The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-07-10

victory and insisted upon them, but he
cause they were readily ncceded to as the
prins1pIes to which honorable and en-
lightened minds everywhere had been bred.
They spoke the conscience Of the world
as well as the conscience of America and
l am happy to pay my tribute Of respect
and gratitude to the able. forward-lOoking
men with whom it was my privilege TO CO.
Grafton. their constant effort TO accommo-
date the interests they represented 70 the
principles we were all agreed upon.
Difficulties Not in Delegates.
The difficulties. which were many. lay
I'm the circumstances, not often in the men.
Almost without exception the men who led
had caught the true and full vision of the
problem of peace as an invisible whole, a
problem. not on mere adjustments OF in
terest but Of Justice and right action. The
atmosphere in which the conference worked
seemed created not by the ambitions OF
aspirations of small nations and of peoples
hitherto under bondage 70 the power that
victory had shattered and destroyed. Two
great empires had been forced into political
bankruptcy, and were the receivers.
Our task was not only to make peace with
the central empires and remedy the wrongs
their armies had done. The central empires
had lived in open violation of many of the
very rights for which the war had been
fought, domino ting alien peoples over
whom they had no natural right to rule.
enforcing. not obedience, but veritable
for the benefit of those who were masters
and Over-lords only by force of arms. There
could be no peace until the whole order Of
central Europe WAS set right.
That meant that new nations were to be
created-Poland. Czecho Slovakia, Hun
gary itself. No part of ancient Poland
had ever in any true sense become part
Of Germany. or of Austria. or of Russia.
Bohemia was alien I'm every thought and
hope to the monarchy of which she had
so long been an artificial part: and the
uneasy partnership between Austria and
Hungary had been one rnther of interest
than of kinship or sympathy. The Slavs
whom Austria had chosen to force into her
empire on the south were kept to their
were with their kinsmen in the Balkans.
These were all arrangements of power. not
arrangements Of natural union or associa-
! ton. 1t was the imperative task of those
who would make peace and make it intel
, lfgently to establish n new order which
would rest upon the free choice Of peoples
rather than upon the ARBITRARY authority OF
Hnpsburgs or Hohenzollerns.
More chan that, great populations bound
/ BY sympathy and actual kin to Rumania
were also linked against their will TO the
conglomerate Austro- Hungarian monarchy
or to other alien sovereignties, and 1t was
part Of the task Of peace to make n new
llumania as well as a new Slavic state
clustering about Serbia.
Help the Minorities.
And no natural frontiers could be found
to these new fields of adjustment and re-
demption. 1t was necessary TO look con
German colonies were to be disposed of
They had not been governed; they had
Q
the interest or even the ordinary human
rights OF t.eir inhabitants.
The Turkish empire. moreover, had fallen
apart as the Austro- Hungarian had. Il
had never had any real unity. 1t had been
held together only by pitiess inhuman
forces. Its peoples cried aloud for re-
lease, for succOr from unspeakable distress.
Tor all that the new day of hope seemed at
last to bring within its dawn. Peoples
hitherto IN utter darkness were to be led
out into the same light and given at last
! a helping hand. Tndeveloped peoples and
peoples ready for recognition, but not vet
ready to assume the full responsibilities
Of statehood were to be given ndeouate
guarantees of friendly protection, guild
ance and assistance.
And out of the execution Of these great
enterprises of liberty sprang opportunities
to attempt what statesmen had never found
the way before to do; an opportunity to
throw safeguards about the rights of IA
cial national and religious minorities by
I solemn International covenant; an oppor-
Z tunity to limit and regulate military es-
/ Establishments where they would most likely
| be mischievous; an opportunity to effect a
| complete and systematic internationaliza-
| lion OF waterways and railways which
| were necessary to the free economic life
| OF more than one nation and to clear many
4 Of the normal channels of commerce of I'M
! fair distractions Of law or OF privilege
and the very welcome opportunity to Sc
/ cure for labor the concerted protection Of
/ definite International pledges of principle
and practice.
Old order All Upset.
These were not tasks which the confer
+ ence looked about It to find and went out
/ OF its way to perform. They were in
| separable from the settlement Of peace
! They were thrust upon 1t by circumstances
which could not be overlooked. The wal
had created them. In all quarters Of the
world old established relationships had
been disturbed or broken and affairs were
at loose ends, needing to be mended oil
united again. but could not be made what
they were before. They had to be set right
by applying some uniform principle Of
/ Justice or enlightened eXpediency. And they
could not be adjusted ny merely prescrib
ing in treaty what should be done. New
states were to be set up which could no
hope to live thru their first period of weak
ness without assured support by. the grea
nations that had consented to their creation
and won for them their independence Ill
governed colonies could not be put in TIL
hands of governments which were to act n,
trustees for their people ana not as thei
masters if there was to be no common au
thority among the nations to which thel
were TO be responsible in the execution O
their trusts. Future international conven
lions with regard to the control of water
ways with regard to Illicit traffic of man,
kinds. in arms or in deadly drugs, or witt
regard to the adjustment of many varyin,
international administrative arrangement
could not be assured If the treaty were L
provide no permanent common information
al agency, If the explanation in such mat
tiers was to be left TO the slow and uneer
tain processes of cooperation by ordinaar-
methods Of negotiation.
Issues ClamOring for Attention.
If the peace conference itself was to b
the end of cooperative authority an
common counsel among the government
to which the world was looking to en-
force Justice and give pledges Of an endur
ing settlement. regions like Sanr basil
could not be put under n temporary ad
ministrative regime which did not involv
n transfer of political sovereignty an,
which contemplated a final determination
of its political connections by popular vOt
to be taken Mt a distant date: no FIRE
city like Danzig could be created whic
was under elaborate international guaFan
tees, to accept exceptional obligations wit
regard to the use of It's port and excep
tional relations with a state Of which
was not TO form a part; properly safe
guarded plebiscites could not be provide
for where populations were at some futur
date to make choice what sovereignty the
would live under; no certain and uniforI
method of arbitration could be secured 70
the settlement Of anticipated difficultie
of final decision with regard to many I
matters dealt with in the treaty itself
the long continued supervision of the tas
Of reparation which Germany was to IN
dertake to complete within the next ger
Grafton might entirely break down; the re
] consideration and revision of administra