was formally and officially submitted to the Senate.

AUGUST 6, 1919

that it be submitted at the same time as the general Treaty, it was sufficient for placing that provision in the text. It was the one provision by which the President was bound by the mere fact that he had negotiated it.

It has been said on behalf of the President by Senator John Sharp Williams that the purport of that provision was to make it certain that the two treaties should be before the Senate at the same time, and that as soon as the FrancoAmerican agreement was submitted the two treaties would be before the Senate at the same time. That, however, is not the wording of the provision. There are few things which a nation should make with so great care, and, when made, should guard and keep so scrupulously as a promise.

Now that the treaty has been submitted, it can be officially considered. It is not a rash pledge that is proposed. In effect it is simply an assurance to France that America will not leave to France alone the responsibility of repelling any assault upon the victory which America helped to win. Mere fairness to the partner that is closest to peril requires that we give her this as

surance.

FURTHER PROBLEMS
OF PEACE

Five years ago last week AustriaHungary launched its attack on Serbia. Last week Austria and Hungary, separated from one another, shorn of territory occupied by their formerly subject peoples, and shaken by political disturbances and physical violence, were objects of special consideration by the Peace Conference in Paris. On July 8 Austria had received the rest of the terms which had first been handed over to her on June 2, shortly after her delegates arrived at St. Germain. Austria has now, therefore, practically the full text of the Treaty as the Peace Conference proposes it. As in the case of Germany, ample time was given to Austria to consider the terms and to make suggestions for modification. Dr. Renner, the head of the Austrian delegation, has declared the terms to be so severe as to be impossible of fulfillment.

Of course Austria's case is different from that of Germany. The AustroHungarian Empire has disappeared. Austria itself, as it survives the wreck, represents only a minority of the people Whatever the reason was for requiring of the old Empire, and cannot carry all,

or even one-half, of the burden which might have been laid upon the Empire if it had remained intact. Somebody, however, has got to bear that burden. The question has been how to distribute that among the various peoples formerly constituting the Empire, and particularly how to apportion it between those peoples who constitute openly enemy states and those peoples who have been absorbed by the Allied and Associated Powers. It is an exceedingly difficult question. It is too complicated to set forth in anything less than a treatise. It is plain, however, that at best the Austrians will have to carry a burden of great weight for many years to come.

Hungary is a much more disturbing factor at present than Austria. The Peace Conference has announced that unless the Government of Bela Kun, which has been attempting to form a kind of partnership with the Bolsheviki of Russia, is overthrown the Allies will not lift the blockade. The difficulty seems to be that a considerable proportion of Bela Kun's strength has been due, not to his Bolshevism, but to what we in America would call his jingoism. He wants to keep within Hungary as many of the subject peoples as possible. So there has been fighting between the Hungarians and Czechoslovaks on one side and the Hungarians and Rumanians on the other. There has been a lack of strong and firm policy at Paris.

While representatives of the Great Powers have been discussing plans as to what they are going to do in future years, they have failed to act with firmness or with much evidence of co-operation in dealing with such wars as these Hungarian-Rumanian and Hungarian-Czechoslovak wars in the present. The Hungarians are still an enemy people, and it gives only an impression of weakness to attempt to withstand their aggressiveness by offering them threats when the Powers ought to act unitedly in enforcing obedience to the terms of the armistice. What is needed is the exercise of police power.

TWO DILEMMAS IN THE
PROHIBITION BILL

On July 22 the bill to enforce both war-time prohibition and the Prohibition Amendment was passed by the House of Representatives.

In framing this measure the legislators encountered two difficulties for which it is not easy to see a satisfactory solution.

In the first place, the question arose

whether it would be permissible for people to have and keep intoxicating liquors in their homes. If it were made illegal for any one to possess liquor in his private dwelling, it would be almost, if not quite, impossible to make such a provision effective without instituting a system of search into private houses that would create resentment as an invasion of the liberty of the citizen. On the other hand, to let it remain lawful for a person to keep liquor in his home would be to allow a great advantage to people with sufficient money to enable them to lay in a stock of liquor for years to come. It is said by Mr. Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, that a great deal of unrest among wage-earners has been caused by the fact that they are not permitted to buy their beer from day to day, while wealthy men with well-stocked cellars can have their wines and whiskies. The House of Representatives has chosen the second horn of this dilemma and has made it not unlawful to possess liquor in a private dwelling occupied by the owner, provided the liquor is used for consumption by himself or his family or bona-fide guests.

ate, these two features of it should be subjected to special scrutiny.

THE SHIPPING STRIKE
SETTLED

The agreement reached between the forty thousand seamen who have been on strike in American ports and the ship

owners was so reasonable and so amicably arranged in the end that it seems an immense pity that a compromise should not have been reached before the strike instead of after. Some five hundred vessels were held for about two weeks in up port, international trade was injured and hindered just when every effort should have been used to carry it on vigorously, and the public both here and abroad were unnecessarily inconvenienced. Some time a system of adjusting such differences without rushing into industrial war will be perfected.

