Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-01-24

Stsh Correspondent Of the Evening Public Ledger with
the Peace Delegation In France
Special Correspondence
Copyright. 1919, bv Public Ledger Co.
Paris, Jan. 7.
GEORGE CREEL is typical Of the Amer
ican peace mission. The mission Is
great international propaganda. Mr.. VIII
sons presence In Europe was propaganda
The President expects to accomplish tree'
dom Of the seas and the league of nations
by propaganda. And propaEandists are
not executives. 1t was not the act or
good executive to arrive here too SOON
There is no good executive In sight.
UNLESS. of course, it is Colonel House.
~ the man of mystery, whose friends al
ways describe him in one set phrase, an
exceedingly well-informed man." Somehow
unanimity about that phrase does not sus-
gest capacity to get things done. You
look at Colonel House and at first you
think what an insignificant figure he is
Then gradually you forget the trihing
frame the unimpressive "ountenance, the
hands thrust deep in poci,eu as the colo
ne carries his unobtrusiveness to always
hiding his hands from the view of man
kind. You come TO the eyes. You become
absorbed in the eyes. The eyes fasCinate
you. They are seeing eyes, eyes that have
seen much eyes that will see much. eyes
hat miss nothing. Cnquestionably a great
reporter. The colonel honors occultsm
without knowing it or intending it. The
reporters eye has made him the most i'm.
portant man in the American peace mis-.
sion outside the President
LNROM this you perceive that Colonel
House permits himself to be seen-seen
of the press, a reporter standing up before
reporters The commission is on exhibition
once day, in the morning at the Crillon.
II talks. 1t answers questions 1t un.
bends and chats individually. 1t tells moth
everybody believes it.
The eyes of the L. s. A. are honored in
an amusing way. Secretary Lansing is
the head Of the delegation. He talks to
the press the true'blue American press. all
iO'S'~'l'iS Ddlltu' occasionally he saws
things with a rising infiexion, looking un-
easily toward Co,onel House When the
colonel hears the rising iniiexion he thrusts
his hands deeper in his pockets. shifts his
feet into Il more lounging attitude and
takes up the thread of the story, speaking
fiatly and with a confidence that the head
Of the delegation never shows
CEElNG the press shows how men will
~ fall when far from home Even Presi-
dent Wilson has seen the press. Colonel
House sees the press. This slipping from
ones high estate is probably something
like those lapses which made Elsie Janis
or some one call the Rue da Ia Paiy the
street where American husbands rue and
pay. The fiber goes out of you in a
foreign place. You CondesCend. You see
the press-or worse
DERHAPS it is loneliness. Lord North.
l. cliffe seemed To have sense of the
Presidents loneliness and came over to
Paris to bear him company. Instantly
something happened. The air was electric.
You felt as If the British Government had
arrived. The troubles were Smoothed. The
great AnglO-SaNon cooperation which was
70 NIL the future dawned suddenly. The
league of nations almost began to function.
The British Government was for it, The
British Government? Well Northcliffe,
then. What is the difference between the
two?
Tn TWO days the energetic editor. who
L has no counterpart anywhere in the
world, had taken the Pi esident under his
wing. The league of nations was North.
ciffe's idea and the President was for it I.
or that is the way il seemed. The Presi-
dent had given an interview to North
Ciffe's London Times. and NorthCliffe be-
came the foremost prOpagandst for the
league of nations.
TT Is all very amusing to any one who
has been in Washington and who knows
how NorthCliffe came to America to be.
come a little father to America. and how
cody his paterna intentions were received
in Washington. In Washington Wilson
vas his own propa gandst. Northcliffe with
one government under one arm was not
permitted TO take another government
under another. His praises OF America S
efforts and Of the Administration evoked
no smile. on the contrary, they We're re-
sented by the confident man in the White
House The Northcliffe propa Ganda was
frouned upon. The chill grew. Finally
Northcline went home.
Dl'T now it is different. Perhaps it is
ID being away from home in a strange
land that makes It different. We are all
children when We find ourselves alone in
the dark. NOrthcIiffe rushed into the dark
piercing il Ike ray Of light. He grasped
the Presidents hand and went away for
the moment at least with the league oi
nations, his league Of nations, clasped tC
his breast.
AND Nurthcliffe is n factor tn be reck.
a oncd with. 1t is not at all unlikely
that when the story Of the Peace Confer
ence comes to he reckoned with, his name
will bulk larger than that OF any Other
man than Woodrow Wilson. And make M
mistake Woodrow Wilson outranks by
much every one else who will be at tn,
Peace Conference There will be men a
| the conference, no doubt, as able men
! tally as the President, but there will b.
/ IA