American History - Part 156 - Wilson - WWI - Senate rejects Treaty - Wilson suffers stroke
Channel: ListenAndReadAlong
Date: 2013-07-27

Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.
Wilson demanded a treaty that provided for a new international organization. He called it the League of Nations. To Wilson, the league was more important than any other part of the treaty.
Wilson soon learned that, to get the league, he had to compromise on many issues. For example, he had to accept British and French demands to make Germany pay all war damages. The payments added up to more than !$300,000,000,000. Wilson also had to accept the allied takeover of Germany's colonies.
Some of Wilson's compromises violated his belief in self-determination. This was the right of all people to decide for themselves who would govern them.
One compromise, for example, gave to Japan Germany's colonial rights in the Shantung area of China. China protested the decision. It asked that control of Shantung be returned to the Chinese government. But President Wilson needed Japan's support for the League of Nations. So he accepted Japan's demand for control of Shantung.
There were other violations of the policy of self-determination. These affected the people and land along the borders of several European nations.
For example, 3,000,000 Germans were made citizens of the new nation of Czechoslovakia. Millions of other Germans were forced into the newly formed nation of Poland. And Italy received territory that had belonged to Austria.
After months of negotiations, the peace treaty was completed. The Allies gave it to a German delegation on May 17th, 1919. The head of the delegation objected immediately. He said the treaty was unfair. He urged his government not to sign it.
At first, Germany did not sign. The leader of the government refused and resigned in protest. But a new government was formed. And its leader signed the document at a ceremony at the palace in Versailles outside Paris.
Finally, WWI was officially over.
President Woodrow Wilson returned to the United States after the treaty signing ceremony. He was not completely satisfied with the treaty. Yet he believed it was still valuable, because it established the League of Nations.
Wilson's battle for the league was only half over when the treaty was signed in Europe. He had to win approval from the United States Senate. That half of the battle would not be easy.
Wilson spoke before the Senate just 2 days after he returned from Europe. He urged it to approve the peace treaty.
The committee completed its hearings and prepared a report for the full Senate. The report said the United States should reject the treaty, unless changes were made. The committee proposed almost forty changes.
The committee's report was a blow to President Wilson both politically and personally. He had worked extremely hard to win Europe's support for the idea of a league of nations. Great crowds in Paris had cheered him and his idea. Now, the Senate of his own country was about to reject it.
Wilson decided he must take his case out of the hands of the peoples' representatives. 
The President left Washington in early September. He traveled in a special train.
In city after city, he made speeches and rode in parades. He shook thousands of hands. At times, he suffered from a painful headache. But there was no time to rest.
Everywhere Wilson stopped, he urged the people to support the League of Nations. It was, he said, the only hope for peace.
In Boulder, Colorado, 10,000 people waited to hear him. By then, Wilson was extremely weak. He had to be helped up the steps of the building where he was to speak. He made the speech. He said he was working to honor the men who had died in the war. He said he was working for the children of the world.
Wilson put all his heart and energy into his speeches. And, as his family and doctor had warned, the pressure was too great. While in Wichita, Kansas, the pain in his head became terrible. He could not speak clearly. His face seemed frozen. A blood vessel had broken in his brain. Wilson had suffered a stroke.
The President was forced to return to Washington. His condition got worse every day. Soon, he was unable to move.
Woodrow Wilson would spend the rest of his presidency as a terribly sick man. He continued to hold on to his dreams of a League of Nations. But his dreams now filled a broken body.
We will continue our story next week