Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1919-07-22

ana common counsel among the gov
ernments to which the world was Look
ing to enforce justice and give pledges
of an enduring settlement, regions
like the Saar basin could not be put
under temporary administrative re-
gime which did not involve transfer
OF political sovereignty and which
contemplated a final determination of
its political connections by popular
vote to be taken at a distant date;
no free city like Danzig could be ere
ated which was under elaborate inter-
national guarantees to accept excep-
tional obligations with regard to the
use of its port and exceptional rela-
tions with a state of which it was not
to form part; properly safeguarded
plebiscites could not be provided for,
where populations were at some flu
ture date to make choice what sover-
eighty they would live under; no GER
tain and uniform method of arbitra.
ton could be secured for the settle
ment of anticipated difficulties of final
decision, with regard to many matters
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 ad-
ministrative arrangements and restric-
tons which the treaty prescribed, but
which it was recognized might not
prove of lasting advantage or entirely
fair If too long enforced, would be i'm
practicable.
league of free nations had become
practical necessity. Examine the
treaty of peace. and you will find that
everywhere throughout its manifold
provisions It's trainers have felt obliged
TO turn to the League of Nations as an
indispensable instrumentality for the
maintenance of the new order IL has
been their purpose to set up in the
world, the world of civilized men.
That there should be a League of
Nations to steady the counsels and
maintain the peaceful understanding
OF the world, to make, not treaties
alone. but the accepted principles of
international law as well, the actual
rule of conduct among the govern
ments Of the world, has been one of
the agreements accepted from the first
as the basis of peace with the central
powers.
War Statesmen Agreed.
The statesmen of all the belligerent
countries were agreed that such a
league must be created to sustain the
settlements that were to be effected.
But at first l think there was a feel
ing among some of them. that, while
1t must be attempted, the formation Of
such league was perhaps a counsel
of perfection which practical men,
long experience In the world of affairs,
must agree to very cautiously and
with many misgivings.
1t was only as the difficult work of
arranging an all but universal adjust
ment of the worlds affairs advanced
from day to day. from one stage of
conference TO another, that it became
| evident to them that what they were
| seeking would be little more than
| something written upon paper, to be
| interpreted and applied by such meth
| DDS as the chances of politics might
| make available, if they did not provide
means of common counsel which all
were obliged to accept, a common au-
| thority whose decisions would be rec
| ogDiZed as decisions which all must
respect.
SkepticaI Turn to League.
And so the most practical, the most
skeptical among them turned more
and more to the league as the author
ity through which international action
was to be secured, the authority with
out which, as they had come to see it,
it would be difficult to give assured
| effect to this treaty or to any other in
ternational understanding upon which
they were to depend for the mainte.
nance of peace.
| The most practical of the con-
ferees were at last the most ready
to refer to the league OF nations
the superintendent of all interests
which did not admit of immediate
| determination of all administrative
! problems which were to require a
! continuing oversight What had
seemed a counsel of perfection had
! come TO seem plain counsel of neces-
sity. The league of nations was the
| practical statesman's hope of success
in many of the most difficult things
he was attempting.
And it had validated itself in the
| thought of every member of the con-
ference as something much bigger,
much greater every way than a mere
instrument for carrying out the pro-
visions OF particular treaty 1t was
universally recognized that all the
peoples of the world demanded of the
conference that it should create such
q continuing concert of free nations
as would make wars of aggression
and spoliation, such as this that has
just ended, forever impossible. A cry
had gone out from every home in
every stricken land from which sens
and brothers and fathers had gone
forth to the great sacrifice that such
a sacrifice should never again be
exacted.
1t was manifest why it had been
exacted. 1t had been exacted because
one nation desired dominion and other
nations had known no means of de-
Tense except ornaments and alliances.
Old Policy Meant Force.
War had lain at the heart of every
arrangement of Europe-of every
arrangement of the world-that pre-
ceded the war. FESTIVE peoples had
been told that fleets and armies, which
they tOiled to sustain, meant peace;
and they now know that they had been
lied to; that fleets and armies had
been maintained to promote national