The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-11
MANS ONLY HOPE

"The league of nations was not merely an instrument to adjust and remedy old wrongs under a new treaty of peace; 1t was the only hope for mankind. Again and again had the demon of war been cast out of the house of the peoples and the house swept clean by a treaty Of peace only to prepare a time when he would enter in again with spirits worse than himself The house must now be given a tenant who could hold it against all such. Convenient, indeed, indispens- able as statesmen found the newly plan ned league of nations to be for the ex- ecution of present plans of peace and reparation, they saw it in a new aspect before their work was finished. They saw it the main object of the peace as the only thing that could complete it, or make it worth while. They saw it as the hope of the world and that. hope they did not dare to disappoint. Shall we or any other free people hesitate to accept this great duty? Dare we reject it and break the heart of the world? And so the result of the conference ot peace, so far as Germany is concerned, stands complete. The difficulties en- countered were very many. Sometimes they seemed insuperable. It was impos- sibe to accommodate the interests of so great body of nations-interests which directly, or indirectly affected almost
 
 minor compromises. The treaty, as re- suit, is not exactly what we would have written. It is not probably what any one of the national delegations would have written But results were worked out which on the whole. bear testimony. l think it will be found that the compro- nises which were accepted as inevitable nowhere cut to the heart of any prin- cple The work of the conference squares, as whole, with the principles agreed upon as the basis of the peace as well as with the practical possibilities of the in ternational situations which had to be faced and dealt with as facts.
 T shall presently have occasion to lay before you special treaty with France, whose object is the temporary protection of France from unprovoked aggression by the power with whom this treaty of peace has been negotiated. Its terms link it with this treaty I take the liberty, however, of reserving it for special ex plication on another occasion.
 AMERICAS ROLE
 "The role which America was to play in the conference seemed determined as I have said before my colleagues and I got to Paris-deterlnined by the universal expectations of the nations whose repre- sentatives. drawn from all quarters of the globe, we were to deal with It was
 
 entered the war to promote no private or peculiar interest of her own, but only as the champion of rights which she was glad to share with freemen and lovers | Of justice everywhere. We had formu- l lated the principles upon which the set 1 clement was to be made-the principles upon which the armistice had been agreed l to and the parleys of peace undertaken | and no one doubted that our desire was | to see the treaty of peace formulated ! along the actual lines of those principles and desired nothing else. We were well comed as disinterested friends. We were | resorted to as arbters in many a diff l fcult matter. It was recognized that our material aid would be indispensable | if the days to come, when industries and | credits would have to be brought back to their normal operations again, and communities beaten to the ground as | sisted to their feet once more, and it
 was taken for granted, I am proud to
 say, that we would play the helpful friend in these things as in all others,
 without prejudice or favor. We were generously accepted as the unaffected champions of what was right. It was
 a very responsible role to play, but
 am happy to report that the fine group lpf Americans who helped with their ex- pert advice in each part of the varied settlements sought in every transaction
 to justify the high confidence reposed in them.
 And that confidence, it seems to me- is the measure of our opportunity and of our duty in the days to come; in which the new hope of the peoples of the world is to be fulfilled or disappointed The fact that America is the friend of the
 nations whether they be rivals or asso- ciates, is no new fact; it is only the dis covery of it by the rest of the world that is new.