Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-12-23
WILSON T0END
PRELlMlNARIES
DURING THEDAY
Conferences Today Will Be
the Last Before the Presi-
dent Goes to England.

Paris, Dec. 23.-(By the Associated
Press.) - President Wilson's confer
ences today and tomorrow will virtu-
ally complete the preliminaries he is
expected to dispose Of before going to
England. They probably will lay the
principal part Of the groundwork for
the actual peace conference. $40
Mr.. Wilson considers the most
pressing of all problems before the
Entente nations in a fair way toward
being solved. This is the question Of
supplying food to the starving peoples
of liberated countries.
1t now seems probable that the
work will be handled principally by
the United States through Herbert G.
Hoover, American food administrator
It has been made plain to the Entente
nations that the United States has no
wish to claim entire credit for the
work of relief in the minds OF the
people who are to be fed, and a satis-
factory understanding appears to be
in sight Mr.. Hooyer1w confer with
the president again today. -.s.,' 1
Participation by the United States
in various councils that have been
1OOu AueoIIOIlSsE AldSSC1o VI
shipping and the like is being gradu-
ally wound up, as American officials
are trending toward the opinion that
these are proper subjects for the con-
fsideration of league of nations, or
at least of preliminary organizations
which may precede it.
Some of those who have been CIV
ing the subject close study and have
been following the conferences with
mt "a tivoS thew
would not be surprised If the real
foundation Of a league of nations
were to be laid in cooperative ar
rangements between the United States
and the Allies for handling these fun
damental questions.
Mr.. Wilson'S address at Sorbonne on
Saturday, in which he again defined his
conception of league of nations, at
tracted closest attention from all pub
lie men here. This is especially true
of his statement that the war could
never have occurred if the central
powers had discussed it for fort
night, and certainly not il they had
been forced to talk matters over for
more than a year.
The presidents address has recalled
that the United States, while William
Jennings Bryan was secretary of state,
negotiated a dozen arbitration treaties,
one of them with Great Britain. These
treaties bound their signatories to dis
cuss their controversies for at least a
year before proceeding to a .declara-
tion of war. An attempt was made to
negotiate such a treaty with Germany,
but the Berlin government refused to
entertain it. It is also recalled the
same idea was once expressed in a
plan for preserving peace put forward
by a group headed by Viscount James
Bryce, former British ambassador to
the United States.
There is no official authority for
the statement that Mr.. Wilson is
thinking of the Bryan plan as one OF
the elements in the proposed machin-
cry for preserving world peace, but
this reference to the plan in his Sor-
bonne speech has set public men to
talking.
Mr.. Wilson, Premier Clemenceau, Pre-
mier Orlando and Foreign Minister
Somnino have gone, but French public
meH have declared that their pre-
mier'ss talks with the president
were entirely satisfactory. 1t Is also
believed that Mr.. Wilson has made
substantial progress in his conferences
with Italian statesmen.