Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-04-14
NEGOTIATING THE COVENANT

w have heard a good deal OF late about the contro-
versies which have arisen among representatives to the
peace council; of the jockeying for position, the claims
made looking to the particular advantage of this or that
engendered\ under the cloak of apparent friendship and
smooth diplomatic procedure.
That there have been some things of this kind is
doubtless true, inasn1uch as the men charged with this
work are merely human beings, and are moved by the
same springs that actuate other human beings. But
that the representatives Of the great nations who have
seats at the conference have had at heart the real welfare
of humanity in all that they have done or attempted
is almost equally certain. These men have been elevated
tc positions of power and responsibility, in the first place,
because Of their possession .of some special fitness for
their work. None of them is ideally fit, but each of them
must have possessed in rather unusual measure qualities
which fitted him for great duties, otherwise he would
never have been chosen. And it is difficult to- imagine
a mali reasonably fit who, because of the position in
which, he has been placed, finds himself charged with
the performance Of a great work, who does not grow with
his work. The autocrat may fail, and often has failed,
in this, but the man who becomes the leader of a democ-
racy is almost certain to grow into and with his work.
We may assume. therefore. that the men who have been
conception Of the work which they have undertaken.
1t has been said that this peace is being negotiated
by governments, and not by peoples, and that therefore
It cannot be a democratic peace. By whom could a peace
be negotiated and a great league of nations be created
II not by governments or a few individuals directly ap-
pointed by them? The entire population of a township
may meet to consider the building of a road or the drain
ing Of a. swamp. But the people Of a nation cannot meet
and confer-much less the peoples of the civilized world.
In, every convention, in every legislative assembly, in
every large deHberative body of every kind, each
part Of the work must of necessity be shaped by a
few men. According to the manner In which they work
represents the real desire and judgment of those who
must pass omit ultimately is the work democratic or 9TH
erwise, but the work of the small committee is necessary
in the first instance.
In the present proceedings each Of the conspicuous
actors must constantly keep his ear to THE ground, the
tsFm being useda4in no offensive sense. Premier Clemen-
ceau is there assthe representative of the spirit of France.
He must voice the desire of the French people for peace.
opment of their lives. If he fails in this he will be re-
pudiated and his work will fail. Lloyd George states in
the same relation to the great British empire, to whose
people he is accountable. President Wilson knows that
any treaty to which he agrees must be accepted by the
American sentiment. He knows that the senate will not
nant to the American people, and he knows that if what
10 done is in substantial accord with the spirit Of the
American people no senate would dare to reject it, no
matter what may be the promptinss Of individual stub
bornness or party spirit.
So, in the largest sense, and in the only possible sense.
will what is done at Paris represent faithfully the COM
postte sentiment of the great democracies of the world.