Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-09-04


| pressed and always been used, who
/ had always been the tools in the
hands of governments-gcner of
| alien governments-not their own.
And the makers Of the treaty Knew
| that IL these wrongs were not re-
moved, there could be no peace in the
world. because. after all. my fellow
citizens, war comes from the seed of
wrong, and not from the seed Of right
This treaty is an attempt to right
the history Of Europe. and In my
humble judgment II is n measurable
/ success.
say 'measurable. my fellow
| citizens. because you will realize the
| difficulty of this. Here are two neigh
boring peoples. The one people have
not stopped at a sharp line and the
settlements of the other people, or
their migrations. begun at that sharp
! line: they have intermlngled.
There are regions where you can't
/ draw a national line and say There
| are Slavs on this side and Italians
| on that; there are this people here
and that people there. II cant be
done. You have to approximate the
line. You have to come TO IL, as
near to IL as you can, and then trust
the process of history to redistribute.
II may be. the people who are on the
wrong side of the line.
Austrian Pact More Intricate
And there nre many such lines
drawn in this treaty. and to be drawn
in the Austrian treaty. where per
hapS there are more lines of that sort
than in the German treaty.
When we came to draw the line
between the Polish people and the
German people. not the line between
Germany and Poland-thcrc wasn't
any Poland strictly sDeaking-the
line being the German people and the
Polish people. There were districts
like the upper part of Silesia or
rather the eastern part of SilpSia
which is CALLED Upper Silesia." be
cause it is mountainous, and the
other part is not.
High Silcsa is chiefly Polish. and
when We came to draw n line to rep
resent Poland. it was necessary to
include High Silesia. if we were really
going to play fair and make Poland
up of the Polish peoples wherever
We found them in sufficiently close
neighborhood to one another.
But it wasn't perfectly clear that
tpper-that High Silesia wanted to
w Dull VI AZ any rate tnpre
were Germans in High Silesia who
said that it did not. and therefore
We did there what we did in many
other places.
We said: Very we'll. then. we will
let the people that live there decide.
We will have a referendum within n
certain length of time after the war,
under the supervision of an interna-
tiOnal commission. which will have a
sufficient armed force behind it to
preserve order and see that nobody
interfrres with the elections. We will
have an absolutely free vote and High
Silesia shall go either to Germany or
to Poland as the people in High
SilPSia prefer.
PopuIace Will Choose
And that illustrates many other
cases where we provided for a refer
endum, or a plebisCitC. as they choose
to call it: and are going to leave it
to the people themselves, as we should
have done. what government they
shall live under.
Ii is none of my prerOgatives to
allOt peoples TO this government and
the other. 1t is nObOdy's right to
dD that allOtting, except the people
themselves. and ] want to testify
that this treaty is shot through with
the American principle Of the choice
of the governed.
OF course at times it went further
than We could make a practical policy
! of. because various peoples were keen
upon getting back portions of their
populations which were separated
| from them by many miles of terri
tory. and we couldn't spot over with
| little pieces of separated states.
! | even had to remind my Italian
colleagues that if they were going
to claim every place where there was
large italian population, we would
have to cedle New York TO them, be.
cause there are moresItalians in New
York than in any Italian city.
But | believe-I hOpc-that the
Italians in New York city arr as
| glad to stay there as we are TO have
them. would not have you suppose
that | am intimating that Smy Ital-
ian colleagues entered any claim for
| New York city.
All Races in America
We, of all peoples in the world, my
fellow citizens, ought to be able to
understand the questions of this
treaty and without anybody explaining
them to us: for we are made up out
of all the peoples of the world. |
dare say that in this audience there
are representatives of virtually all the
peoples dealt with in this treaty.
You don't have to have me explain
national ambitions to you. National
aspirations-you have been brought
up on them: you learned of them
since you were children. and it is
those national aspirations which we
sought to realize, to give an outlet
to, in this great treaty.
Labor Meeting Next Month
But we do much more than that
This treaty contains. among other
things. Magma Charta of labor
thing unheard of until this in
teresting year of grace. There is 4
whole section of the treaty devoted
to arrangements, by which the in
terests of those who labor with theil
hands all over the wOrld--whethe
they be men or women or children
are all of them to be safeguarded
And next month there is to nee
the first assembly under this section
of the league-and let me tell you, |
will meet, whether the treaty is rati
fed by that time or not.
There is to meet an assembly whicI
represents the intert IS of laboriu
men throughout t. world, not thei
political interests There is nothin
political about it, 1t is the in
terests of men concerning the cOndi
tions of their labor. concerning tn
character of labor which women sha
engage in, the character of labO
which children shall be permitted t
engage in; the hours of labor, anC
| -------------------
III a. Fall Tarpo