Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1919-07-10
WILSON APPEARS !. !.
BEFORE SENATE:
Gives Succinct History Of
Peace Conference at
Versailles
IS AMERICAS CHANCE
Urges Logical Reasons For League of
Nations-Part Played by the United
States During the Past Six Months

President Wilson addressed the
Unite1: States Senate today, present
ing ihe treaty Of peace with Ger
many, including the covenant of The
league of nations. He also discours-
ed upon the process snd completion
of neg citations for the conclusion of
peace. Among ether things he said:
"The United States entered the war
upon different footing from every
other nation except our associates
on this side of the sea. We entered it
not because our material interests
were directly threatened or because
any special treaty obligations to
which we were parties had been v:o-
lated, but only because we saw the
supremacy, and even the validity,
of right everywhere put in jeopardy
and free government likely to be
everywhere imperiled by the intoier-
able aggression of power which re-
spected neither right nor obligation
and whose very system of govern
ment fJouted the rights of the citizen
as against the autocratic authority
of his governors. And in the set
Elements of the peace we have sough;
no special reparation for ourselves
but only the restoration Of right and
the assurance of liberty everywhere
that the effects of the settlement
were to be felt. We entered the war
ais the disinterested champions Of
Fight and we interested ourselves in
the terms of the peace in no o:ner
capacity.
"The hopes of the nations allied
against the central powers were a!
very low ebb when our soldiers
began to pour across the sea. Thare
was everywhere among them,. cx.
cept in their stoutest spirits, SOM
ber foreboding of disaster. The waI
ended IN November, eight months &gc
but you have only -to.recall what was
feared in midsummer last, four shor'
months before the armistice, to ,,a
liZe what it was that our timely aid
accomplished alike for their morale
and their physical safety.
Gold entanglements of every kind
stood in the, way-promises which
governments had made to one an
other in the days when might and
right were confused and the po"er
Of the victor was without restraint.
Enga gements which contenpla.e .ed
any dispositions of territory, any ox-
tensions of sovereignty that might
seem to be to the interest Of those
who had the power to insist upon
them, had been entered into without
Though. of what the peoples concern
ed might wish or profit by; and
thsse could not always be honorably
brushed aside. It was not easy tc
graf: the new order of ideas on the
old, and some of the fruits of the
grafting may, I fear, for time BE-
bitter. But with very few eXceptioEs.
the men who sat with US at the peace
table desired as sincerely as we did
to get away from the bad influences
the il!egitimate purposes, the demora,
lizing ambitions, the international
counsels an dexpedients out Of which
the sinister designs Of Germany had
sprung as a natural growth.
at had been cur privilege to fer
,mulate the principles which VIC
accepted as the basis of the peace
but they had been accepted, not
because we had come in to haster
and assure the victory and insisted
upon them, but because they were
readily .acceded to as the principles &c
which honorable and enlightened
minds everywhere had been bred.
"The atmosphere in which the con
\
ference worked seemed created, not
4 by the ambitions Of strong govern
bments, but by the hopes and aspira
Etions of small nations and of people:
hitherto under bondage to the powei
that victory had shattered and de
stroyed. Two great empires had beer
forced into political bankruptcy, ant
we were the receivers. Our task wa!
not only to make peace with the cen