Cleveland County herald., 1919-07-17
PRESIDENT MAKES PLEA FOR TREATY
 BEFORE SENATE
Makes Assertion That League of Free Nations Has Become
 Practical Necessity"
MEANS RELIEF FROM WAR
Chief Executive Refers to 1t as an indispensable lnstrumentaIity for the Maintenance of the New
 Order Set Up in World"

Washington, July 10.--The senate was called into session at 12 o'clock and prayer offered by the chaplain, Rev. Forrest J. Prettyman, who asked divine guidance for the senate and the chief executive in the work it was about to undertake.
 President Wilson spoke from small rostrum erected by the desk of the reading clerk of the senate.
 His address was as follows: Gentlemen of the Senate:
 The treaty of peace with Germany was signed at Versailles on the 18th ot June. I avail myself of the earliest opportunity to lay the treaty before you for ratification and to inform you with regard to the work of the confer ence by which that treaty was formu- lated
 The treaty constitutes nothing less than a world settlement. It would not be possible for me even to summarize or to construe its manifold provisions In an address which must of necessity be something less than treatise. My services and all the information I pos sess will be at your disposal and at the disposal of your committee on foreign relations at any time, either informally or in session, as you may prefer; and l hope that you will not hesitate to make use of them
 l shall at this time, prior to your own study of the document, attempt only general characterization of its nscope and purpose.
 N Problems Of Conference
 be sense, no doubt there is no
 should report to you what
 opted and done at Paris You
 daily cognizant of what was
 nhere--of the problems with
 eace conference had to deal
 k.difficuty of laying down
 of settlement anywhere
 which the old lines of in-
 Relationship, and the new
 wed so intricate pattern
 lbr the most part cut so deep
 erical circumstances which
 ted action where it would have
 lest to ignore or reverse them.
 Re cross currents of politics and of | 1fHterest must have been evident to you. It would be presuming in me to attempt to explain the questions which arose or the many diverse clements that entered into them. shall attempt | something less ambitious than that and more clearly suggested by my duty | n n ort seemed necessary for my colleagues | and me to play as the representatives of the government of the United States.
 That part was dictated by the role America has played in the war and by the expectations that had been created In the minds of the peoples with whom we had associated ourselves in that great struggle.
 Saw Supremacy of Right Periled. The United States entered the war upon different footing from every other nation except our associates on Ihis side the sea. We entered it, not because our material interests were
  cial treaty obligations to which we were parties had been violated, but only because we saw the supremacy, and even the validity, of right every where put in jeopardy and free gov ernment likely to be everywhere im- periled by the intolerable aggression of power which respected neither right nor obligation and whose very system of government flouted the rights of the citizens as against the autocratic authority of his governors. And in the settlements of the peace we have sought no special reparation for ourselves, but only the restoration of right and the assurance of liberty everywhere that the effects of the set clement were to be felt. We entered the war as the disinterested champions of right and we interested ourselves in the terms of the peace in no other capacity.
 United States Timely Aid.
 The hopes of the nations allied against the central powers were at very low ebb when our soldiers began to pour across the sea. There was ev- anywhere amongst them, except in their stoutest spirits, somber fore boding of disaster. The war ended in November eight months ago, but you have only to recall what was feared in midsummer last, only four short months before the armistice, to real ize what it was that our timely aid accomplished alike for their morale and their physical safety.
 The first, never-to-be-forgotten ac- tion at Chateau Thierry had already taken place. Our redoubtable soldiers and marines had already closed the gap the enemy had succeeded in open ing for their advance upon Paris-had already turned the tide of battle back toward the frontiers of France and