Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-07-10
President Wilson.

part: properly safeguarded plebs-
cites 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
settlement of anticipated difficulties
of final decision with regard to many
matters dealt with in the treaty it
self: the long-continued supervision
of the task of reparation which Ger
manw was to undertake to complete
within the next generation might en-
tirely break down; the reconsidera-
ton and revision of administrative
arrangements 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 imprac-
ticable.
The promises governments were
making to one another about tho
way in which labor was to be
uCdll '" I'LL, ny Id" HOl OILY. DuI
in fact as well. would remain a
mere humane thesis If there was
to be no common tribunal of opin-
ion and judgment to which libertl
statesmen could resort for the in
fluences which alone might secure
their redemption. A league of free
nations had become a practical ne
cessity Examine the treaty Of
peace and you will find that every
where throughout it's manifold
provisions it's trainers have felt
obliged to turn to the League of
Nations as an indispensable instru-
mentality for the maintenance of
the new order it has been their
purpose to set up in the world
the world of civilized men.
That there should be a league
of nations to steady the counsels
standings of the world, to make,
not treaties alone, but the accept
ed principles of international law
as well, the actual rule of conduct
among the governments of the
world, had been one of the agree
ments accepted 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 cre-
ated to sustain the settlements
that were to be effected. But at
first I think there was a feeling
among some of them that. while
it must be attempted, the forma-
ton Of such a 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.
1t was only as the difficult work
of arranging an all but universal
adjustment Of the worlds affairs
advanced from day to day from one
stage of conference to another that
it became evident to them that
what they were seeking would be
little more than something written
upon paper. to be Interpreted and
applied by such methods as the
chances of politics might make
available if they did not provide a
means of common counsel which all
were obliged to accept, common
authority whose decisions would
be recognized as decisions which
all must respect.
And so the most practical. the
most skeptical among them turr ed
more and more to the league as The
authority through which interna-
tional action was to be secured, the
authority without which. as ey
had come to see it, it would be diff
ficult to give assured effect either
to this treaty or to any other inter- .
national understanding upon which
they were to depend for the main
tenanee of peace. The fact that