The other obstacle concerned the legal method of enforcing the law. If violations of the law were left to trial by juries, it is feared that the observance of the law would be far from uniform. In certain places, it is thought, public opinion for the enforcement of prohibition would not be vigorous enough and general enough to make it possible to get jurymen who would convict violators. So the bill has been drawn in such a way as to take the enforcement of the law out of the hands of juries entirely. Any place where intoxicating liquor is made or sold

in violation of the law is declared to be

of the Postal Air Service and was caused f by the discharge of two postal fliers who refused to take up their planes in weather th which they believed was unsuitable for but flying.

Mr.TO

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The original attitude of the Post Officert Department towards its flying employees was expressed in a telegram from Second regard to the reinstatement of two pilots b Assistant Postmaster-General Praeger in discharged for insubordination. Praeger telegraphed : "Orders regarding Pilots Smith and Lee have not been re-u voked. They came into the service as every other pilot, with the knowledge that they must comply with the Department order al to fly with the mail, and where flying con- na ditions are such that they cannot operate sa have the option to resign. If they refuse mc to carry out the orders of the Department d and fail to tender their resignations, reU moval from service must be made. Every pilot is expected to carry out his duty in accordance with his oath and sense of loyalty to the service and to aviation in general." hre Again, in a statement made to a cor- te respondent of the New York" Times," Mr. Praeger said: "There's a specific agreement between pilots and the Post Office Department, when they enter the service, that they must fly when the mail is ready or resign and allow other men to fly. This is clearly understood. All pilots came into the service with this absolute knowledge and understanding. The mail must fly on schedule. If the men do not feel like flying, they are dropped."

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There were three points at issue: the men asked for higher wages, shorter hours, and the recognition of their branch of the International Seamen's Union. The ship-owners were willing to advance wages, so that the first demand was merely a question of bargaining and adjustment; they were willing also to shorten the hours, although there was a practical difficulty in arranging the watches so as to reduce every sailor's work to the eight hours to which the men insisted that their work be limited and in the end this matter too was adjusted; they were willing (or came to be willing) to recognize the union also, but not to agree that only union men should be employed-here once more a compromise was reached by an understanding that union men and Americans shall be preferred when they are available. The "closed shop" on board ship was certainly a novel issue. Unions among seamen have probably come to stay; in Great Britain, certainly, they were a powerful influence in the war and patriotic influences as well.

a nuisance, and anybody maintaining it is to be regarded as guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to fine. The United States District Attorney or any other officer designated by the United States AttorneyGeneral may institute a suit of injunc tion to restrain the defendant from conducting or permitting the continuance of such nuisance. Then the person selling the liquor can be proceeded against for violating the injunction. In this proceeding the judge himself may summarily try and punish the defendant for contempt of court, with a penalty of fine up to $1,000, or imprisonment up to twelve months, or by both fine and imprisonment. The objection to this is that it deprives the accused cf trial by jury, and trial by jury has been the recognized foundation-stone of British and American jurisprudence. The method adopted is open to the same objection that has been directed against the use of injunction proceedings in labor disputes.

When this bill comes before the Sen

What is true of this seamen's strike is true of the recent British coal strike, which for a time threatened industrial

injury on a vast scale. Patient study of the situation on the part of the Government and sensible concession to the miners had their effect, and the immediate danger appears to be over.

The labor question is always a business question, and compromise is the soul of business. Less heat and more business sense on both sides is the way out in most labor troubles.

THE STRIKE IN THE AIR

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It seems that the pilots were absolutely justified in demanding that the decision as to whether or not pilots shall leave the ground shall be placed in the hands of men who are themselves fliers. Not even railway trains or steamships have yet reached the point of develop ment where they can proceed with utter disregard of the elements. To make such a demand of air pilots at this stage of the art of flying exhibited a Prussian disregard for human life.

Certainly flying can be said to have come into its majority now that it has achieved its first strike. The strike in question has been among the employees

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stable Government and foreigners are accorded every protection." Mr. Bonillas admits that there are a few bandits at large, but thinks that is the natural aftermath of a civil war. But our Ambassador to Mexico lately told a committee of Congress that fifty Americans had been murdered in Mexico in the last two years, and that no one had been punished by the Mexican Governmentsurely strong proof that Carranza's rule, if not "unstable," is wretchedly inert. But it is unstable; no other word describes an administration which lives from day to day in danger from revolution on a large scale, as shown by the recent attack on Juarez.

Ambassador Fletcher, who certainly was not inclined to advise drastic measures toward Carranza, would not affirm that the United States was getting satisfactory redress for injury and damage to its citizens. All other evidence is positive that we are not getting such redress. There have been since the fall of Diaz, Mr. Fletcher said, two hundred and fifteen Americans slain in Mexico; the National Association for Protection of American Rights in Mexico (the American Government ought to be such an a association) puts the number at three hundred and ninety-six. American troops have crossed the border many times to drive marauders away. It is probably true, as our Administration admits, that the bandits get arms through nonenforcement of the embargo that still exists. That seems to be evidence of : instability on both sides of the border.

