The Seattle star. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1899-1947, 1919-02-06
Wilsonian Diplomacy
BY n. ID. COCHRAN,
Editor Of The Toledo News-Bee.

President Wilson may make mistakes. lie Is
human. But less liable TO make mistakes than states
men who play the diplomatic game secretly.
From this side of the water. Wilson has been
able to watch the European politics at distance
Probably he saw something European statesmen
didn't see-that back of the mere handful OF dlplo-
mats millions upon millions of people all hun
gering however secretly for more liberty and Jus
tice Possibly he able TO read in their minds
something Of THEIR hopes and fears and aspira-
tons. 49,
lie knew Of course that there hostility to
League of Nations among the leading politicians OF
Europe. 1t had been discussed for years by a few
drcamers, but not considered practical. 1t was
something to want to make the dream come
true.
But Wilson probably thought that there
real difference in the inner longings of ALL people
everywhere earth for peace. liberty and justice
Anyhow when he went to Europe he interpreted to
the people there his dream and demonstrated that it
w.as their dream. too. And when he made them see
that il something real, something they could get
t4elr on, rney not only wanted 1t but de-
manded it,
Before there was any meeting of diplomats in
peace conference. he had made his appeal to the PEG
pie Of all Europe. And their response was splenddy
sympathetic From all directions there began to roll
up against the assembling diplomats wave after wave
of public sentiment in favor of the Wilson plan
And when Wilson began to talk TO the diplomats
he talked not only as the representative OF the
democracy of America but of the aroused democracy
of Europe as we'll Woodrow Wilson, president of the
United States, took his seat in the peace conference
as the leader of world democracy.
Wilson didn't seek to impose upon European
statesmen HIS WILL He sought to convince them that
he was expressing the will of the people of Europe
as well as of America When he spoke to the people
over there he expressed what he believed were
THEIR aspirations. He tried to lead them where he
believed they wanted to CO. Diplomats of the old
staecraft got their heads together and decided what
THEY thought the people ought to door rather
what states ought to do, for they played the game
with states instead of with peoples.
You will note in Wilson's speeches both here at
home and abroad he spoke of PEOPLES rather than
of states.
The Prussian theory was that the state was
everything and that man made for the state,
The American theory is that the people are every
thing and that the state is made for them-that the
state the servant of the people, not the people the
servants of the state.
As the situation develops in Europe it will be
interesting go back and read again the speeches
Wilson made during the war, and especially his
fourteen points speech and those which followed it.
You will then see that he looked farther ahead than
the rest of us did, and that there more mean
ing in what he said than we saw then.
If you understand his Mexican policy, you will
have good line what his Russian policy is apt
to be- He didn't believe in sending big American
army into Mexico to shoot democracy into the Mexi-
can people. He knew his history He knew that lib
erty and democracy never came as handouts from
high and lofty thrones, but came from the ground
up. He knew liberty and democracy came only by
the people fighting for them.
And if you understand this, you understand
his probable theory of the characterization of indus
try Democracy in industry won't come as a hand
out from above 1t must grow from the ground up.
There will be pulling down and lifting up-an equal
izng process that is inevitable. The higher up one
thinks he belongs above his fellows the farther
he has to tumble when the leveling process yanks
him down.
Wilson is going about his job in the right way.
He needn't worry about the politicians at home. If
he gets what the plain people of this country want,
THEY will make their servants in congress take it
whether those servants like it or not.
The people of this country just as hungry
for real democracy as the people of the old world
are What they have had in theory they now want
in fact They want something they and feel
and hug to their bosoms something of their own.
They want democracy that reactionary courts
can't take away from them And they'll get it,
if they have to change the constitution and get rid
of some of the judicial kaisers the federal BENCH
who to think their mission in life to keep the
people from getting what they believe is justice.