Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-07-11
The President On The Leaeue OF Nation.

1t was inevitable that the League of Nations should
occupy the chief place in the address which President
Wilson delivered to the senate on Thursday in laying be-
fore that body for approval the treaty Of peace with Ger
many. The provisions made in the treaty for such a
league, and the proposal that the United States should
Join in such a compact have for some months been the
subjects of controversy, animated and bitter. The par
ticular terms exacted from Germany have received COM
pa1atively little attention. 1t is against the League of
Nations that the artillery of the opposition has been
trained, and it is by the terms of that portion of the
agreement that the whole treaty will stand or fall. The
presidents address was therefore most appropriately de-
voted chiefly to a statement Of the conditions which, in
his opinion, made such a compact necessary, and a sum-
mary of the conditions under which the plan was eventu-
ally worked out.
!. The subject was presented with the clearness and
tnctsiveness for which Mr.. Wilson has become famous.
and 1t is doubtful II the president has on any occasion in
a brief address dealt with any subject in a more mastery
manner. By an array of facts which cannot be contro-
verted, he made it clear that the conditions which made
. League Of Nations necessary were created. not by the
peace conference, but by the war itself. and by causes
which preceded the war. The civilized world had been
hserahy rent into fragments. Old empires had disap-
peared; new nations had sprung up: colonies had been
separated from their former control; and it was neces-
cary that the peace conference should take these concrete
facts :ato account and do something about it. To recos-
E.ze a e1Atence OF the new and weak nations which
had tsen established, and then leave them to their fate,
weuid aave meant that they would fall prey, one bv one
to the first ambitious nation that could command mower
eaoush to aeize them. To apportion control over these
nat.oas and the several colonies among the greater ma
tons without some central organization to which these
trestees would be held responsible would have been to
lay tho foundation for new. and early wars to deyastate
the world afresh. As is stated in the presidents terse
phrase. the League Of Nations. which at the beginning
had been regarded al a counsel Of perfection speedily be-
caras ,rseosnized by practical men as a counsel of neces-
slty. y
IN speaking Of the causes which prompted the United
States to enter the war, the achievements of her sons who
went forth to DO battle, and the peassurance which their
presence gave to the other nations which were sorely
tired and beset, President Wilson paid a tribute to the
American forces which were in every way worthy Of the
subject and the occasion.
It's pointed out that peace treaties in the past have
been more bargains which sooner or later have been
pfoyocatsve OF war. Even IL it has not been 50. because
no former war has approached this In the magnitude Of
~ operations and the ail-inclusfve nature Of the disas-
ters vnicn 4 inflicted upon the world; and no treaty
framed On the old lines and accordins to the old ideals
wsaid nave been adequate to heal the wounds and re-
psir me injuries wrought in this tremendous conflict.
HFHA Gt&@3