The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-07-10
TEXT OF PRESIDENTS ADDRESS

. - ~ Il
fear that its bonds were never to be
loosed, its hopes forever to be mocked
and disappointed.
"And the compulsion Of what they
stood for was upon us who represented
America at the peace table, 1t was our
duty to see to II 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
people who had been living in that
shadow, the nations that had come by
our assistance to their freedom 1t
was our duty to do everything that 1t
was within our power TO do to make
the triumph of freedom and Of right
lasting triumph in the assurance Of
which men might everywhere live with
out fear
Entanglements Many.
"old entanglements OF every kind
stood in the way--promises which gov
ernments had made to one another in
the days when might and right were
confused and the power of the victor
was without restraint. Engagements
which contemplated any dispositions of
territory, any extensions Of sovereignty
that might seem to be to the interest
upon them. had been entered into with
out thought of what the peoples con-
cerned might wish or profit by: and
these could not always be honorably
brushed aside. It was not easy to
graft the new order of ideas on the
old, and some OF the fruits OF the
grating may, ! fear, for time be bit
ter. 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 demoralzing
ambitions. the International counsels
ana eXpedients out of which the sin
lister designs of Germany had sprung
as natural growth.
IT had been our privilege to formu-
late the principles which were accept
% as the basis of the peace, but they
mad been accepted, not because we
had come In to hasten and assure the
victory and insisted upon them, but be-
cause they were readily acceded to as
the principles to which honorable and
enlightened minds everywhere had been
bred. They spoke the conscience of
the world as well as the conscience of
America, end l am happy to pay my
trlhnte OF respect and gratitude to the
ab,R forward looking men with whom
" vas my. privilege to cooperate for
.SFr constant effort to accommodate sit
the interests they represented to the
principles we were all agreed upon.
Inc difficulties, which were many. lay
in the circumstances not often in the
men. Almost without exception the
men who had led caught the true and
tuli vision of the problem of peace as
an lndivisible whole, a problem not of
mere adjustments Of interest, but of
justice and right action.
Big Tasks Faced.
THE atmosphere in which the con-
ference worked seemed created, not by
the ambitions of strong governments,
but by the hopes and aspirations of
small nations and of peoples hitherto
under bondage to the power that VIC
tory had shattered and destroyed, Two
great empires had been forced into po-
litical bankruptcy. and we were the re-
ceivers. 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
whom they had no. natural right to
rule, enforcing, not obedience, but veri-
table bondage, exploiting those who
were weak for the benefit of those who
were masters and oyerlords only by
force Of arms There could be no peace
uhlll tne Wnole oruer OF central Eu-N
rope was set right
That meant that new nations were
to be created-Poland. Czecho-Slo-
vakia, Hungary itself. No part Of
ancient Poland had in any true sense
become part of Germany, or of Aus
tria, 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 between Austria and Hun
gary had been one rather Of interest
than of kinshlp or sympathy.
The Slavs, whom Austria had chos-
en- ,.S to force into her empire or, the
by nothing but fear Their hearts
were with their kinsmen in the Bal
kans. These were all arrangements of
power, not arrangements OF natural
union or association It was the i'm
perative task of those who would make
peace and make 1t intelligently to es-
tablish, new order which would rest
upon the free choice OF peoples rather
than upon the arbitrary authority Of
Haapsburgs or Hohenzollerns,
More than that great populations
bound by sympathy and actual Kin to
VIII to the conglomerate Austro- Hun
garian monarchy or to other alien SOW
ereignties, and II was part Of the task
OF peace to make q new Rumania as
wen as new Slavic state clustering
And no natural frontiers could he
found to these new fields Of adjust
ment and redemption, 1t was neces-
sary to- look constantly forward to
other related tasks. The German, col
onies were to be disposed Of. They
nas,,,,t naa not been governed; they, had been
exploited merely, without thought Of
the interest or even the ordinary hu-
man rights Of their inhabitants.
Turkey Broken Up.
THE Turkish empire, moreover. had
fallen apart, as the Austro- Hungarian
bad II had never had any real unity.
II had been held together only by pitt
aloud for release, for sucoor from ,in-
speakable distress, for nil that the
new day Of hope seemed at last To
bring within its dawn. Peoples hither
to IN utter darkness were to be lad
put into the same, light and given at
Piles and peoples ready for recognition
but not vet ready to assume the full
responsibilities Of statehood were 10
be given adequate guarantees of friend
ly protection, guidance and assistance.
And out of the execution OF these
great enterprises of liberty sprane on
portunities to attempt what statesmen
had never found the way before to do:
an opportunity to throw Safeguards
about the rights Of racial, national and
religious minorities by solemn inter.
rational covenant; an opportunity to
limit and regulate military establish
rnents where they were most likely TO
be mischievous: an opportunity TO ef
feet complete and systematic inter
naturalization of waterways and rail.
ways which were necessary to the free
economic life of more than one nation
- ~ ..J
nels OF commerce OF unfair constr,ic-
tions OF law or OF privilege; and the
very welcome opportunity to secure FOR
labor the concerted protection OF defi.
Mite International pledges Of principle
and practice.
"These were not tasks which. the oon-
ference looked about II TO find ana went
out OF its way to perform. They were