The Denver Jewish news., 1919-03-05
What Will Come Out OF
The Peace Conference
HOW .JEWRY MUST BE BENE-
FITTED AS SEEN BY DIR.
STEPHEN s. WISE.

Zionist Commonwealth before the eyes
of the world, Jewish and non-1cwish.
| may say without fear of contradic-
ton that the establishment of "A Jew
ish Palestine under the League Of Ma
lions and with the trustccship that
must obviously he granted to Great
Britain is just as truly before the
mind of European statesmen. and
above all OF American statesmen III
Paris. as any other question which
lies before them today.
Let it suffice to say that the wholly
sympathetic and favoriI,g attitude of
President Wilson and Colonel House
and their associates of the American
Peace deputatiOn-and herein they
represent the goodwill and conscience
of Amcrica-is shared by such Eu-
ropean craftsmanship in England.
France and Italy and the lesser Allied
lands as counts.
Two things will come out of the
Peace Conference. and these two things
after all are among the main objec-
of Prussianism was nothing more than
IL means toward this high end or these
high ends. These two thingS-and they
are almost in.crchansea ahle-arc the
establishment of league of Nations,
and the securing of independence for
the smaller nations If the war had
not been fought in order to create
such an alliance among the civilized
peoples of earth as would make the
peace of justice possible hereafter. il
would have become necessary for the
Allied nations to devise method of
guaranteeing and perpetuating the
moral and political achievements of
the war. The League of Nations
means that the great nations. includ-
ing our own. England, Italy. and
. Fr.ince. which have won INC war, Tin
dcrStand that in the future the right
of people to live is not to he de-
termined by the size of its army or
The might of its navy. but by its own
will to live. tire will to live predicatcd
upon those conditions of nationality
and history which are the test of the
reality of the claims of people to
live its own life.
Upon one thing l wish TO comment
without delay because it involves the
acceptance of certain ineXorablc bur
dens. One grave disadvantage under
VIII 'ch the Jewish people rest in rcla-
tion to the Peace Conference is the
status of the Russian Empire. in
vulving as it does Il division of the
greatest Jcwry in the world for II time
in amy event into II series of rela-
lively lesser JewricS. and the conse-
u,lcnt failure of the great Russian
.Icwry to exercise in itself and thru
II free and united Russia that power
which would have been sure to have
fallen to the lot of Russian Jcwry.
This means one thing-that the task
of leadership rests upon American
Israel and the task of supreme service
falls to the lot of American Jew. If
the Russian tragedy had been avcrted.
Russian and American Jewries would
together have taken the lead in or
ganizing world-Jewry and in securing
those ends upon which the Jewish peo-
pie is bent. In the circumstances of
the breakdown and the breakup of
Russia, the chiefest responsibility for
the Jewish future rests upon Ameri-
can Israel. upon the craftsmanship OF
its leaders. upon the capacity for SER
vice of all the people.
The position of Jews in respect to
the Peace Conference of 1919 is n very
different thing from the status of
Jcwry in 1878. Since 1878 not only
have the Jews come to command
high place in the life of all the civiliZ-
ed peoples bur the world assembled
thru its representatives at Paris dare
not forget that Jews have greatly ana
nobly served in the armies of all ma
tionS. and that is true even of the
Russia of the old order.
The happiest circumstance connect
ed with the Peace Conference arises
out of the fact that Jews have no
special case to present to the Peace
Conference In other words, we do
not and will not appear before the
Peace Conference as special pleadsss
The world has moved since 1878. for
the war that has just ended has been
fought for the fundamental convictions
and contentious of the Jew. What
we have long held to he our right.
the Allied world finally found it nee
essary to defend at infinite cost of
blood and treasure as against the in
tolerable invasions Of justice by Prus-
sianized Central Europe.