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The situation is so bad that the other day Representative Hudspeth, of Texas, in the House, urged withdrawal of recognition of the Carranza Government and military occupation of Mexico by American forces until a stable Government has been established. At all events, it is increasingly evident that this country should take stock of its Mexican policy, see how much of the old "watchful waiting" assets (or liabilities) are left, and what profitable dealing with the question may be adopted for the future-profitable, that is, for the honor of this country and the safeguarding of its citizens and their rights.

TRAVELING SALESMEN
AND THE BALLOT

There are about six hundred thousand commercial travelers in this country. Recently they have effected a National organization in order to take up in a large way questions that concern them as citizens and in their business relations. One such matter is that of voting. It is said that some of them have not voted for twenty years; certainly every year many thousands of their votes are not cast be

cause business compels them to be far away from their residences on election day. It is easy to say that patriotism should lead them to insist on plans that would bring each man home to vote, but business men know it is impracticable. As it is, says the "Traveler's Forum," the organ of the organization, thousands of dollars are expended by the travelers in returning to register and again to vote. But when the distance is great the cost, as well as the loss of time and disarrangement of route plans, makes it inevitable that neither the traveler nor his firm will make the sacrifice.

What is the remedy? An Absentee Voting Bill has been passed by the New York State Legislature which allows the voter to mail home his properly authenticated ballot from a distance, to be cast in his home town by an authorized representative, a method similar to that adopted in allowing drafted men to register from a distance. An amendment to the State Constitution is needed to carry out the plan, and such an amendment will be put before the people next November. Other States may follow; but, as an enormous number of the commercial travelers live in New York, a large measure of relief will be afforded by that State's action.

The plan, if properly safeguarded, seems to us practical and just. The men affected are intelligent and valuable citizens, and they should be encouraged in their interest in public affairs, not deterred from participation in political action. They ask to be admitted to what they call "full citizenship" in this way.

It is interesting, apart from the ballot, to see how organization is bringing out among these men discussion on matters of common business interest. They are already talking in their "Forum" about discriminating taxes and legislation, tips, privileges, and other rights or injustices. Evidently their organization is going to grow and to be an active influence in business and in civil life.

COMMUNITY VISITING

An experiment in community visiting has recently been made by Mr. B. R. Hieronymus, community adviser of the University of Illinois. The cities were Bloomington, Decatur, Springfield, and Peoria, typical Illinois towns, about two hours apart. In a rich agricultural country, they are alike in climate; in population they are 35,000, 45,000, 60,000, and 100,000-near enough in size to make comparisons valuable; they are alike also in character of population, for no one of them is primarily a factory town.

The ten visitors from each place represented city commissions, chambers of commerce, Optimists' and Rotary Clubs, social workers, and various organizations.

For four days they traveled together on the interurban electric roads, reaching each city at ten in the morning.

One city showed co-operating agencies, the next community gardens, the third public health, and the last recreation. But unconsciously each town showed more than was listed on the programme. The close interlocking of the associated charities and the county dispensary, of the tuberculosis association and visiting nurse service, with Springfield's public health work surprised the co-operating group from Bloomington. Peoria, with its splendid endowed recreation center, found golf courses in her neighbor's parks. The boys of Decatur, organized to clean up the town and rewarded with a trip to the State University, showed co-operation and health and recreation all in one. Each town had, too, certain individuals who were forced into the limelight-the woman responsible for the new county hospital, the city commissioner who manages a neighborhood garden four blocks square, the woman who started infant welfare stations, and so on.

THE COMMUNITY SPIRIT

Typical of the new spirit aroused by this week of visiting is the comment of an Optimists' Club representative who was not interested in community activities; he frankly said that he went because he had to, and ended by taking his wife for the last two days. "I always thought that social service and community uplift were highbrow things away over my head. Why, these are things any club could do ours at home. Success seems to depend on one or two individuals who see the need and see the vision, and then get to work and do it. Did you notice that every one of these towns has schoolhouses with more attractive grounds than ours? Why don't we have landscapegardened schoolyards?"

One of the results of this experiment was the realization of what their own town was doing, which came to some of these men and women, who confessed their surprise at the showing made. And each group gradually lost the bragging attitude with which its ten members started. The we're-the finest-town-in-Illinois talk of Tuesday was entirely absent by Friday night. Cocksure of themselves, boasting of their achievements, they ended in hearty admiration of their neighbors; they asked how to start a crippled children's clinic, whether the city could spend money to plow vacant lots for gardens, and what would the State Board of Health advise them to do.

Each representative reports back to his organization, so the story of this community visiting will go to fifty or a hundred members of each of ten groups in four

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