Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-11-13
.nWEDNEspAY EyEN1Na.sNoyEMBER Is. ls1s.
WHERE PEACE MAY BE CONCLUDED

sAaNAI1e notnlng mas heen decided regarding the meet
Ing place OF the comina peace conference. it has Been
suggested that Switzerland would be the ideal scene for
the final act, Of the great world drama, and. more spe-
officially. the city OF Lausanne has been mentioned in this
connection. #@
Lausanne is situated Immediately north Of the Lake
az Geneva and on the great highway from Milan to
Paris-is thus walled In BY beautiful and idynic sur
ronndinss Ind easily accessible to modern travellers.
Those who have seen the ancient city and wandered
through the canton Of vaud which it dominates. agree
that a more fitting place. for bringing about final peace
cannot be imagined.
But, aside from practical and esthetical reasons,
there are some OF sentiment ana tradition which would
seem to point to Lausanne as a highly proper place for
the signing Of protocols insurtng the future freedom
Of the world.
The city which is between 4 500 and 1900 years
old. has from time to time fostered men. and been the
!. home Of men. who have fought for just those principles
Il which are now about to. be made secure as a guarantee
II for world peace in the future.
II It war here that Benjamin Constant was born
/ Constant, the remarkable political theorist and writer
4 whose undaunted battles for the freedom Of press and
speech are never to be f~orgotten-constant once the
/ adnhirer Of Nine. stael-ITolstein and the magnetic Julie
il nier-Con the wisest Of thinkers and the
most inveterately foolish Of gamblers.
IT was in Lausanne that he conceived the idea to
III wAe!icAlS he devoted the greater and nobler part Of his life,
last uterapces of human thought should be free and
sAAanf etteredk
And thersNJa<e other traditions: In Lausanne Ed
ward Gibbon spent his years Of adolescence and had his
Resting little romance with Susan Curchod, the daugn-
StAr#of the Cra4sier 'pasteur." Here he studied and
sssxrorked. and Contemplated "at an awful distance" as
INK. rays the work on which his fame later on was to
38East securely. Returning time and again to Lausanne,
snlbhoon was at a loss to adequately describe the, charm,
fascination sof the city, and so 1t was but in the
ssnaturAl order OF things that it was while sitting on a
terrace he completed his immense work, 1.-THE
and Fall Of the Roman Empire"
any future Gibbons are growing up or studying in
sssSIAnsanne nowadays, and if the peace conference actually
Is III 10 be held there, what a golden opportunity for writ
ing about the decline and fall Of other mighty empires
tssprssents itself to them! }
- NsS r it will be the chief purpose of the peace con-
u Tsrence to settle conclusively the fact that a decline as
SusIls rs a f%l Of empires have taken place, and as surely
.saa4 the Roman empire was forever wiped of from the
18th, - surely will the Hapsburg and Hohenzo1ern
81 %Sauyypasdss be forever extirpated at the next great meet
sy#JSsxt 81 the statesmen Of the conquerors.
@SasgaH#ssyVhy not, then, make the place Lausanne-f for no
ether reason, then for the sake Of tradition and signifi-
x95plnnt sentiment!
gESML& GWN& @ 4& SEEF go