Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-07-11
CANCELLATION is KEYNOTE
OF WILSON'S ADDRESS
Offer Of Cooperation WIN the Senate
Opens Way for Speedy Ratification
Of Treaty and Peace

! 10 consider the circumstances unuel
which it was made
There has been an active and vlrulent
minority in Washington bitterly attack
ing the league of-nationS covenant. 1t
has been accusing the President of en-
twinlng that league covenant so closely
into the strands Of the whole agreement
that the Senate would be forced to accept
it or to reject the treaty itself. 1t has
been denouncing the covenant as un-
American and subversive of our constltu-
tlonai liberty of action.
In this minority there have heen men
who have been bitterly hostile to the
President himself with hostility both
personal and political.
The members of this minority were in
the audience before which he spoke
Some of them are members of the Senate
itself, which is asked to ratifY the treaty.
NCw the thing which the President
desires is the ratification of the treaty.
He could demand it with an assumption
of authority, or he could set forth the con-
ditons under which it was drafted, the
difficulties which had to he overcome and
the eXpedients adopted to meet the diff
culties, and explain that while it was not
perfect instrument nor such al instru-
ment as any one of the negotiators, left
to himself. would have drafted, yet it
provided workable plan.
Mr.. Wilson chose this latter course Of
| argumentative and explanatory Conciia-
ton In his fifth sentence he offered to
the Senate all the information he had and
said he was at the disposal of its COM
mittee on foreign relations at any time
either informally or in formal session
And he hoped that there would be no hesi-
tation in calling on him after the COM
mittee had had time to study the docu-
ment.
This is the attitude which the country
has been hoping the President would as
sumo. 1t has been hoping that contem-
platon of the magnitude of the task to
be accomplished and the great national
obligations to be shoudered had so
sobered and broadened him that he would
gladly cooperate with the Legislative
branch in the consummation of the work.
This seems to have happened
The address was a plea for the league
of nations. All the rest of it was a mere
setting for that plea There was nothing
new in it. He has said it many times
before 1t has been said in the columns
of this and other newspapers time after
time. And it will have to be repeated
again and again.
The peace commissioners were not
friendly to the league idea at the begin
ming. 1t was contrary to their habits Of
thought. and it involved the upsetting of
century-long precedents. But Europe
was in solution. Two great empires had
fallen to pieces Races which had been
held in bondage were demanding their
freedom. New nations had to be set up.
As the discussion progressed it began to
appear that no treaty dependent for its
enforcement on the old methods of dplo-
macy could stand the strain upon it. New
machinery must be devised. Then the
! force of circumstances compelled the
| agreement on the league. This happened
while the other issues were still unset
tied as a necessary preliminary to any
plan for settling those issues.
Whether one likes the league or does
! not like it is not material. 1t was not
agreed upon because it was pleasing in
| the abstract to the men who drafted the
! covenant. II was accepted because the
! search for peace by any other road led
| to chaos. The President attempted to set
| forth this condition so clearly that those
who heard him could not mistake his
| meaning.
1t was as though he were expoundng
the operation of the law of gravity, which
works whether one approves it or not. As
he said, forces greater than we have been
| in operation and we have had to bend our
wills to them-not the forces marshaled
by the European statesmen, but forces
directed by the power which controls the
| destines of men.
The Presidents reference to the part
which America has played in world
affairs is reminiscent of Roosevelt.
After the Spanish War that red-booded
American said frequently that the time
had passed when America could decide
whether it would play large part in the
world. Ii could decide only whether il
would play large part nObly or ignobly.
Mr. Wilson remarked that "the only
| question: 10 "heIhei VIC Can ieiuSe IHe
moral leadership that is offered us,
whether we shall accept or reject the con-
fidence of the world"
That is the issue before the Senate
Since April 1917, we have played our part
nobly, and have borne our burden as q
member of the family of free nations
committed to the proposition that right
is greater than might and that there is
no might in the world powerful enough
to trample right to the ground. Now
that right is established, we are merely
asked to assist in keeping it on its ped
estal
II is assumed that the Senate will meet
the President in the same conciliator,
! mood in which he has met it, and tina