New-York tribune., 1919-07-11
People Bled White by
Cupidity of Old Rulers

Wv viz pCOp1C SOOIU see none ana
could brook no denial. A war in
which they had been bled white
to beat the terror that lay con-
cealed in every balance of power
must not end in a mere victory of
arms and a new balance. The
monster that had resorted to arms
must be put in chains that could
not be broken. The united power
OF free nations must put stop
to aggression, and the world must
be given peace. If there was not
the will or the intelligence to ac-
complish that now there must be
another and final war and the
world must be swept clean of
every power that could renew the
terror. The league of nations was
not merely an instrument to ad-
just and remedy old wrongs under
new treaty Of peace; it was the
only hope for mankind. Again
and again had the demon of war
been cast out Of the house of the
peoples and the house swept clean
by treaty of peace; only to pre-
pare time when he would enter
in again with spirits worse than
himself.
The house must now be given a
tenant who could hold it against
all such. Convenient, indeed in
dispensable, as statesmen found
the newly planned league of ma
tions to be for the execution of
present plans of peace and repara-
tion, they saw it in a new aspect
before their work was finished.
They saw it as the main object
of the peace, as the only thing that
could complete it or make it worth
while. They saw it as the hope
of the world, and that hope they
did not dare to disappoint. Shall
we or any other free people hesi-
tate to accept this great duty?
Dare we reject it and break the
heart Of the world?
And so the result Of the confer
ence of peace, so far as Germany
is concerned, stands complete. The
difficulties encountered were very
many. Sometimes they seemed in
superable. It was impossible to
accommodate the interests of so
great body of nations-interests
which directly or indirectly affect
fected almost every nation in the
world-without many minor COM
promises. The treaty, as a result,
is not exactly what we would have
written. 1t is probably not what
any one of the national delegations
would have written. But results
were worked out which on the
whole bear test. l think that it
will be found that the compromises
which were accepted as inevitable
nowhere cut to the heart of any
principle. The work of the con-
ference squares, as a whole, with
the principles agreed upon as the
basis of the peace as we'll as with
the practical possibilities of the
international situations which had
to be faced and dealt with as
facts.
l shall presently have occasion
to lay before you special treaty
with France, whose object is the
temporary protection Of France
from unprovoked aggression by
~the power with whom this treaty
Of peace has been negotiated. Its
terms link it with this treaty. I
take the liberty, however, of re-
serving it for special explication
on another occasion.
The role which America was to
play in the conference seemed de-
termined, as I have said, before
my colleagues and l got to Paris
determined by the universal
expectations of the nations whose
representatives, drawn from all
quarters of the globe, we were to
deal with. 1t was universally
recognized that America had en-
tered the war to promote no pri-
vate or peculiar interest of her
own but only as the champion Of
rights which she was glad to share
with free men and lovers Of JUS
tice everywhere, We had formu-
lated the principles upon which
the settlement was to be made
the principles upon which the ar
mistice had been agreed to and
the parleys Of peace undertaken
and no one doubted that our
desire was to see the treaty Of
peace formulated along the ac-
tual lines Of these principles, and
desired nothing else. We were