Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1919-09-05

OOlulllDuS, ", oepC. - He IeAI
of President Wilson's address here
today on the treaty and the League
OF Nations was as follows:
"Mr. Chairman, Governor Camp
bell and my fellow citizens:
ut is with very profound pleasure
that l find myself face to face with
you. | have Tor a long time chafed
at the confinement OF Washington. l
have for a long time wished to full
til the purpose with which my heart
was tull wnen I returned to our be-
loved county, namely, to go out and
report to my fellow countrymen con-
corning those affairs OF the world
which now need to be settled.
1.-The only people | owe any report
to are you and the other citizens OF
the United States and it has become
increasingly necessary apparently,
that should report to you. After all
the various angles at which you have
heard the treaty held up perhaps you
would like to know what is IN the
treaty. | find it very difficult IN
reading some Of the speeches that l
have read to form any conception of
that great document.
at is a document unique in the
history of the world for many rea-
sons and / think l cannot do you a
better service, or the peace OF the
world a better service than by point
ing out to you just what this treaty
contains and what it seeks to do.
In the first place, my fellow coun-
trymen, it seeks to punish one OF the
greatest wrongs ever done in history,
the wrong which Germany sought to
do to the world and to civilization and
there ought to be no weaker purpose
with regarr to the application of the
punishment. She attempted an in
tolerable thing and she must be made
to pay for the attempt.
s. Terms Not Unjust.
aThe terms of the treaty are severe
but they are not unjust. can testi-
tyethat the men associated with me
atSthe peace conference in Paris had
it in their hearts to do justice and
not wrong but they knew perhaps
with a more vivid sense of what had
happened than we could possibly
know on this side of the water the
many solemn covenants which Ger
many had disregarded, the long pre-
paration she had made to everwhelm
her neighbors, the utter disregard
which she had shown for human
rights, for the rights of women and
children and those who were helpless.
They had seen their lands devasta-
ted by an enemy that devoted itself,
not only to the effort of victory but
to the effort of terror, seeking to ter
rify the people whom they fought,
and / wish to testify that they exer-
cised restraint in the terms of this
treaty. They did not wish to over
whelm any great nation and they
had no purpose in overwhelming the
Germany people, but they did think
that it ought to be burned into the
consciousness of men forever that nc
people ought to permit it's govern
ment to do what the German govern
ment did.
"In the last analysis, my fellow
countrymen, as we in America would
be the first to claim, people are
responsible for the acts of their gov
eminent, if their government pur.
poses things that are wrong, they
ought to take measures and see tc
it that that purpose is not executed
Germany was self-governed. Hell
rulers had not concealed the purposes
that they had in mind but they de.
celved their people as to the charac
ter Of the methods they were going
to use and l believe from what | car
learn that there is an awakened con.
seriousness in Germany itself of the
deep iniquity Of the thing that was
attempted.
No National Triumph.
SWhen the Austrian delegates
came before the peace conference
they, in so many words, spoke of the
origination of the war as crime
and admitted in our presence that il
was a thing intolerable to contem-
plate. They knew in their heart.
that it had done them the deepest
conceivable wrong; that it had put
their people and the people of Ger.
many at the judgment seat of man.
kind and throughout this treaty
every term that was applied to Ger.
many was meant not to humiliate
Germany but to rectify the wrong
that she had done. And, if you will
look even into the severe terms OF
reparation, for there was no indem.
nity-no indemnity Of any sort was
claimed-merely reparation, merely
paying for the destruction done
merely making good the losses, sc
far as the losses could be made gooc
which she had unjustly inflicted, not
upon the governments-fo the repa-
ration is not to go to the government
but upon the people whose rights
she had trodden upon with absolute
absence of everything that even re-
sembled pity. There is no indemnity
IN this treaty but there is PREPARATION
and even in the terms of reparation
method is devised by which the
PREPARATION shall be adjusted to Ger
many's ability to pay it.
Il am astonished at some of the
statements | see made about this
treaty, and the truth is that they are
made by persons who have not read
the treaty or who If thav bava roo