Evening star., 1919-09-05
TEXT OF PRESIDENTS
SPEECH AT COLUMBUS

COLUMBUS, Ohio. September s.
| The text of the Presidents speech
here yesterday was as follows:
"Mr. Chairman. Gov. Campbell and
My Fellow Citizens:
"It is with very profound pleasure
that I find myself face to face with
you. ! have for long time chafed
at the confinement of Washington. l
| have for a long time wished to fulfill
the purpose with which my heart was
full when I returned to our beloved
country namely, to go out and report
to my fellow countrymen concerning
those affairs of the world which now
need to be settled.
The only people I owe any report
to are you and the other citizens Of
the United States and it has become
that | should report TO you. After
all the various angles at which you
have heard the treaty held up per-
haps you would like to know what is
| in the treaty. I find it very difficult
in reading some of the speeches that
have read to form any conception of
that great document.
Unique In History.
1t is q document unique in the his
|, tory of the world for many reasons
service or the peace of the world a
! better service than by pointing out
to You just what this treaty con-
tains and what it seeks to do.
In the first place. my fellow coun-
trymen, it seeks to punish one Of the
greatest wrongs ever done in history.
the wrong which Germany sought to
do to the world and to civilization,
and there ought to be no weak pur-
pose with regard to the application
OF the punishment. She attempted an
intolerable thing. and she must be
made to pay for the attempt
Terms Not Unjust.
The terms of the treaty are severe,
but they are not unjust / can testify
that the men associated with me at
the peace conference in Paris had it
in their hearts to do justice and not
wrong, but they knew perhaps with
a more vivid sense of what had hap
pened than we could possibly know
on this side of the water the many
solemn covenants which Germany had
disregarded. the long preparation she
had made to overwhelm her neigh
bors. the utter disregard which she
mao SHOWN for human rights, for the
rights of women and children and
They had seen their lands dew
astated by an enemy that devoted it.
self not only to the effort of victory.
bu. to the effort of terror, seeking
to terrify the people whom they
fought, and 1 wish to testify that they
exercised restraint in the terms Of
this treaty. They did not wish to
overwhefm any great nation and they
haG no purpose in overwhelming the
German people. but they did think
n ho hrtrr ;-t~
consciousness of men forever that no
people ought to permit it's govern
ment to do what the German govern
ment did.
"Jn the last analysis, my fellow
countrymen, as we in America would
be the first to claim a people are re-
sponsible for the acts of their gov
ernment if their government pur-
poses things that are wrong they
ought to take measures and see to it
that that purpose is not executed.
Germany was self-governed. Her
rulers had not concealed the purposes
that they had in mind, but they had
deceived their people as to the char
acter of the methods they were going
to use, and / believe, from what 1 ca n
learn, that there is an awakened con-
sciousness in Germany itself of the
deep iniquity of the thing that was
attempted.
when the Austrian delegates came
before the peace conference they, in
so many words, spoke of the origina-
tion of the war as a crime and ad-
mitted in our presence that it was a
thing intolerable to contemplate. They
knew in their hearts that it had done
them the deepest conceivable wrong;
that it had put their people and the
people of Germany at the judgment
seat of mankind and throughout this
treaty every term that was ap-
piled to Germany was meant not to
humiliate Germany. but to rectify the
wrong that she had done.
Reparation, Not Indemnity.
And IL you will, look even into
the severe terms of reparation, for
there was no indemnity-no indemnity
of any sort was claimed-merely rep
aration, merely paying for the de-
Ii uaad