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

he won't have to go.
into the great Balkan peninsula had
again and again tried to assert their
nationality aud their independence
and had as often been crushed, not
by the immediate power they were
fighting. but by the combined power
of Europe.
The old alliances, the old balances
of power. we're meant to see to il that
no little nation asserted its rights to
the disturbance of the peace of
Europe and every time an assertion
of rights was attempted they were
suppressed by combined influence and
force. and this treaty tears away all
that and says these people have n
right to live their own lives under
the governments which they them
selves choose to set up.
Fought for World Freedom
That is the American principle and
was glad to fight for it, and when
strategic considerations were urged
said-not | alone-but it was
matter of common counsel that
strategic consideration were not in
our thought, that we are not now
arranging for future wars but are
giving people what belonged to them.
My fellow citizens, ] do not think
there is any man alive who has
more tender sympathy tor the rrcat
people of Italy than ! have, and
very stern duty was presented to us
when he had tD consider some of tn"
claims of Italy on the Adr;atlc ne
cause StrategicdIIy from the point OF
view of future wars. ltall needed
military foothold on the other side OF
the Adriatic. but her pcopl" did not
live there except in little Spots.
1t was a Slavic people. and | had
TO say to my Italian friends that
everywhere else in this treaty we have
given territory to the people who
lived on it, and do not think that
it is for the advantage of Italy, and
| am sure it is not for the advantage
of the world, to give ltaly territory
where other people live.
Sees League as Italy's Protector
felt the force of the argument for
what they wanted. and it was the old
argument that had always prevailed,
namely. that they needed it from
uiJitary. point of view. and ! have
no doubt that if there is no league
of nations they will need it from
military point of view. but if there
is league of nations they will not
need it. from Il military point of view.
If there is no league of nations the
military point of view will prevail
in every instance and peace will be
brought into contempt, but il there is
Il league of nations Italy need not
fear the fact that the shores on the
IL, = 81 4 l,; -, hn
her lower sandy shores on her side of
the sea. because there will be no
threatening guns there and the ma
tiouS of the world will have con-
scented not merely to see that the
Slavic peoples have their rights but
the Italian people have their rights
as we'll.
I would rather have everybody on
my side than be armed to the teeth, +,
and every settlement that is right,
every settlement that is based upon
the principles | have alluded to is
safe settlement because the sym
pathy of mankind will be behind it.
Voices Pride in Ancestry
: Some gentlemen have feared with
regard To the league of pations that
we will be Obliged TO do things we
don't want to do. If the treaty were
wrong that might be so. but if the
( treaty is right we will wish to pre-
serve right. l think know the heart
| of this great people whom j, for the
time being, have the high honor to
represent, better than some other men
that | hear talk.
/ have been bred and am proud
to have been bred in the old RevOlu :
tiOnary stock which set this govern E
ment up, when America was set up
as a friend of mankind, and l know
if they do not-that America has
never lost that vision or that purpose.
But | haven't the slightest fear
that arms will be necessary If the
purpose is there. If ! know that my
adversary is armed and | am not
| do not press the controversy. ant
if any nation entertains selfish pur-
poses set against the principles es.
tablished in this treaty, and is tolC
by the rest of the world that it mus
withdraw its claims, it will not press
them.
The heart Of this treaty, then. my
fellow citizens. is not even that il
Furnishes Germany-that is TEN
porary thing-it is that it rectities
the age-long wrong which character
ICES the history of Europe.
Treaty Making Was Big Job
There were some of us who wished
that the scope of the treaty woulC
reach some other age long wrong. II
was a big job, and ! don't say tha
we wished that it were bigger, bu
there were other wrongs elsewher
than in Europe. and of the same kind
which no doubt ought to be righted
and some day will be righted. bu
which we could not draw into tn
treaty. because we could deal Onl
with the countries whom the war ha
engulfed and affected
But so far as the scope Of on
treaty went, we rectified the wrong
which have been the fruitful sOurC
Of conflict in Europe.
Have you ever reflected, my fello'
cOuntrymen. on the real source {
revolutions? Men don't start revolu
tiOns in o sudden passion. DO yo
remember what Thomas Carlyle sal
about the French revolution? n
was speaking of the so called Hun
dred Days terror which reigned NJ
only in Paris, but throughout Franc
in the days of the French Revolution
and he remainded his readers thu
back of that Hundred Days of terrC
lay several hundred years of agor
and of wrong.
The French people mad been deep
and consistently wrOnged by the
government, robbed their huma
rights disregarded, and the slo
agony of those hundreds of years ha
after a while gathered into a h,
agony that could not be suppresse,
Revolutions don't spring up Ov
night; revolutions gather through Il
ages; revolutions come from the lOT
suppression OF the human spirits
reVOIutiOnS come because men kn0