The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-07-11

| pies ready for recognition but not yet
ready TO assume the full responsibilities
of statehood were to be given adequate
guarantees of friendly protection, guild
ance and assistance.
| And out of the execution OF these
great enterprises of liberty sprang OPP
| portunities to attempt what statesmen
had never found the way before to do;
an opportunity to throw safeguards
about the rights of racial, national and
| religious minorities by solemn interna-
tional covenants to regulate establish
ments where they We're most likely to
| be misehievous; an opportunity to effect
a complete and systematic International
ization of waterways and railways,
which were necessary to the free eco
nomic life of more than one nation and
! to clear many of the normal channels of
commerce of unfair distractions of law
or of privilege and the very welcome
opportunity to secure for labor the con-
certed protection of definite information
! al pledges of principle and practice.
"rhese were not tasks which the con-
ference looked about it to find and went
out of its way to perform. They were
| nseparable from the settlements Of
peace. They were thrust upon il by circum-
| stances which were not to be overlooked
! The war had created them. In all quar-
tiers of the world old established rela-
| tionships had been disturbed or broken
and affairs were at loose ends, needing
to be mended or united again but could
not be made what they were before
They had to be set right by applying
some uniform principle of justice or en-
| lightened expedieney. And they could
not be adjusted by merely prescribing in
treaty what should be done. New
states were to be set up which could not
hope to live through their first period of
weakness without assured support by
I the great nations that had consented to
their creation and won for them their
1 independence
"lll-governed colonies could not be put
in the hands OF governments which were
| to act as trustees for their people and
not as their masters if there was to be
no common authority among the nations
to which they were TO be reported in the
execution of their trust. Future inter
national conventions with regard to the
control of waterways, with regard to il
| licit traffic Of many kinds, in arms or in
deadly drugs or with regard to the ad-
justment of many varying international
| administrative arrangements could not
be assured il the treaty were to provide
no permanent common international
agency, if its execution in such matters
was to be left TO the slow and uncertain
processes of cooperation by ordinary
methods of negotiation. Ii the peace
conference itself was to be the end Of
cooperative authority and common
counsel among the governments to which
the world was looking to enforce justice
and government, and settlement, regions
like the Saar basin could not be put under
temporary administrative regime which
did not involve transfer of political
sovereignty and which contemplated
final determination of its political con
nections by popular vote to be taken at
distant date; no free city, like Danzig,
could be created which was, under elab
crate international guarantees, TO ac-
cept exceptional obligations with regard
to the use of its port and exceptional re.
lations with state of which it was not
to form part; properly safeguarded
plebiscites could not be provided for
where populations were at some future
date to make choice what sovereignty
they would live under: no certain and
uniform method of arbitration could be
secured for the settling Of anticipated
difficulties Of final decision with regard
to many matters dealt with in the
| treaty itself; the long continued SUPER
vision of the task of PREPARATION which
Germany was to undertake to complete
within the next generation might en-
tirely break down; the reconsideration
and revision of administrative arrange
ments 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 impraetieable.
Compelled to Turn to League.
"The promises governments were max
ing to one another about the way in
which labor was to be dealt with, by
law not only but in fact as well, would
! remain a mere humane thesis II there
was to be no common tribunal Of opinion
and Judgment to which liberal statesmen
could resort for the influences which
also might secure their redemption. A
| league of free nations had become a
practical necessity. Examine the treaty
of peace and YOU will find that every.
where throughout its manifon provis.
ions its trainers have felt obliged 20 turn
to the league of nations as an indispen-
sable instrumentality for the mainte
nance of the new order it has been their
purpose TO set up in the world-the
world of civilized men.
oh H. 81
tions to steady the counses and main
tain the peaceful understandings of the
world to make not treaties alone, but
the accepted principles of international
law as well, the actual rule OF conduct
among the governments of the world,
had been one Of the agreements accept
ed from the first as the basis of peace
with the central powers. The statesmen
of all the belligerent countries were
agreed that such league must be Great
ed to sustain the settlements that were
TO be effected. But at first | think there
was a feeling among some of them that,
while it must be attempted, the forma
tion of such league was perhaps a
counsel of perfection which practical
men, long experienced in the world of
affairs, must agree to very cautiously
and with many misgivings.
ut was only as the difficult work of
arranging an all but universal adjust
ment of the worlds affairs advanced
from day to day from one stage Of con
| ference to another that it became evi.
dent that what they were seeking would
be little more than something written
upon paper. to be interpreted and applied
L., bnJa he, ol,a ,,f -
itics might make available if they did