The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1919-09-09

q COIlSIcSS VI IdClOl1S US1OIS ulu
not seek to affect some balance of
power brought about by means of
serving the strength and interest of
the strongest powers concerned,
whereas this treaty builds up nations
that never could have won their free
dom in any other way. It builds
them up by gift, by largeness, not by
obligation; builds them up because
of the conviction of the men who
wrote the treaty that the rights of
people transcend the rights of gov
J ernments, because of the conviction
of the men who wrote that treaty
that the fertile source of war is
wrong; that the Austro-Hungarian
empire, for example, was held to-
gether by military force, and consis-
ted of peoples who did not want to
live together; who did not have the
spirit of nationality as. towards each
other; who were chatting under the
hands that held them. Hungary,
though a willing partner Of Austria,
was willing to be her partner because
she could share Austria's strength
for accomplishing her own ambitions
and her own ambitions were to hold
under the Jugo-Slavic peoples that
lie to the south of her.
Stresses Rights of Small Nations.
Bohemia, an unhappy partner
a partner by duress, flowing in all
her veins the strongest national i'm
pulse that was to be found anywhere
in Europe and north of that pitiful
Poland, great nation divided up
among the great powers of Europe,
torn assunder-kinship disregarded,
natural. ties treated with contempt
and an obligatory division among
sovereigns imposed upon her, a part
Of her given to Russia, part of her
given to Germany, and great bodies
of Polish people never permitted to
have the normal intercourse with
their kinsmen for fear that that fine
instinct of the heart should assert
itself which binds families together.
Poland could never have won
her independence. Bohemia new
er. could have broken away
from the Austro-Hungarian COM
bination. The Slavic peoples to
the South, running down into
the great Balkan peninsula, had a
gain as often tried to assert their
nationality and their independence,
and had as often been crushed, not
by the immediate power they were
fighting, but by the combined power
of Europe. The old alliances, the old
balances Of power, were meant to see
to it that no little nation asserted its
rights to the disturbance of the peace
of Europe, and every time an asser-
ton of rights was attempted they
were suppressed by combined influ-
ence and force, and this treaty tears
away all that and says these people
have a right to give their own lives
under the governments which they
themselves choose to set up. That is
the American principle, and was
glad to fight for it and when strategic
considerations were urged, I said
not l alone-but it was a matter of
common council that strategic con-
sideraticns were not in our thought
that we are not arranging for future
wars, but were giving people what
belonged to them.
Claims of Italy on Adriatic
Ny fellow citizens, / do not think
there is any man alive who has a
more tender sympathy for the great
people of Italy than / have, and
very stern duty was presented to US
when we had to consider some of the
claims of Italy on the Adriatic be-
cause strategically from the point of
view of future wars Italy needed a
military foot-hold on the other side
Of the Adriatic, but her people did
not live there except in little spots.
It was a Slavic people, and l had to
say to n1y Italian friends but every
where else in this treaty we have
given territory to the people who
lived on it, and l do not think that it
is for the advantage of Italy, and l
am sure it is not for the advantage
of the world to give Italy territory
where other people live. | felt the
force of the argument for what they
wanted, and it was the old argument
that had always prevailed, namely,
that they needed it from military
i L