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

the covenant of the league was the
first substantive part of the treaty
to be worked out and agreed upon,
while all elise was in solution.
helped to make the formulation OF
the rest easier.
The conference was, after all,
not to be ephemera1. The con-
cert of nations was to continue.
under a definite covenant which
had been agreed upon and when
all were convinced was workable.
They could go forward. with con-
fidence to make arrangements in
tended to be permanent. The
most practical of the conferees
were at last the most ready to re-
fer to the league of nations the
superintendent of all interests
which did not admit of immediate
determination. of all administra-
tive problems which were to re-
quire a continuing oversight. What
had seemed a counsel of perfection
had come to seem plain counsel
of necessity. The league of ma
tons was the practical states
he most difficult things he was
attempting.
And it had validated itself in the
fought of every member of the
inference as something much
igGer. much greater every way,
ing out the provisions of a par
ticular treaty. 1t was universally
recognized that all the peoples Of
the world demanded of the confer
ence that it should create such a
continuing concert of free nations
as would make wars of aggression
and spoliation such as this that
has just ended forever impossible.
A cry had gone out from every
home in every stricken land from
which sons and brothers and
fathers had gone forht to the great
sacrifice that such sacrifice shup1d
never again be exacted. 1t was
manifest why it had been exacted.
1t had been exacted because one
nation desired dominion and other
nations had known no means of
defense except ornaments and al
liances War had lain at the heart
of every arrangement of the Eu-
rope-of every arrangement of the
world--that preceded the war.
FESTIVE peoples had been told that
;oL
ed to sustain, meant peace; and
they now knew that they had been
lied to: that fleets and armies had
been maintained to promote ma
tional ambitions and meant war.
They knew that no old policy
meant anything else but force.
force,-always force. And they
knew that it was intolerable.
Every true heart in the world, and
every enlightened judgment de-
manded that, at whatever cost of
independent action, every gov
eminent that took thought for it's
people or for justie or for ordered
freedom should lend itself to a
new puruose and utterly destroy
the old order Of International poll
tics. Statesmen might see diff
culties, but the people could see
none and could brook no denial.
A war in which they had been bled
white to beat the terror that lay
concetled in every Balance Of
Power must not end in a mere vic
tory of arms and a new balance.
The monster that had resorted to
arms must be put in chains that
could not be broken. The united
power of free nations must put a
stop to aggression, and the world
must be given peace. If there was
not the will or the intelligence to
accomplish that now, there must
be another and a final war and the
world must be swept clean of
every power that could renew the
terror.
The league of nations was not
merely an instrument to adjust
and remedy old wrongs under
new treaty of peace; it 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 pre-
pare 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, in
deed Indispensable, as statesmen
found the newly planned league of
nations to be for the execution Of
ton, they saw it in a new aspect
before their work was finished.
They saw it as the main object
of the peace. as the only thing that
could complete it Or make 1t worth
while. They saw 1t 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 confer
ence of peace. SO far as Germany
is concerned, stands complete. The
difficulties encountered were very
many. Sometimes they seemed in
superable. 1t was impossible to
accommodate the interests of so