Martinsburg W Va Evening Journal

The treaty's defeat is a tragedy whose poignancy is intensified by the sordidness of the final scene. The country beholds the President wrecking a great undertaking for no better reason than because he was not allowed to ignore the Constitution. The country beholds him assisted by a group of Senators who became infected with his narrowness and thus were unable to lift themselves to levels of 'statesmanship."

The covenant, an ill-omened and a stilted word that savors of hypocrisy, was not a great document. But it related to a noble ideal, and at least was a gesture in favor of peace and a better ordered world.

Americans will not be proud of the fact that for the first time in our national history we have not joined in an undertaking which pointed to better days.

But from the beginning there was little chance. The inefficiency and self-sufficiency of our only negotiator created a bedevilment whose waves never could be quieted. In the final hour, completing his disservice, he was able to command enough Senators to drive a knife into the heart of his own work.

The result must not be read as meaning that this country withdraws from the world in selfish isolation. Aloofness is impossible. This is more true now than when McKinley and Roosevelt said it. Possibly no one can foresee the future the influence of this country for good will not be less because informally applied. But the wiser course seems to be to seize the first opportunity, likely to be offered in a little more than a year, to adhere to the league. - New York Tribune (Rep.)