Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-01-07
What the World Wants.

SN HE hoped for spirit or the approach
ing peace conference was happily
voiced by President Wilson when he
said in one of his notable addresses at Rome:
Justice and right are big things,
and in these circumstances they are Dig
with difficulty. I am not foolish enough
to suppose that our decisions will be
easy to arrive at, but the principles upon
which they are to be arrived at ought
to be indisputable. What Is happening
now is that the soul of one people is
crying to tn soul of another, and no
people in the world with whose sent1-
ments I am acquainted want bargain
ing settlement. They want settlements
based upon right"
Small minds can see the difficulties which
await the counselors at Versailles, but small
minds cannut establish a worthy peace any
more than than they Gould have won the
war What the world wants is not dis
heartening reminder that ideals are difficult
of realization, but a trumpet summons to
strive to the utmost for a triumph Of those
hopes which quicken the pulse o all nations
at this pivotal moment of history. 1t is
interesting that while certain
critical Senators and Journalists employ their
time in pointing out what they conceive to
be the unavoidable character of President
Wilson's peace principles, the rank and file
of the people, not in America alone but In
England and Italy and France, acclaim those
principles as an expression OF their own
judgment and will, considering them in no
wise high-fown or Hnfeasible but as gospel
of humane common sense. Nor is it to be
wondered that the millions whose hearts
and hopes are involved understand the
Presidents ideals and trust them, while su-
perciliOus politicians are baff1ed and dubious,
for it has ever been true that deep calleth
unto deep"-and shallow unto shallow.
Diplomatists welded to the old school
cannot understand, much less approve, a
diplomacy that strikes through Wordy
formulas and fol-de-rols down into the basic
principles that guide simple and honest men
in their dealings with one another. diplo-
LIatist of the school of Metternich or Talley-
rand would make international law a maze
of shrewdly drawn teChnicalities; a diplo-
matist of the Wilson or Lloyd George type
would make it as plain as the Ten Command
ments. The one would make international
life a game of intrigue conducted by jeal-
Gus and hostile alliances, each bent upon
selfish ends; the other would make it a
great open minded community of human in
terests, embracing all peoples who love JUS
tice and deriving it's authority from the en-
lightened conscience of mankind. The
more cordially the parties to the peace con-
ference accept this principle, the less diff
Guilty there will be in devising methods for
it's application, because the smaller things
will go with the larger.
Reactionary craftsmanship could never
succeed in organizing a League of Nations
or in carrying out any other purpose of the
peace program now in view, because no mind
that lacked sympathy with the common
needs of men everywhere and faith in their
common aspirations would undertake so
high and human task. But there is ev-
cry reason to iope that liberal statesman
ship, such as now speaks for America and
Britain and France and Italy, when once
united on the guiding principles to be follow
ed will succeed in establishing a peace at
once workable benfcent and secure. And
this hope is the more reasonable because, as
the President says, no people whose senti-
ments have been declared want bargain
ing settlement" They want a settlement
based upon right"
That spirit, born Of the wars Travelling
years, is abro-d in the earth today, inter
preting the 'ul Of one people to another
and bidding each seek its particular we'll
spirit pervades he Versailles conference. we
it will be righteous
Apparently the Poles want to occupy Ger
many too, but not peacefully.
Excessive weather is Necessary now and
then to reduce the complacency of the oldest
inhabitant.
Europe oughtnt to blame the United States
for Lodge. massachusetts has that respon-
sibility.
Even in Germany there are few pro-Ger-
mans left now.