Omaha daily bee., 1919-09-05
TEXT OF SPEECH
MADE BY WILSON
AT COLUMBUS, 0.
Says His Purpose Is to Report
to People Concerning
Il Affairs of World to
Be Settled.

Columbus, O., Sept. 4.-The fol-
lowing is a stenographic report OF
h President Wilson's address here to-
day, the first of a series of so ad-
dresses to be delivered by him in
his tour of the United States in the
interest of the peace treaty:
"Mr. Chairman, Governor Camp
bell and My Fellow Citizens: ZAP
plause.) 1t is with very profound
pleasure that l find myself face to
face with you. / have for a long
time chafed at the confinement of
Washington. l have for a long
time wished to fulfill the purpose
with which my heart was full when
! returned to our beloved country,
namely, to 60 out and report to my
fellow countrymen concerning those
affairs of the world which need now
to be settled.
"The only people / owe any re-
port to are you and the other citi-
gems of the United States, and it has
become increasingly necessary, ap-
parently, that | should report to
you. After all the various angles at
which you have heard the treaty
held up perhaps you would like to
know what is in the treaty. I find
it very difficult in reading some of
the speeches that I have read to
form any conception Of that great
document.
IL q Unique Document.
1T is 4 document unique in the
history of the world for many rea-
sons and think I cannot do you
better service or the peace of the
world a better service than by point
! ing out to you just what this treaty
contains and what it seeks to do.
In the first place, my fellow coun-
trymen. it seeks tc punish one of
the greatest wrong ever done in
history, the wrong which Germany
/ sought to do to the world and to
civilization and there ought to be
no weak purpose with regard to the
application of the punishment. She
attempted an intolerable thing and
she must be made to pay for the
attempt.
"The terms of the treaty are Sc
we're, but they are not unjust. l
can testify that the men associated
with me at the peace conference in
Paris had it in their hearts to do
justice and not wrong but they
knew perhaps with a more vivid
sense of what had happened than
we could possibly know on this
side of the water, the many solemn
covenants which Germany had dis
regarded, the long preparation she
had made to overwhelm her neigh
bors, the utter disregard which she
had shown for human rights, for
the rights of women and children
and those who were helpless.
y Have Seen Destruction.
They had seen their lands dew
asted by an enemy that devoted
itself, not only to the effort of vic
tory, but to the effort of terror,
seeking to terrify the people whom
they fought, and I wish to testify
that they exercised restraint in the
terms of this treaty. They did not
wish to overwhelm any great nation
and they had no purpose in over
whelming the German people, but
they did think that it ought to be
burned into the consciousness of
men forever that no people ought
to permit its government to do
what the German government did.
"In the last analysis, my fellow
countrymen, as we in America
would be the first to claim a people
are responsible for the acts of their
government, if their government
purposes things that are wrong,
they ought to take measures and
see to it that that purpose is not
executed.
Germany was self-governed. Her
rulers had not concealed the pur-
poses that they had in mind, but
they had deceived their people as
to the character of the methods they
were going to use, and | believe
from what I can learn, that there is
an awakened consciousness in Ger
many itself of the deep iniquity of
the thing that was attempted.
Austria Admits Crime.
when the Austrian delegates
came before the peace conference,
they, in so many words, spoke of
the origination of the war as
crime, and admitted in our pres
ence that it was a thing intolerable
to contemplate. They knew in their
hearts that it had done them the
deepest conceivable wrong; that it
had put their people and the people
of Germany at the judgment seat OF
mankind and throughout this treaty
every term that was applied to Ger
many was meant, not to humiliate
Germany, but to rectify the wrong
that she had done. And if you will
look even into the severe terms OF
reparation, for there was no indem-
nity--no indemnity of any sort was
rlaimed-merely reparation, merely
paying for the destruction done,
merely making good the losses, SO
far as the losses could be made good
which she had unjustly inflicted, not
upon the governments-for the rep
aration is not to go to the govern
ments--but upon the people whose
rights she had trodden upon with
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