The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-07-11
CROSS CURRENTS
HARD TO STEM
Declared Pres. Wilson in
Presenting the Peace
Treaty to Senate
OLD-WORLD ENTAN-
CLEMENTS STRONG
Full Text of the Message Ac-
companying the Treaty
Is Given

wilson III presenting lne pedce tlc"ey
and the league of nations to the Senate
yesterday spoke as follows:
Gentlemen of the Senate; The treaty
of peace with Germany was signed at
Versailles on the 2Sth of June. avail
myself of the earliest opportunity to lay
the treaty before you for ratification
and to inform you with regard to the
work of the conference by which that
treaty was formulated.
"The treaty constitutes nothing less
than world settlement. 1t would not
be possible for me either to summarize
or to construe its manifold provisions in
an address which must OF necessity be
something less than a treatise. My
services and all the information possess
will be at your disposal and at the dis
posal of your committee on foreign rela-
tions at any time, either informally or
in session, as you may prefer; and
hope that you will not hesitate to make
use of them | shall at this tee, prior
to your own study of the document, at
tempt only general characterization Of
its scope and purpose.
In one sense, no doubt, there is no
Htcu bHdb sHouiu itptit w Sou nhet
was attempted and done at Paris. You
have been daily cognizant of what was
going on thereof the problems with
which the peace conference had to deal,
and of the difficulty of laying down
straight lines of settlement anywhere on
a field on which the old lines Of inter-
national relationship, and the new alike,
followed so intricate pattern and were
for the most part cut so deep by histor-
ical circumstances, which dominated ac-
tion where it would have been best to
ignore or reverse them. The cross cur
rents of politics and Of interest must
have been evident to you.
ut would be presuming in me TO at
tempt to explain the questions which
arose or the many diverse elements that
entered into them. | shall attempt
something less ambitious than that and
more clearly suggested by my duty to
report to the Congress the part it seemed
necessary for my colleagues and me to
play as the representatives of the gov
eminent of the United States. That
part was dictated by the role America
had played in the war and by the ex-
pectations that had been created in the
minds of the peoples with whom we had
associated ourselves in that great strug
gle.
Why United States Entered the War
1.-THE United States entered the war
upon different footing from every other
nation except our associates on this side
of the sea. We entered it, not because
our material interests were directly
threatened or because any special treaty
obligations to which we were parties had
been violated, but only because we saw
the supremacy, and even the validity, of
right everywhere put in jeopardy and
free government likely to be everywhere
imperiled by the intolerable aggression of
a power which respected neither right
nor obligation and whose very system of
government fouted the rights of the
citizen as against the autocratic author
ity of his governors. And in the settle
ments of the peace we have sought no
special reparation for ourselves, but only
the restoration of right and the assur.
ance of liberty everywhere that the ef
fects of the settlement were to be felt.
We entered the war as the disinterested
champions of right and we interested
ourselves in the terms of the peace in no
other capacity.
America Saved the Day.
The hopes OF the nations allied
against the central powers were at
very low ebb when our soldiers began to
pour across the sea. There was every
where amongst them, except in their
stoutest spirits, somber foreboding of
disaster. The war ended in November,
light months ago, but you have only to
recall what was feared in midsummer
last, four short months before the armi.
stice, to realize what il was that our
timely aid accomplished alike for their
morale and their physical safety. That
first, never to-be forgotten action at
Chateau Thierry had already taken
place. Our redoubtable soldiers and ma
rines had already closed the gap the en-
envy had succeeded in opening for their
advance upon Paris-had already turned
the tide of battle back towards the from
tiers of France, and begun the rout that
was to save Europe and the world.
Thereafter the Germans were to be al
ways forced back, back, were never to
thrust successfully forward again.
And yet there was no confident hope
Anxious men and women, leading spirits
of France, attended the celebration of
the Fourth of July last year in Paris out
of generous courtesy-with no heart for
festivities, little zest for hope. But they
came away with something new at their
hearts. They have themselves told us
50, The mere sight Of our of their
vigor, of the confidence that showed it.
self ~ every movement Of their stall
wart figures and every turn Of their
swinging march, in their steady compre-
hending eyes and discipline and in the
ndomitable air that added spirit to
everything they did-made everyone
who saw them that memorable day real
ize that something had happened that
was much mctu than mere incident in
the fighting, something very different
from a moral support only.
"A great moral force had flung itself
into the struggle The fine physical
force of those spirited men spoke of
something more than bodily vigor They
carried the great ideals at their heart,
and with that vision were uncomfortable.
Their very presence brought reassur-
ance; their fighting made victory GER
tain.
Finer Men Never Went Into Battle"
"They were recognized as crusaders.
and as their thousands swelled to mil
lions, their strength was seen to mean
salvation. And they were fit men to
carry such hope and make good the
assurance it forecast. Finer men never
went into battle; and their officers were
worthy of them. This is not the occa.
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