The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1919-07-11
TEXT OF ADDRESS.

President Wilson spoke as follows:
Gentlemen of the senate: The treaty
of peace with Germany was signed at
Versailles on the 2Sth Of June. | avail
myself of the earliest opportunity TO
lay the treaty before you for ratifica-
ton and to inform you with regard 10
the work of the conference by which
that treaty was formulated.
The treaty constitutes nothing less
than world settlement 1t would nct
be possible for me either to summarize
or to construe its manifold provisions
in an address which must of necessity
be something less than a treatise. My
services and all the information | pos
sess will be at your disposal and at
the disposal of your committee ON for
eign relations at any time, either in
formally or in session, as you may pre-
fer; and | hope that you will not hest
tate TO make use of them. | shall at
this time prior to your own study of
the document, attempt only a general
characterization of its scope and pur-
pose.
In one sense, no doubt, there is no
need that l should report. to you what
was attempted and done at Paris. You
have been daily cognzant of what was
going on thereof the problems with
which the peace conference had to deal
and of the difficulty of laying down
straight lines of settlement anywhere
on a field on which the old lines of
international relationship, and the new
alike, followed so intricate a pattern
and We're for the most part cut so deep
by historical circumstances which dom
mated action where it would have been
best to ignore or reverse them. The
cross-currents of politics and of interest
must have been evident to you. 1t
would be presuming in me to attempt
TO explain the questions which arose
or the many diverse elements that en-.
tered into them. | shall attempt some
thing less ambitious than that and more
clearly suggested by my duty to report
TO the congress the part it seemed nee |
esSary for my colleagues and me to
play as the representatives of the gov
ernment of the United States.
That part was dictated by the role |
America had played in the war and by /!
the expectations that had been Great /
whom We had associated ourselves in |
that great struggle.
Why L. 5. Entered War.
The United States entered the war
upon different footing from every
other nation except our assistants 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
We're 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 i'm
of a power which respected neither
right nor obligation and whose very
system of government flouted the
rights of the citizen as against the
authority of his governors.
And in the settlements of the peace we
have sought no special rcparation for
but only the restoration of
everywhere that the effects of the set
tlement were to be felt. We entered
the war as the disinterested champions
of right and we interested ourselves i'm
the terms of the peace in no other cap
lcity.
The hopes of the nations allied ,
against the central powers were at a
very low ebb when our soldiers began
to pour across the sea. There was ,