Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-07-10

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They were free men under arms,
mot forgetting their ideals of duty in
the midst of tasks of violence. 1
am proud to have had the privilege OF
being associated with them and of
calling myself their leader.
But j speak now of what they
eant to the men by whose sides they
sght and to the people with whom
Mhy mingled with such utter
simplicity, as friends who asked only
to be of service. They were for all
the visible embodiment of America.
Beacon Light for Millions
What they did made America and
all that she stood for q living reality
in the thoughts not only Of the people
of France but also Of tens of millions
Of men and women throughout all the
toiling nations of world standing
everywhere in peril of its freedom
and of the loss of everything it held
dear. in deadly fear that its bonds
we're never to be loosed. its hopes
forever to be Knocked and disap-
pointed.
And the compulsion of what they
stood for was upon lis who repre-
scented America at the peace table.
IL was our duty to see to 1t that every
decision we took part in contributed
so far as we were able to influence IT,
to quiet the fears and realize the
hopes of the peoples who had been
living in that shadow, the nations
that had come by our assistance to
their freedom.
It was our duty to do everything
that It was within our power to DO
TO make the triumph Of freedom ana
of right lasting triumph in the as
surance of which men might every
where live without fear.
Old entanglemcnts of every KIND
stood in the way-promiScs which
governments had made to one another
in. the days when might and right
were confused and the power OF the
victor was without restraint. En-
gagements which contemplated any
dispositions of territory, any extern
sions of sovereignty that might seem
TO be to the interest Of those who had
the power to insist upon them. had
been entered into without thought OF
what the peoples concerned might
wish or profit by: and these could
not always be honoraby brushed
aside. 1t was not easy TO graft the
new order of ideas on the old, and
some of the fruits Of the grating
may, 1 fear, for a time be bitter.
Support at Peace Table
But. with very few exceptions, the
men who sat with us at the peace
table desired as sincerely as we did
to get away from the bad influences.
the illegitimate purposes, the demor-
alizing ambitions. the international
counsels and expedients out of which
the, sinister designs of Germany had
sprung as natural growth.
1t had been our privilege to formu-
late the, principles which were ac-
cepted as the basis of the peace, but
they had been accepted, not because
we had come in to hasten and assure
the victory and insisted upon them,
but because they were readily acccded
to as the principles to which honor
able and enlightened minds every
where had been bred.
They spoke the conscience of the
world MS well as the conscience of
and l am happy to pay my
tribute of respect and gratitude to the
able, forward looking men with whom
it was my privilege to operate
for their unfailing spirit Of CO. opera
ton, their constant effort to accom-
modate the interests they represented
TO the principles we were all agreed
upon.
The difficulties, which were many,
lay in the circumstances, not often
in the men. Almost without exccp-
tion the men who led had caught the
true and full vision of the problem
of peace as an indivisible whole, a
problem, not of mere adjustments of
interest, but of justice and right ac-
tion.
The atmosphere in which the con-
ference worked seemed created. not
by the ambitions of strong govern
ments, but by the hopes and aspira-
tions of small nations and of peoples
hitherto under bondage to the power
that victory had shattered and de-
stroyed.
Two great empires had been forced
into political bankruptcy, and we
were the receivers. Our task was not
only to make peace with the Central
empires and remedy the wrongs their
armies had done. The Central EN-
pires had lived in open violation of
many of the very rights for which the
war had been fought, dominating
alien peoples over whom they had no
natural right to rule, enforcing, not
obedience, but veritable bondage, ex-
plotting those who were weak for the
benefit of those who were masters
and oyerlords only by force of arms.
There could be no peace until the
whole order of central Europe was
set right.
Creating New Nations
That meant that new nations were
to be created-Poland, Czecho SIo-
vakia, Hungary itself. No part of
ancient Poland had ever in any true
sense become part of Germany, or
of Austria, or of Russia.
Bohemia was alien in every thought
and hope to the monarchy of which
she had so long been an artificial
part; and the uneasy partnership be-
tween Austria and Hungary had been
.ne rather of interest than of kim
snip or sympathy.
The Slavs whom Austria had
chosen to force into her empire on
the south were kept to their obedience
By nothing hut fear.