The Washington herald., 1918-02-20
Lloyd George and Wilson.

The British premier is doing the American
cause a service in showing that Washington
furnished the initiative and the impetus that led
to the partial unificaton of allied military con-
troll.
The Versailles plan is the American plan says
Lloyd George. "a mastery and unanswerable
document" was brought to the nter-allied
ference by Col. z. NJ. House and Maj. Gen.
Tasker H. Bliss-a document which exposed the
weaknesses of the then existent Franco-British
military organization, and which by implication
made reform imperative.
1t may have seemed presumptuous for the
United States, which had furnished hardly the
nucleus of a fighting force on the Western front,
to have taken the reins of leadership in allied
military councils. 1t would have been pre-
sumptuous save for one fact; that this nation had
become the great supply station, the great ballast
and reserve force for all of the allies, and that
coordination of the demands made upon us-fi-
nancial, industrial agricultural and military-had
become urgent.
That was the handspring of the clean-cut pro-
gram taken to London and Paris by Col. House.
Secretary of State Lansing said at the time.
Time has demonstrated the significance of our
program, and the British premier gives his
own testimony as to its wisdom, though it
has forced upon Great Britain army crisis
whose full effects not yet to be appraised.
1t is curious, indeed, that while Washington
was insisting upon unity of military action, it
preparing to pursue a policy of almost absolute
detachment and independence in diplomatic action.
Whether this is because we failed to commit
Britain and France to the Nilsonian diplomatic
offensive against the central powers-whether
Clemenceau and Lloyd George stood against
the essentially American features of that often
sive-it is difficult to say. Sufficient is it to
show that exact unity of war aims has not been
achieved chiefly because it is impracticable. Presi
dent Wilson is pursuing policy which is
clearly his own. He is not, in the larger sense
OF the word, subject to any OF the territorial and
racial commitments OF Europe. He is the spokes-
man of abstract principles of international NOR
atty the champion of their rigorous and impartial
application to every government and every people,
friend and foe alike. He is fighting for a concept
and ideal-it must be remembered that none of
our European allies are definitely committed to
the league OF nations plan advanced by the Presi-
dent
There is no rift between the United States
and the entente. We stand shoulder to shoulder
and side by side against Germany and all the
odious creed which she has sought to i'm
pose on the world. But the President is at
tempting-and fortunately by of the
geographical and political position of the Unit
ed States he is enabled to put across"-to
speak for the of the world, for the cause
of democracy for the of unborn generations
who can and shall be spared the horrors of re-
newal of the present butchery. No European
could possibly take the birds eye view of the
conflict that he does. No European can get away
from the heat and blood-lust of the in the
same manner that Woodrow Wilson does The
President is clearly the beneficiary of oppor-
tunity which has but to few leaders of men
in the history of the world, and he is the master
of it. Destiny could not have more clearly out
lined his if she had written it in letters of
flame across the sky.