The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-07-14
WHAT HE ACCOMPLISHED.

WHAT HE ACCOMPLISHED.
Although not entirely satisfied wit
the treaty. the Springfield Republica
admits that the president "fough
CALAMITY the powerful combination
which he knew he must encounter a
the peace table. Only those who ar
blinded by the passion resurgent 1,
an overwhelming disappointment be
cause no more was achieved will ga,
that Mr.. Wilson sold us out. In hi
own way. within his own limitations
fighting with his own methods, which
no doubt were not always the best
he got what he could"
The Republican says that while In
America 1t Is charged with no little
bitterness that Mr.. Wilson was out.
witted and checkmated by Clemen-
ceau. in France it is put the other
way, and in England Lloyd George is
accused of weakness and being over
matched by the president. One Eng
fish writer has scornfully stigmatizcd
the "Wilsonized peace" forced upon
the British nation.
1.-THE truth of the matter will
clearly emerge as time passes" says
the Massachusetts paper. But Mr..
Wilson, after having committed HIM
self by his war policy and his public
addresses to full participation In the
vastly difficult and complicate work
of reoI lnizing Europe, could not in
honor have abandoned the peace con-
ference and thrown Europe into still
deeper chaos because he could not
dominate its decisions at all points
He was obliged to sit 1t out and do
the best he could. His best, under
these circumstance, he has brought
home with him in the peace treaty
and the covenant of the league of ma
tions. The treaty and covenant have
been signed by some twenty eight ma
lions, and In no country besides our
own Is there the least doubt of COM
plete ratification"
The calmest views as to the re-
suits at Paris are those stated by
Gen. SHUTS, the delegate from South
Africa. Wilson's failures have been
conceded, the millennium has not ar
rived. But now his successes-what
are they? Says Gen. Shuts:
1.-TWO achievements of reaching
Importance for the world are def
nitely recorded. One is the destruc-
ton of militarsm; the other Is the
institution of the league of nations. /
am confident the league of nations
will yet prove the path of escape for
Europe out of the ruin brought by
this war, but the league as yet is only
the form. 1t still requires quickening
life, which can come only from the
active interest and vitalizing contact
of the peoples themselves"
America went to war for one thing
to crush Prussan milit8rism-and
that achievement the president GER
tainly brings home from Paris. How
great the other achievement will bulk
only time will tell.
The Republican is not one of those
papers which, through disappoint-
ment, will fail to advocate ratifica-
ton Of the treaty. 1t says, with rare
good sense:
'In the league of nations the presi-
dent has brought home an instrument
which the worst errors of the
peace conference can be corrected in
a late rand less passionate period.
More than that, the leagues possibil-
ties as an agent of progress are linn
tied only by the capacity of the ma
tions themselves for utilizing such
an instrument. In its potentiality for
good, the league as 1t is offered to the
world today, in all its imporfection
and crudity. will be a landmark in
the history of civilization. II the ma
tons are equal to their opportunity |
they can take this thing and use 1t as
an organ of the progressive adjust
ment of international relations such |
as they never have had in their hands !
before.
whether the nations are capable |
Of such a development no one can |
say. But the responsibility is now |
up TO them; il is up to America; II is /
up TO every one Of us. The question |
s not altogether whether the presi- |
dent has failed or succeeded: il is |
now a question whether America will .
TAIL or succeed. Assuming that the .
senate looks to the people for guild .
ance let their scision be left in no .
doubt This nation must not turn