The Idaho Republican., 1919-03-18
WILSON AND TAFT
PLEAD FOR LEAGUE
CRITICS OF PEACE PACT ARE
CHALLENGED By LEADERS
AT NEW YORK MEETING.
President Says He Will Tell Il to
World That the American People
3. Are in Favor Of the League
OF Nations.

New York.-President Wilson tolt
the American people in an addres,
here Tuesday night, on the eve of hi,
return to Paris, that he was goina
back to the peace conference to battle
with renewed vigor for creation Of q
league of nations.
THE first thing am going to tell
the people ON the other side Of the
water is that an overwhelming major.
ity Of the American people Is in favor
OF the league of nations said the
president.
Speaking after former President
Taft had expounded the main features
of the proposed covenant of nations,
Mr.. Wilson told the vast audience.
which filled the Metropolitan Opera
house, his opinion of opponents of the
league plan in America.
Asserting that the league of nations
| Is meant as notice to all outlaw
nations that the great peoples of the
world will no longer tolerate interna-
tional crimes" the president said that
Europe is bit. sick at heart at this
, very moment, because it Is seen that
statesmen have had no vision, and that
the only vision has been the vision Of
the people,"
sand am amaDed-nOt alarmed, but
amazed-that there should be in some
u hnn SiNn i~n
ance of the state of the world" con-
tinued Mr.. Wilson. ''Those gentlemen
do not know what the mind of men
is just now. Everybody else does.
Il do not know where they have
been closeted; l do know by what in
fluences they have been blinded; but
l do know that they have been sep
arated from the general currents Of
the thought of mankind.
"And l want to utter this solemn
warning, not in the way Of threat;
the forces of the world do not threat
en-; they operate. The great tides
Of the world do. not give notice that
they are going to rise and run; they
rise in their majesty and overwhelm-
ing might, and those who stand in
the way are overwhelmed. Now the
heart of the world is awake, and the
heart of the world must be satisfied"
Americas soldiers, he said, went
overseas feeling they were sacredly
bound to the realization of these ideas
which their president had enunciated
when the United States went into the
war;
There is another thing" the presi-
dent said, (which critics Of the league
had not observed.
"They not only have not observed
the temper of the world, but they
have not even observed the temper of
those splendid boys in khaki that they
sent across the seas," he asserted.
Of George Washington's warning of
entangling alliances, President Wilson
said that 'the thing that be longed
for was just what we are now about
to supply-an arrangement which will
disentangle all the alliances of the
world"
The president said criticism of the
league, do not make any impression
on me" because "the sentiment Of
the country is proof against such mar
rowness and such selfishness as that"
In closing, the president said Amer
lea could look forward with confidence
to the future, for he had heard cheer
ing news since he came to this side
Of the water about the progress that
Is being made in Paris towards the
discussion and Qualification of a great
many different matters and he be-
lieved settlements will begin to be
made rather rapidly from this time
on at those conferences.
Declaring that while abroad he had
"heard cries for the league Of nations
from the lips Of people who had no
particular notion Of how it was to be
DONE" the president said 1t was "in-
that we should disapp0int
them, and we shall not"
The president smiled broadly when
Mr.. Taft referred to the resolution in
troduced in the senate by Senator
Lodge, proposing rejection Of the
league of nations constitution as now
drawn.
IF the president insists, as I hope
he WILL" said Mr.. Taft, that the
eague be incorporated in the peace
;reaty, and brings it back, then the
for postponing peace is
with the body that refuses to ratify
t."
Referring to the argument against
l league that participation by the
United States would be in opposition
o the principles laid down by George
" Washington, Mr.. Taft delared he be-
leved Washington, if he lived today,
would be lone of the most earnest and
)ressing for the covenant" II