Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1919-04-02
BACK TO FIRST PRINCIPLES.
(FroKn the New York Worldly

PreS10ont Wilson'S statement TO the
Associated Press denying emphatical-
~ that discussion OF the League of Ma
lions had delayed the final formula
ton OF peace cannot be challenged
All the facts are on the side Of the
President.
There is no mystery about the caus-
es OF the delay in framing treaty
Of peace. The World hassalready call.
ed attention to, the, reasons why the
conferencasis making such slow prog
ress, and twill continue to make slow
progress until it gets back on the right
track.
The fourteen points of President
Wilson's address to Congress of Jan
8, 1918, may not have been the basis OF
q perfect peace, but they were the ba-
sis of practical and speedy peace,
They had been accepted by Germany,
by Austria and by Hungary. They had
been adopted voluntarily by Great
Britain, France and Italysta preparing
the armistice at Versailles as the es-
sential principles of settlement. All
that was needed in order to make
peace was to apply them reasonably,
honestly and intelligently, and this
is precisely what has not been done
Whenever the Peace Conference gets
away from these fourteen PROPOSE
tons it begins to founder and has
no sign-posts to guide it.
Now that the war has been won and
the Central Powers are completely
Frustrated, it may seem to various
political and commercial elements in
Europe that the foundations for a
more satisfactory peace could have
been laid than those provided by
the Presidents address of Jan. s, 1918;
but while the war was on they were
all eager for peace on those terms and
asked nothing of Germany except an
unqualified acceptance of the condi-
lions that the President had defined.
When an attempt is now made to re-
pudiate any Of these conditions in
whole or in part, the Peace Confer
in endless controversy
Already Hungary, which might have
been made the bulwark of democracy
in Central Europe, has been driven in
to the arms of Bolshevism, and Lenine
and Trotzky are now reaching out for
Bohemia Delay in Paris is bringing
no benefits to anybody except to the
Bolsheviki The Germans themselves
are sitting back and waiting to see
whether it will be more advantageous
to them in the last analysis to accept
the kind of peace that the conference
frames or to make common cause with
the Lenines and Trotzkys against all
the democratic governments of the
world
The Paris Conference has had prob
lens of almost incalculable difficulty
to solve, and nobody can question the
sincerity of the men who are trying
to solve them, but they may as we'll
face the cold ahrd facts of the situation
first as last. However rapidly they
may be proceeding, Bolshevism is out
running them and every day that
elapses before the treaty is ready to
sign will see steady increase in the
strength of Bolsheyism throughout
Europe and a steady decline in the
moral influence of democratic institu-
TONS
The sooner the conference abandons
all efforts to pervert the fourteen
points of President Wilson's address
and begins to translate them into a
formal treaty of peace the sooner the
reign of anarchy will cease in Europe
and the sooner the business of restor-
ing civilization can be resumed.