PRES. LOWELL AND RATIFICATION.

"The differences now existing between the President and the majority of Republicans are far less important than the immediate ratification of the treaty." How much better a position the United States would hold in the eyes of its own citizens and those of foreign lands if our legislative and executive officers could be made to see this point, expressed so well by President Lowell. Article X, the apparent centre of the political storm now raging, does not present a clear-cut issue of principle any more than do the reservations offered by the Republican senators. To even the most violent of partisans the treaty cannot appear so perfect that a reservation on Article X. will ruin it; or so bad that the present reservations of Senator Lodge are all that can save it. Concessions--mutual concessions by the President and the majority in the Senate--are the only means by which the really vital thing can be accomplished--immediate ratification of the peace treaty.

But both branches of the government are working under the theory that all things come to him who waits, and that the longest way round is the shortest way home. Meanwhile, trade is at a standstill, patents are in abeyance, and various anachronistic war powers of the government are functioning. This is, of course, of no moment to Senators. They must indulge in their wire-pulling, their mutual recrimination, their frightful political farce-making. It would be laughable did we not observe in it the tragic price we pay for American democracy.