New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-03
NlFlIBfr OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mr.. Wilson in Italy

Mr. wilson IN lGdly
President Wilson is to-day the guest of
the government and people of Italy. His
visit has a social side, as his Holiday
Week visit to England had But it also
has a political side In Rome, as in Lon
den and in Paris, Mr.. Wilson's aim is to
reconcile the realistic aspirations of the
various Entente powers with his own
peace programme of idealism and sac
ritice.
There is strong reaction at present,
both in Italy and in France, against a
peace of abnegation. Clemenceau has
voiced the demand of the French people
for peace of guarantees first and gen
crosby at the expense of national inter-
ests afterwards The French Chamber
has given Clemenceau a decisive vote of
confidence.
The nationalistc attitude of Italy has
also been stiffened by the recent depart
.ure from the Cabinet of certain minis
tiers who favored a diminution of Italys
claims on the east coast of the Adriatic.
The resurgence of nationalistic ambi-
tons is natural. In this country we are
disposed to Judge such manifestations
rather harshiy. We have suffered rela-
lively little from the war and we under
estimate the intensity OF the French, the
Italian, and even the British demand for
PREPARATION, Our government may have
entered the war with the idea of ''mak-
u, 60 b,,4
France and Great Britain entered it be-
cause their very existence was threat
ened, and Italy entered it in order to re-
deem her subject provinces and to com
plete her national unity. They all fought,
primarily, to make the world safer
place to live in so far as they themselves
were concerned.
If there rs a clash between President
Wilson's peace aims and the peace aims
of the chief Entente powers that clash
is not so much one between a more altru-
istic and less altruistic craftsmanship
as it is between a closer experience of
Teuton frightfulness and remoter one
Germany nearly stranged France;
end Clemenceau is naturally thinking
more of immunizing France in the future
On her eastern border than he is of Gre
ating an idealized solidarity of nations
with Germany restored to equality of
privilege.
Italy was member, with Germany and
Austria Hungary. Of the old Triple ALI
ance. She cancelled that association on
grounds creditable to her sagacity She
embraced an opportunity to recover her
Irredenta. She joined the Entente in
consideration of promises made to her in
The compact Of London With her. as
with France and Great Britain, the first
object of the war was to destroy Teuton
military power She did not fight
Teutons in order to create d consolidated
Jugo-S lav state; that state is simply a
by-product of the war; and Italian polt-
acal leaders may reasonably shrink from
surrendering now any of the compensa-
items guaranteed them when Italy agreed
TO draw the sword.
Mr.. Wilson's plea to Italy will amount
to request to let the London compact
lapse, or at least not to urge unduly
Italian claims on the eastern Adriatic
Gittoral. Such a plea comes with good
grace from the head Of the American
government, which itself asks for moth
ing. But, though asking nothing, Amer
lca also surrenders nothing. Therein,
perhaps, lies the weakness of the appeal.
Our sacrifices have been small compared
to Europe's And we are talking diff
ferent peace language. :
The President will present his view to
Italy with the same felicity with which
ne has presented it to France and Great
Britain. It is a generous and broad
rainded view, but not the only view.
Other conceptions of just peace-one
f guarantees as well as Of justice-,vi'!
have to be considered before the thought
s. the Allied peoples and governments
crystaillzes into peace treaty