Omaha daily bee., 1919-07-11
SAYS AMERICA
OWES DUTY TO
OTHER NATIONS
Rejection of League Covenant
Would Break Heart Of
World, Declares Pres
ident Wilson.

templated a final determination of
its political connections by popu-
lar vote to be taken at distant
date; no free city like Danzig could
be created which was under elab-
crate international guarantees, to
cpt exceptional obligations with
regard to the use of its port and
e. .eptional relations with state OF
which it was not to form a part;
properly safeguarded pkbescites
could not provide for where popu-
lations were at some future date to
make choice what sovereignty they
would live under no certain and uni
form method of arbitration could
be secured for the settlement of an
ticipated difficulties of final deci-
sion with regard to many matters
dealt with in the treaty itself; the
1ong-continued supervision of the
task of reparation which Germany
was to undertake to complete with
in the next generation might en-
tirely break down; the reconsidera-
ton and revision of administrative
ARA. .gements and restrictions which
the treaty prescribed, but which it
was recognized might not prove OF
lasting advantage or entirely fair if
too long enforced would be imprae-
ticable.
League Has Become Necessity.
The promises governments were
making to one another about the
way in which labor was to be dealt
with, in law not only, but in fact as
we'll, would remain mere humane
thesis if there was to be no common
tribunal of opinion and Judgment to
which liberal statesmen could re-
sort for the influences which alone
might secure their redemption. A
league of free nations had become
. practical necessity. Examine the
treaty of peace and you will find
1 that everywhere throughout its
manifold provisions its trainers have
felt obliged to turn to the league OF
nations as an indispensable instru-
mentality for the maintenance OF the
new order it has been their purpose
to set up in the world-the world
of civilized men.
sThat there should be league OF
nations to steady the counsels and
maintain the peaceful understandings
of the world, to make, not treaties
alone, but the accepted principles OF
international law as we'll, the actual
rule of conduct among the govern
ments of the world, had been one OF
the agreements. accepted, from tne
first as the basis OF peace with the
central powers. The statesmen OF
all the belligerent countris were
agreed that such a league must be
created to sustain the settlements
that were to be effected. But at first
| think there was , feeling among
some of them that, while it must be
attempted, the formation of such
league was perhaps a counsel OF per-
fection which practical men. long
experienced in the world OF affairs,
must agree to very cautiously and
with many misgivings.
Would Be Scrap Of Paper.
It was only as the difficult work
Of arranging an all but universal ad-
iustment of the worlds affairs ad-
yanced from day to day, front one
stage of conference to another that
it became evident 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 might make available it they
did not provide means OF COM
Z mon counsel which all were Obliged
to accept common authority
whose decisions would be recog-
nized a. decisions which all must
respect.
most skeptical among them turned
more and more to the league as the
authority through which interna-
tional action was to be secured, the
authority without which. as they
had come to see il, 1t would be diffl-
cult to give assured effect either to
this treaty or to any other interna-
tional understanding upon which
they were to depend for the main
tenanee of peace. The fact that the
covenant of the league was the first
substantial part of the treaty to be
worked out and agreed upon, while
all else was in solution, helped to
make the formulation OF the rest
easier.
The conference was, after all, not
to be ephemefal. The concert of
nations was to continue, under a
definite covenant which had been
agreed upon 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 ma
tions the superintendent OF all in
tcrests which did not admit OF im-
mediate determination of all admin
istrative problems which were to re-
quire a continuing oversight What
hal seemed a 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 diff
fcult things he was attempting.
Was Universally Demanded.
"And it had validated Itself in the
thought of every member of the
conference as something much big.
ger, much greater every way thar
a mere instrument for carrying ou,
the provisions of particular treaty
1t was universally recognized thai
all the peoples of the world de.
minded of the conference that il
should create such a continuing
concert of free nations as woulo
make wars of aggression ant
spoiatio nsuch as this that has just
ended forever impossible
"a cry had gone out from every
, home in every stricken land from
which sons and hrnthers and fathers