Republican farmer., 1919-07-18

'@-iNA W SIlt out 'i us way to Ett 4Ci Ai4- They were inseparable from the set dement's of peace. They were thrust upon it by circumstances which could not be overlooked. The war had ere eted them.
 In all quarters of the world old esta blished relationships had been disturbed or broken and affairs were at loose ends, needing to be mended or united again, but could not be made what they were before They had to be set right by applying some uniform principle of Justice or en- frightened expediency. And they could not be adjusted by merely pre- scrihtng in a treaty what should be done.
 New states were to be set up which could not hope to live through their first period Of weakness without as sured support by the great nations that had consented to their creation and won for them their independence. Ill-Governed colonies could not be put in the hands of governments which were to act as trustees for their people and not as their masters if there was to be no common au- thority among the nations to which they were to be responsible in the execution of their trust.
 Future international conventions with regard to the control of water ways. with regard to illicit traffic of many kinds, in arms or in deadly drugs. or with regard to the adjust ment of many varying international administrative arrangements, could not be assured. if the treaty were to provide no permanent common inter- national agency, if it's execution in LA 1af na slow and uncertain processes of CO., operation by ordinary methods of ne- gotiation.
 If the Peace Conference itself was to be the end of cooperative author ity and common counsel among the governments to which the world was looking to enforce justice and give pledges of an enduring settlement, regions Hge the Sarre Basin could not be put under a temporary admins trative regime which did not involve a transfer of political sovereignty and which contemplated a final determin- ation of it's political connections by popular vote to be taken at a, distant date; no free city like Danzig could be created which was. under elabor- ate international guarantees, to ac- cept exceptional obligations with re- gard 10 the use or Us port ana eN- ceptionaI relations with a state of which it was not to form a part; properly safeguarded plebiscites could not be provided for where populations were at some future date to make choice what sovereignty they would live under; no certain and uniform method of arbitration could be secured for the settlement of anticipated difficulties of final de- cision with regard to many matters dealt with in the treaty itself; the long-continued supervision of the task of reparation, which Germany was to undertake to complete within the next generation might entirely break down: the reconsideration and revision of administrative arrange ments and restrictions which the treaty prescribed but which it was recognized might not prove of last ing advantage or entirely fair if too long enforced would be impractical ble.
 The promises governments were
 making to one another about the
 way in which Ia bor was to be dealt
 with, by law not only. but in fact as
 well, would remain a mere humane thesis if there was to be no common
 tribunal of opinion and judgment to
 which liberal statesmen could resort
 for the influences which alone might
 secure their redemption
 A league of free nations had be-
 come a practical necessity. Examine
 the treaty of peace and you will find
 that everywhere throughout its man.
 fold provisions it's framers have felt
 obliged to turn to the League of Ma
 tions as an indispensable instrument Ea T1t n the n
 order it has been their purpose to set up in the world-the world of civi lized men.
 That there should be a league of nations to steady the counsels and maintain the peaceful understandings of the world, to make. not treaties alone. but the accepted principles of linternatinal law as well. the actual rule of conduct among the Govern
 ments of the world had been one ot the agreements accepted from the first as the basis of peace with the Central Powers.
 The statesmen of all the belgerent countries were agreed that such a league must be created to sustain the settlements that were to be effected But at first I think there was a. feel ing among some of them that, while lit must be attempted, the formation ! of such a league WaS peTHdpS q COuIl- 1 seI of perfection, which practical men 1 long experienced in the world of af- frs, must agree to very cautiously | and with many misgivirgs.
 l It was only as the difficult work of arranging an all but universal ad- 1 justment of the worlds affairs ad- vanced from day to day from one stage of conference to another that what they were seeking would be lit
 tie more than something written upon | paper. to be interpreted and applied
 by such methods as the chances o1 | policies might make available, if they I did not provide a means of common counsel which all were obliged to ac-
 cept. a common authority whose de- cisions would be recognized as deci-
 Sions which all must respect.
 | And so the most practical, the most
 skeptical among them turned more
 and more to the League as the au-
 thority through which interna tional
 action was to be secured. the author
 ity without which. as they had come
 to see it, it woufd be difficult to give
 assured effect either to this treaty ol