Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-05-10
1U. S. ENTRANCE INTO EUROPE REAL
IMPORT OF WILSONATP PEACE TABLE
4Hea Cuts Bigger Figure Word Politics Than Ee Before Presidents
Poner Wmed Formulating hic
s in Conception Regarded as Assurance Maintaining Justice
in Eastern Hemisp
BY CLINTON w. GILBERT
ondent OF the Evening Public with DecGat

Copyrtoht, 1919, bD Public Ledger Go.
= Peace Conference. exercising sort q
veto on it had he remained at home
Coming here he was forced to act on tn
level of mere prime ministers aud i
e the end he became just one of the bi
3 four. n body consisting of men whom
h he outrankcd in position, in prestig
and in personal authority, upon his ar
o rival here. But it may very well b
q that the historian will say Mr.. Wilson
i did what he had TO do in the only wa!
t he could have done it. You begin e
get the real significance of Mr.. Wilson
in Europe in the political echoes of tn,
last few days. 1t is not the ending o
all war. II is not the federation o
the world. 1t is the arrival Of Amer
. leans in Europe. definitely and finally
or rather i'll the world.
The war brought our country here
for temporary purpose. At its end
We might theoretically at least have
withdrawn from the world affairs and
resumed our traditional isolation. Prob
ably our national instinct told us to do
so. In the League of nations Mr. Will
son invented an idcalistic formula for
our entrance in tho world politics.
Without an idcalistic formula We should
probably have kept out.
Our Entrance Dramatized
by coming to Europe himself hc
dramatizrd our entrance in world
affairs. lie ccntcred national attention
! for months upon Europe. lie made us
feel that we were part Of Europe. Per
/ haps history will say in no other way
could wc have been rcconciled to the
break with our national past than
through Mr.. Wilson : invention of his
idealistic formula and his personal
dramatization of America playing n
leading part in international politics.
An Englshman has more capacity
for self deception than Frcnchman.
He cannot think as honestly. But if
you could dig down into the inner CON
sciouSncss of the English statesman
here they would probably admit that
the thing that really counted was
America participation in European. or
rather world affairs. They all count
upon America as the worlds greatest
h'N'' b'A'EA anu IlDSl ulSlDIPrpSItu
power, whose influence will always be
thrown upon the side of Justice and
right. whose influence will be for peace
and fair dealing
They have made mess of this En-
ropean business and they welcome
new force entering into the management
of Europe. They were all frankly
81 n ErEt .r ,l,
tions until they saw it in its true light
OF an ideaistic formula covering the
entry of the United States into Europc.
Then they wcrc for it, The British
having the same mental habits as the
Americans have, saw it first. They
we're the first for the league of nations,
The French saw it later.
World Needs America
Lord Robert Cecil. although Il con
vinced league of nations man. has never
missed the real significance of the
league. In discussing it for the press
he has always emphasized the impor-
tance to the world of America's $ interest
in world affairs. This war has left
the United States in the position in
which the NapOleonic war left Great
Britain. indeed I might sny in IL
stronger position. You have become
too big and too great to keep from
playing great International role. And
the world needs you. 1t is your duty
TO play a leading part"
Lord Robert Cecil talks about the
leagues preserving peace. He says all
the things Mr.. Wilson says. Lord
Robert is of deeply religious nature.
The league has for him the semi relig-
ious significance that it has or had
for its devotecs. But he never loses
sight of its practical side, namely that
it means the entrance regularly into
world affairs of another great Anglo
Saxon power with the same habits of
mind as England itself. In place of
British domination of the world which
lasted from th" defeat of Napoleon to
the development of the German chaI-
lengo, it substitutes Anglo Saxon dom
ination of the world
Recent happenings have emphasized
the significance of the Wilson's formu
la to European minds. The call for
the George Washington was not so
much a threat of Mr. Wilson to 90
home himself as threat to take Amer
ica home. No one cares much about the
personality of Mr.. Wilson now. Con
ditions have changed. When the Presi
dent arrived here it was he personally
who counted. Now it is America which
counts-hcr power, her wealth, her
love of peace, her sense of Justice. Eu-
rope will not see these things leave its
shores.
The Wilson threat silcnccd the con
servative press in England, which has
at heart nothing but contempt for Will
son personally. And when Lloyd
George, at whose vacillations the men
ace was aimed, returned to England
to answer his critics his most effective
argument was that his chief opponent
was cndangcring the participation of
the United States in world affairs.
France Wants Our Support
Similarly the one thing France has
sought from the first was an assurance
that America would stand by her side
in Europe. Not being Anglo Saxon she
could not appreciate the necessity of
wrapping a practical thing like com
bination of nations in fancy coverings.
France was afraid that the idealistic
formula contained nothing. And finally
when NJ. Clcmenccau got his rcassur-
anon nc tho Iooo,n Of pot;nn. Fr,r, WI