Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-07-10
COMPLETE TEXT OF WILSON'S SPEECH

DbSu us turf 0Q Vi DIOhOA anu
affairs were at loose ends,
needing to be mended or unit
ed again, but could not be
made what they we're before.
They had to be set right by ap-
plying some uniform principle
of justice or enlightened ex-
peditiously.
Had to Give Support.
They could not be adjusted
by merely prescribing in a
treaty what should be done.
New states we're to be set up
which could not hope to live
through their first period Of
weakness without assured sup
port by the great nations that
had consented to their creation
and won for them their indie
pendence. Ill-governed colon
les could not be put in Nthe
hands of governments which
were to act as trustees for
their people and not as their
masters if there was to be no
common authority among the
lations to which they were to be
responsible in the execution CT
their trustees. Future interna-
tional conventions with regard
to the control of waterways,
with regard to Illicit traffic of
many kinds, in arms or in dead
ly. drugs, or with regard to the
adjustment Of many varying in
ternational administrative ar
engagements could not be assur-
ed if the treaty were to provide
no permanent common inter-
national agency, if its execu-
ton in such matters was to be
left to the slow and uncertain
processes of cooperation by or
binary methods Of negotiation.
II the peace conference itself
was to be the end of coopera-
tive authority and common
counsel among the govern
ments to which the world was
looking to enforce justice and
give pledges of an enduring
settlement, regions like the
Saar basin could not be put IN
der a temporary administra-
tive regime which did not in
Tolve a transfer of political
sovereignty and which con-
templated a final determination
of its political connections by
popular vote to be taken at
given date, no free city like
DantZig, which was under elab-
crate international guarantees,
to accept exceptional obliga-
lions with regard to the use Of
its port and exceptional rela-
tons with a state of which it
was not to form a part; prop
erly safeguarded plebiscites
could not be provided for
where populations were at
some future date to make
choice. what sovereignty they
would live under; no certain
and uniform method of arbitra-
ton could be secured for the
settlement of anticipated diff
culties of final decision with
regard to many matters dealt
with in the treaty itself; the
long continued supervision Of
the task of reparation which
Germany was to undertake to
complete within the next gem
Grafton might entirely break
down; the reconsideration and
revision of administrative ar
rangements and restriction
which the treaty prescribed
but which it was recognized
might not prove of lasting ad-
vantage or entirely fair if too
long enforced would be i'm
practicable.
League a Necessity.
The promises governments
were making to one another
about the way in which labor
was to be dealt with, by law
not only but in fact would re-
main a mere humane thesis if
there was to be no common tri-
bunal of opinion and judgment
to which liberal statesmen
could resort for their influ-
ences, which might alone Sc
cure their redemption. A league
Of free nations had become. a
practical necessity. Examine
the treaty of peace and you
will find that everywhere
throughout its manifold provi-
sions it's trainers have felt
obliged to turn to the league Of
nations as an indispensable in
strumentality for the mainte-
nance of the new order it has
been their purpose to set up in
the world-the world of civil
lied men.
Needed To Steady World.
That there should be
league of nations to steady the
counsels and maintain the
peaceful understandings of the
world, to make, not treaties
alone, but the accepted princi-
pies Of international law as
well, the actual rule of conduct
among the governments of the
world. had been one of the
agreements accepted from the
first as the basis of peace with
the central powers. The states
men of all the belligerent coun-
tries were agreed that such
league must be created to sus-
tain the settlements that were
to be effected. But at first l
think there was a feeling
among some of them that,
while it must be attempted, the
formation of such a league was
perhaps a counsel of perfec-
ton which pratical men, long
experienced in the world OF af-
fairs, must agree to very eau
tiously and with many misgiv-
ings. 1t was only as the diff