Omaha daily bee., 1919-09-05

Slavic peoples that lie to the soutl
of it.
Bohemia, an unhappy partner
partner by duress, flowing in all it!
veins the strongest national impulse
that was to be found anywhere il
Europe, and north of that, pitifu
Poland, a great nation divided VI
among great powers of Europe
torn asunder-kinship disregarded
natural ties treated with contempt
and an obligatory division among
sovereigns imposed upon it, 4 par
of it given to Russia, part Of il
given to Austria and a part Of il
given to Germany and great bodies
OF Polish people never permitted tc
have the normal intercourse with
their kinsmen for fear that that fine
instinct of the heart should assert
itself which binds families together
Poland could never have won its in
dependence. Bohemia never could
have broken away from the Aus
tro-Hungarian combination.
"The Slavic peoples to the south
running down into the great Balkan
peninsula, had again and again tried
to assert their nationality and their
independence and had as often been
crushed, not by the immediate
power they were fighting but by the
combined power of Europe.
Suffers Equal Rights.
1.-THE old alliances, the old bal
ances of power were meant to see
to it that no little nation asserted its
rights to the disturbance of the
peace of Europe and every time an
assertiog of rights was attempted
they were suppressed by combined
influence and force and this treaty
tears away all that and says these
people have a right to live their own
live under the governments
which they themselves choose
to set up. That is the Ameri-
lean principle and I was glad to
fight for it and when strategic con-
siderations were urged I said-not I
alone-but it was a matter of COM
mon counsel that strategic consider
atoms were not in our thought that
we are not now arranging for future
wars but were giving people what
belonged to them.
"My fellow citizens, l do not think
there is any man alive has a more
tender sympathy for the great peo-
pie of Italy than I have and a very
stern duty was presented to US when
we had to consider some of the
claims of Italy on the Adriatic, be-
cause, stragetically, from the point
of view of future wars, Italy needed
a military foothold on the other side
of the Adriatic, but her people did
not live there except in little spots.
1t was a Slavic people and I
had to say to my Italian friends that
everywhere else in this treaty we
have given territory to the people
who lived on it and l do not think
that it is for the advantage of Italy
and | am sure it is not for the ad-
vantage of the world to give Italy
territory where other people live. I
felt the force of the argument for
what they wanted, and it was the
old argument that always prevailed,
that they needed it from
point of view and | have no
doubt that if there is no league of
nations they will need it from
point of view, but if there is
a league of nations they will not need
it from military point of view. If
there is no league of nations the mill
tary point ofview will prevail in
every instance and peace will be
brought into contempt but if league
Of nations Italy need not fear the
fact that the shores on the other
side of the Adriatic tower above her
lower sandy shores on her sides of
the sea because there will be no
threatening guns there and the ma
lions of the world will have consid-
cred not merely to see that the Slav-
&c peoples have their rights but that
the Italian people have their rights
as well. would rather have every
body on my side than be armed to
the teeth and every settlement that
IS right, every settlement that is
based upon the principles l have al
[uded to is safe settlement because
the sympathy of mankind will be be-
hind it.
Wish to Preserve Right.
Some gentlemen have feared
with regard to the league of nations
that we will be obliged to do things
we don't want to do. If the treaty
were wrong that might be so, but if
The treaty is right we will wish to
preserve right. l think l know the
1eart of this great people whom |
.or the time being have the high
honor to represent better than some
other men that I hear talk.
Il have been bred, and am proud
% have been bred, in the old revo-
utionary stock which set this gov
ernment up, when America was set
up as friend of mankind. and I
tnow if they do not-that America
has never lost that vision or that
purpose.
But I haven't the slightest fear
hat arms will be necessary if the
purpose is there. If know that nv
adversary is armed and I am not l
10 not press the controversy and if
any nation entertains selfish pur-
poses set against the principles es-
:ablished in this treaty and is told
~ the rest of the world that it must
withdraw its claims, it will not press
hem.
THE heart of this treaty then, my
:ellow citizens, is not even that it
Furnishes Germany-that is a tenn
oorary thing-it is that it rectifies
he age-long wrong which charac-
erized the history of Europe.
There were some of us who