Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-01-18

Versailles is TO strike from shackled
peoples the letters forged at Vienna,
Folk-freedom, through initiation, res
toration or maintenance according
to the circumstances OF the various
nationalties), Is the great task of the
Peace Conference sitting in France to-
day, just as the very opposites OF state
craft, the imposition Of suzeranity the
gerrymandering Of territory, the crush
ing of racial consciousness. the exalta-
ton of autocracy and the apotheosising
of divine right" characterized the
peace congress held in Austria a century
ago-1O4 years ago TO be accurate. Yet
through the intervening years national
impulses persisted liberty lived through
it. but did not flourish liberalism felled
to earth yet rose again and again. Auto
cracy became more and more domi-
neering, but essentially less and less
dominant. lost It's grasp on some coun-
tries. while IL clutched others in firmer
grip, as the nineteenth century waxed
and waned. The world stage was set
for the great war drama of the twentieth
century: the world divided into two
great camps, those of autocracy and
democracy.
Now a Peace Conference of the free
peoples of the earth Is in session at
Versailles to make permanent the gains
won by the arms of democracy, to dis
tribute equitably and justly those gains,
to league nations in bulwarked strength
for self-protecton and for world pro-
lection against repetition OF the horrors
of war and the tortures and terrors OF
new serfdom.
We are all--who fought for the ideals
of free world. lf-determination OF
nations, and debacle of autocrats-in a
sense participants i'm the Versailles con-
ference. As participants 1t is htting that
we should have an intelligent back-
ground of the underlying causes or the
war from which we have just so trl-
umphantly emerged: that we should
know the real meanings OF things-the
deep and far motives which moved the
United states from it's traditional iso-
lation into fighting alliance with the
other liberal peoples Of the earth. The
immediate causes we know well enough.
the assassination at SarajcNo, the
prussian lust for power and conscious
preparation for conquest, Austria's deS-
pairing effort TO maintain integrity III
its Unbalanced empire, Germany's com
merCial and industrial ambitions ana
tealouSieS. But the real causes go
further back in time and space-to the
congress of Vienna.
"a Peace Congress of Intrigue" gives
the background and perspective that Is
so much needed now to afford the reader
of the daily dispatches in the newspapers
intelligent standards for comparison ana
Judgment This book, compiled by Fred
crick Freska and translated with an
introduction and notes by Harry Han
sen, an American journalist, with long
experience in European capitals. goes
int N Il "a
and vivid account of the congress Of
Vienna based on memoirs, diaries cor
rcspondenco. etc, of participants. Par
ticipants in the congress Of Vienna were
the representatives of monarchics, even
Of monarchs personally 1t was an
assembly to reaflirm the canons of
creed that was menaced--the creed OF
divine right as opposed to the rights
Of man, the slogan of the French rcNo-
luton, the principles of democracy as
exemplifed in the new republic across
the Atlantic. It was called to reassert
the doctrine of Legitimacy that only
legitimate ruler insur"s stable gov
ernment. The participants in the con-
ference at Versailles are the reprcsen-
tatives of peoples they are spokesnen
not of kings but of citizens. individually
and collectively, the voices Of the iree
institutions.
car Alexander of Russia was the
dominating figure al the opening of the
Congrcss--a man who once had such
liberal impulses that he had actually
proposed league Of nations. The crafty,
keen, INSCRIPTIONS Tallcyrand, repre-
scntng the restored Bourbon, Louis
XVIII, of France" in final analysis was
the most influential figure of the CON
gross for. in favor of his sovereign, he
split the Allies, drove wedge between