Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-01-05
War Secretary, at Buffalo,
Declares Sacrifices Mean
New Magma Charta.
PACT MUST PREVENT WAR
Ry the Associated Pres.

rangement to prevent such disasters
in the future.
we here in America, who have
worked and paid he said, the
fathers and mothers who have given
their sons, surely have right to some
high assurances of future peace as a
consolation for their sacrifices. One
cannot close his eyes and think of the
peace conference at Versailles with
out feeling that there hover over it
the spirits of millions of dead men de-
manding that their sacrifices be not
in vain, that the statesmen of the
world now secure to mankind the
blessings which they died to obtain"
Not Speaking for President.
Mr.. Baker said he had no intention
of speaking for the President, whose
statement had been explicit, and in
whose hands the case Of America was
now placed.
He stands with head erect" said
the Secretary, 'in the ancient places
of the old world where other kinds of
treaties used to be made. and repre-
sents great and free people. He is
the advocate not of form, but of a
principle.
"It may be that there are voices in
this country which culver with hesi-
tation and here and there timorous
uncertainty, but back of him in that
council chamber are the voices of the
democracies of the world, of the men
who labor and the women who sac
rifice; he is by force of events the
spokesman of the democracy of the
world, and the compositions OF this
W a "a ~ u
new bill of rights to liberate the chill
dren of the future from the burdens
of the past"
AS to the proposals for a league of
nations Mr.. Baker said it was not
such a scheme as the holy alliance
suggested by some of it's critics.
ut is not proposed out of cabinets
of absolute minister's" he said. "but
is rather the passionate demand of
the man in the street. the simple and
the unSophisticated, who know little
OF the intrigues and wiles of state
craft, but who know very great
deal about the suffering and sacrifice
which war entails.
Refuses to Be Tiuid. '+
For my own part, / refuse to be
timid about Americas capacity to do
new things which are neeed in q, new
world. decline to. distrust our pur-
poses or to shrink from moving for
ward because the road seems wider
and higher than roads we have travel
ed hitherto. l do not know what form
these arrang ON ents can take. I am
not welded to any particular method
of preserving the peace of the world.
l do not believe that so great an OBJ
ject can be accomplished by merely
adhering to a particular form of words
or phrases"
The peace conference, Mr.. Baker
said. undoubtedly faced intricate and
difficult geographical and racial ques-
tions. 1t would be conceivabIy pos
sible. he added. ITO make treaties end
ing this war in the old way, quieting
it's present discords and dealing with
each national claim as though it were
individual and of no community inter-
est
But we had a world organized in
the old way In 1914" he continued.
in the last months of that year the
heady currents of International mis-
understanding swfrled together, and
] know of no more pathetic picture
than that Of the helplessness of the
great and enlightened governments
of the world as their statesmen watch
ed the stream and realized that no
provision had been made to stem it.
Not Dependent on War.
"It is ipconceivable that the peoples
of the world willed such a war 1t is
equally inconceivable that the peoples
of the world would be willing now to
face the possibility of another such
trial without perfecting in advance
modes of concerted action which will
restrain the madness of the moment
and be assurances of just considera-
tion dfspelling forever the illusion
that either national greatness or ma
tional safety essentially depends upon
the ability of q people to destroy
life, wealth and property without
stopping first to test out the possibili-
ties of accommodation and concord.
I'VE have had centuries of leagues
among nations for the purpose Of
making war. offensive and defensive.
Is it too much to believe that in this
enlightened age a league to- prevent
war had become impossibleX "
The war has given America a new
vision of her strength and power, Mr.
Baker declared
I'VE have made a voyage Of dis
covery and found unsuspected capac-
tiles in ourselves" he continued.
Democracy has been tested and
proved as effective as it is wholesome
Politically, democracy has vanquish-
ed other systems. and with this politi-
cal liberty there has come to us in
increasing measure a vision of the
possibilities of commercial and eco
nomic justice"
Shattered German System.
1t was the spirit of freedom and
right that animated the American
Army in France. the war secretary
declared "Hindenburg lines crum-
pied like houses of cards in the face of
that spirit" and, he said, after the
taking Of ST. Mihiel salient in Sep