The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-09-21
Many Prom; alifornia
Republi> SIT on Plat
form a. President Ad-
dresses Thousands in
Los Angeles


plea for early ratification of
the peace treaty.
Welcomed to the city by a crowd which
densely packed the downtown section.
the crowd cheered unanimously every
where hes appeared during the day.
Along the line of a ten-mile parade he
rode in din of applause. and later at
a public dinner cheers greeted his dec.
larations that the treaty should and
would be accepted.
When he entered the auditorium for
his night speech he was cheered for
more than two minutss by a crowd es-
tinated by the police at 10000 The hall
vas jammed and outside were thousands
who couud not get in. Some had been
waiting since early morning for the
doors to open.
At the auditorium meeting Mr.. Will
son was introduced by Mrs Joriah
Evans Cowles, national president of the
National Federation of Women's Clubs.
who told the crowd that the league
must and will become the bulwark of a
war weary world for all time. The ''po-
litical partisan" she asserted, had no
place in discussion of the peace treaty
PROMINENT REPUBLICANS
The meeting had been advertised as
one of the strictly nonpartisan charac-
ter, and many of the states prominent
republicans sat on the platform. Among
them were Henry w. Wright. speaker of
the California assembly. and Marshall
Stimson, who was campaign manager in
Southern California for Senator Hiram
W. Johnson in 1910.
The President alluded to an address
made by President Mckinley on the day
before his assassination, and asserted
that the martyred Presidents words
about arbitration seemed to show he had
a prophetic vision on the eve of his
death. Referring to objections that the
league would involve the United States
in entangling alliances, MIR. Wilson said
the league was in fact a proposal for
disentanglement
what washington had in mind waA
exactly what these gentlemen want to
lead us back to-" he said. 1.-The day Of
alliances is behind u.s."
When Mr.. Wilson declared 1t was a
matter of amazement that some men
were now opposing the league, someone
in the crowd shouted same on them
And many others took up the cry.
There were more cheers moment later
when he declared the treaty was found
ed on the rights Of the weak rather than
the power of the strong
1t was peoples treaty, he said not
statesman's treaty.
The people of the world, said the
President, were tired of the old system
of autocratic domination and they would
overthrow sit one way or another"
Under the league, he added, autocratic
governments would be excluded from
decent society because only self-govern-
ing peoples could hold membership.
Describing a friend who he said ne
never let the facts get to him If he saw
them coming first" the President as
serted that some men could now see the
facts in the treaty discussion marching
upon them.
my prediction is that the facts are
going to see them" he added, while the
crowd cheered again, and make a very
comfortable mean of them"
DISCUSSES SHANTUNG
Mr.. Wilson reviewed. at length the
history of the German rights in Shan
tung province, declaring when those
rights were acquired the state Of inter-
national law was such that Resident
Mckinley and Secretary Hay did not
even protest, but only asked that
American trade rights should not be
affected. The Hay open door policy.
he said. meant mot the open door to
the rights of China, but an open door
for the goods of America"
Later, said the President. Russia,
France and Great Britain obtained sim
liar rights, without any protest from
the United States. The peace of Ports
mouth. he declared, by which Japan ac-
quired Port Arthur at the end of the
Russo Japanese war, was exactly sim
liar" to the Shantung provision of the
present treaty. Each, he said, gave
Japan rights in China which had be-
longed to her defeated enemy. Great
Britain and France cannot in honor
now violate their secret treaty with
Japan, the President declared. and the
only way in which the case Of Shan
tung could be bettered was to go to
war against France. Great Britain and
Japan. He asked whether those oppos-
ing the Shantung provision of the
treaty were willing to start such a
war, and added:
INTEREST is TREATY'S DEFEAT
Their interest in China is not in the
interest of assisting China but of de-
feating the treaty"
That's it." and That's the boy
yelled the crowd. and then there were
more cheers.
Under the league for the first time.
he said, China would have forum be-
fore which she could bring her case
He said he had felt that all the nations
had gone too far in their acquisition OF
rights in China
Turning to the objection that Great
Britain would have a preponderance Of
voting power in the league assembly
Mr.. Wilson said 1t was nonsense" to
have any such fear. because the as
sembly was largely debating body
while the council made the great de-
cisions. Naming Canada, Australia and
India, he asked:
would you want to deprive these
millions of voice in the debate?"
The crowd replied mo- In a great
chorus and the President added:
Its proposition that has never
been stated because to state it an
swers it,
speaking unwisely and too soon,s
said Mr.. Wilson, Germany had re-
vealed her hope that the United States
would be separated from the great
powers as it had been impossible tc
separate her during the war" The
crowd stood up and shouted it ap
tCsati..ea :. rage Eleve..)