Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-07-10

as the principles H4fcn uOHOE-
able and enlighteAed minds ev-
erywhere had been bred. They
spoke the conscience o& the
world as well as the con-
science of America, and 1 am
happy to pay my tribute of re-
spect and gratitude to the able,
forward-looking men with
whom it was my privilege to
cooperate, for the unfailing
spirit of cooperation, their con- =.
slant effort to accommodate
the interests they represented
to the principles we were all
agreed upon. The difficulties
which were many, were not Oft
en- in the men. Most without ex-
ception 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 in
terest, but of justice and right
action.
Atmosphere Of Hope.
The atmosphere in which the
conference worked seemed ere
ated, not by the ambitions of
strong governments, but by the
hopes and aspirations of small
nations and peoples hitherto
under bondage to the power
that victory had shattered and
destroyed. 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 empires
had lived in open violation OF
many of the very rights for
which the war had been fought,
dominating alien peoples over
which they had no natural
right to rule, enforcing, not
obedience. but veritable bond
age, exploiting those who were
weak for the benefit of those
who were masters and over
lords only by force of arms.
There could be no peace until
the whole order of central Eu-
rope was set right.
New Nations Created.
That meant that new nations
were to be created.-Poland,
Czecho-Slovakia, Hungary it
self. No part Of ancient Po-
land had ever in any true sense
become a part of Germany. or
of Austria, or of Russia. Bo-
hernia was alien in every
thought and hope to the mon
archy by which she had so
long been an artificial part; and
the uneasy. partnership be-
tween Austria and Hungary
hay been one rather of interest
than of kinship or sympathy.
The Slavs whom Austria had
chosen to force into her en-
piFe on the south were kept to
their obedience by nothing but
fear. Their hearts were with
kinsmen in the Balkans. These
were all arrangements Of pow
er, not arrangements of natur-
al union of association 1t was
the imperative task of those
who would make peace and
make it intelligently to estab-
lish a new order which would
rest upon the free choice OF
peoples rather than upon the
arbitrary authority of Haps-
burgs or Hohenzollerns.
Separated by Force.
More than that, great popula-
tions bound by sympathy and
actual kin to Rumania were
also linked against their will to
the congIomerate, AustrO-Hun-
garian monarchy, or to other
alien sovereignties, and it was
part of the task of peace to
make a new Rumania as well
as new Slavic state, clustering
about Serbia.
And no natural frontier
could be found to. these new
fields of adjustment and re-
demption. 1t was necessary to
look constantly forward to 9TH
er related tasks. The German
colonies were to be disposed
of. They had not been governed;
they had been. exploited merely
without thought of the interest
or even ordinary human rights
of their inhabitants.
Empires Fall Apart.
The Turkish empire, more
over, had fallen apart, as the
stro-Hungarian had. It had
never had any real unity. 1t had
been held together only by pit
iless, inhuman force. Its peo-
pies, who were clamoring for
release, for succor from IN
speaakble distress, for all that
the new day of hope seemed at
last to bring within its dawn.
Peoples hitherto in utter dark
ness were to be led out into
the same light and given at last
a helping hand. Undeveloped
peoples and peoples ready for
recognition, but not yet ready to
assume the full responsibilities
of statehood were to be given
adequate guarantees of friendly
protection, guidance, and as
sistance.
See Way to Security.
And out of the execution of
what the great enterprises Of
liberty sprang opportunities to
attempt what statesmen had
never found the way before to
do; an opportunity to throw
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racial national and religious
by solemn interna-
tional covenant; an opportunity
to regulate military es-
Enlistment where they were