The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-07-10

while il must be attempted the formation
of such n league. was perhaps counsel
Of perfection which practical men, llong
experienced in the world of affairs, must
agree to very cautiously and with many
misgivings. 1t was only as the difficult
work of arranging an all but universal Rd-
justment OF the worlds AFFAIRS advanced
from day to day. from one stage OF con-
to them that what they were seeking would
be little more than something written
upon paper. to be interpreted and applied
by such methods as the chances of politics
mi eht make available If they did not Fro
vide means of common counsel which
| ali vere obliged TO accept a common au4
I thority whose decisions would be recog-
nized as decisions which all must respect.
Cautious Ones Turned To 1t. -r-s
And so the most practical, the most skep-
I tical among them turned more and more to
! the league as the authority thru which in
! ternatiOnal action was to be secured, the
TO see it. it would be difficult to give
| an assured effect either to this treaty or
to any other international understanding
upon which they were to depend Tor the
/ maintenance of peace. The fact that the
! covenant of the league was the first sub
stantive part of the treaty to be worked out
and agreed upon, while all else in
| luton, helped to make the formulation OF
| the rest easier. The conference was after
| lions was to continue. under a definite
| covenant which had been agreed and which
all were convinced was workable. They
could 60 forward with confidence to make
! arrangements intended to be permanent.
| The most practical of the conferees were at
! last the most ready to refer to the league
/ of nations the superintendent of all in
| terests which did not admit of immediate
/ determine ton of all administrative prob
| lens whicn were to require a continuing
| oversight What had seemed counsel OF
| perfection had come TO seem a plain counsel
/ of necessity. The League of nations was
| the practical statesman's hope of success
! in many of the most difficult things he
was attempting.
Mako Wars Impossible.
| IL had validated itself in he fhauPht
! of every member of the conference as some
thing much bigger, much greater every way
/ than a mere instrument for carrying out
| the provisions of a particular treaty. 1t
was universally recognized that all the peo-
/ pies of the world demanded Of the confer
| ence that IL should create such a continu-
| ing concert of free nations would make
wars of aggression and spoliation, such
as this that has just ended, forever impossi-
BILE. cry had gone out from every home
in every stricken land from which sons and
brothers and fathers had gone forth to
! should never again be ,exacted. 1t was man
/ ifest why it had been eXacted. 1t had been
| ion and other nations had known no means
| of defense except ornaments and alliances.
| War had lain at the heart of every arrange
ment of Europe-of every arrangement of
| the world-that preceded the war. FESTIVE
| peoples had been told that fleets and armies
which they toiled to sustain, meant peace;
| and they now knew that they had been lied
/ to: that fleets ana armies had been main
| tanned to promote ambitions and meant
| war. e=f
"Force" the Old Cry. -e--.
| They knew that no old policy meant any
/ thing else but force, force-always force.
And they knew that it was intolerable,
| every true heart in the world and every
| enlightened judgment demanded that, at
! whatever cost of Independent action, every
| governments that took thought for tbs peop,e
| or for justice or for ordered freedom should
| lend itself to a new purpose and utterly
! destroy the old order. of international
politics Statesmen might see difficulties
GRo- nj anfat1
brook no denial. A war in which they mad
been bled white to beat the terror that lay
| concealed in every balance Of power must
not end in a mere victory OF arms and
! new balance. The monster that had resort
ed to arms must be put put in chains that At
free nations must put stop to aggression.
and the world must be given peace. II there
was not the will or the Intelligence to
| accomplish that now. there must be anothG<.
| and a final war and the world must be
S,r nc cssr o. TS thae
not merely an instrument to adjust and
remedy old wrongs under a new treaty of
peace, 1t was the only hope for mankind.
1.-THE Hope of the World
Again and again had, the demon of war
been cast out OF the house of the peoples
and the house swept clean by treaty of
would enter again with spirits worse than
| himself. The house must now be given n
tenant who could hold it against all such.
Convenient, indeed, Indispensable as states
men found the newly planned league of ma
tons to be for the execution of present
plans of peace and reparation, they saw
1t in new aspect before their work was
finished. They saw ft as the main object
of the peace, as the only thing that could
saw 1t rs the hope of the world, and that
hope they did not dare. to disappoint. Shall
we or any other free people hesitate to aG ::
and break the heart of the world?
And so the result of the conference, so
far Germany is concerned, stands com
| nlDte. ANTIQUITIES encountered were
very many. Some times they seemed in
surmountable 1t was impossible to ac-
commOdnte the interests of great body
= Of nations-interests which directly or in
. directly affected almost every nation in
promises The treaty, as result, is not
exactly what we would have written. II
Is probably not what any one Of the ma ma,
: results were worked out which on the
whole bear test. l think that it VIII be
found that the COMPROMISES which were
accepted as inevitable nowhere cut to the
heart of any principle. The work of the
conference squares, as a whole, with, the the
: | peace as well as with the practical posi-
: bilities of the international situations
facts.
Defense Treaty Later.
shall presently have occasion to lay
! whose object is the temporary protection
! of France from unprOvoked aggression by
the power with whom this treaty of peace
has been negotiated. Its terms link 1t witt
! this treaty. l take the liberty. however. Of
reserving it for special exploitation Oh
. another occasion.
The role which America was to play In
4 the conference seemed determined. as
have said. before my colleagues and Coi
, to Paris-determined by the universal eX-
i pectations of the nations whose represen
tatives, drawn from all quarters of ths
globe were to deal with. 1t was universally
recognized that America had entered the
{ war to promote no private or peculiar in
: terest Of her own. but only as the cham
i pion of rights which she WIS glad to share
e with free men and lovers of Justice. every,
: where We had formulated the principles
4 upon which the settlement was to be made
r the principles upon which the armistie'
$ had been agreed to and the parleys o
o peace undertaken-and no one doubted tina
: our desire was to see the treaty Of peac,
K formulated along the actual lines of thOsi
: principles-and desired nothing else w
: were welcomed as disinterested friends
: We were resorted to as arbiters in many
= difficult matter. 1t was recognized tina