New-York tribune., 1919-07-29

itself would fall.
1t is essential to recognize in the Shantung
affair a compromise of precisely the sort
that was made inevitable when the Presi-
dent undertook to do two things-to obtain
peace based upon the fourteen points and
at the same time to procure the creation of
league of nations. AS the conference
progressed he found himself again and again
compelled to yield in the matter of the four
teen points in order to save the league of
nations
The Trading Points
Every who has attended a political
convention q member Of a delegation
committed to a candidate or to a prospective
plank in platform will appreciate the de-
velopment of the Presidents programme at
Paris. AS the conference progressed he found
himself compelled to agree to the programmes
OF the representatives of those nations in
order thereby to enlist their support for
what was his essential objective The four
teen points became in a certain sense the
material of trades by which the league of
nations was purchased. To the Presidents
mind, revealed in his rare conversations
regrettable in themselves, were justitiable
because they assured the world of perma-
nent instrument Of justice through the league
of nations, which would in due course of
time redress all incidental wrongs
The history Of the Presidents later days
in Paris is comprchended in his own phrase
that his was "single track" mind For
him the league of nations was the be-all and
end-all of the conference; to bring France,
, Britain, Italy, Japan within such a league
he made great sacrifices in the matter of
the fourteen points The fact that the Italian
people supported their government against
his appeal for justice was for him a dis
illusionment which partly at least explained
the Shantung concessions 1t was the uti-
mate demonstration of the value relative and
absolute, which Mr.. Wilson placed upon the
league of nations. His advisers - or more
accurately his associates-in the peace dele
cation rightly forecast the consequences in
America of his surrender in the case of
Shantung. The obvious fact that the whole
American position in the Far East and the
confidence and friendship of the Chinese
people might be lost was plainly indicated.
BY contrast the japanese left the President
under no misapprehensions as to what their
course would be if he followed in the mat
ter of Shantung the policy which he had
adopted in the case of Fiume
Japanese Celebration
President Wilson'S decision in the Shan
tung matter, when it had come was perhaps
the greatest single surprise to the Americans
in Paris. There had been a general belief
that whatever other concessions were made
by him he would not yield in a question which.
far more than any other point at issue,
affected American interests and touched
American policy. The news that the jap
anese claims had been recognized in their
entirety came then as something of a sensa-
ton.
AS for the Japanese those in Paris cele-
brated their success around the green table
in something of the spirit which the Ger
mans displayed in celebrating their victories
in the early stages of the war They made
no concealment alike of the extent of their
success and for them the more essential
circumstances that they had triumphed over
the United States
(Copyright 1919, by The Mcclure Newspaper
Spndicutc)