Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1919-07-18

use of its port and exceptional rela-
tiOns with a state of which it was not
to form part; properly safeguarded
plebiscites could not be provided for,
where populations were at some fu-
ture date to make choice what sover-
eighty they would live under no GER
tain and uniform method of arbitra.
ton could be secured for the settle
ment of anticipated difficulties of final
decision, with regard to many matters
dealt with in the treaty itself; the
long-continued supervision of the task
of reparation which Germany was to
undertake to complete within the next
generation might entirely break down;
the reconsideration and revision of ad
ministrative arrangements and restric
tions which the treaty prescribed, bur
which it was recognized might not
prove of lasting advantage or entirely
fair if too long enforced, would be i'm
practicable
A league of free nations had become
a practical necessity. Examine the
treaty of peace, and you will find that
everywhere throughout it's manifold
provisions its trainers have felt obliged
to turn to the League of Nations as an
Indispensable instrumentality for the
maintenance of the new order it has
been their purpose to set up in the
world, the world of civilized men.
That there should be a League of
Nations to steady the counsels and
maintain the peaceful understanding
of the world, to make, not treaties
alone, but the accepted principles of
international law as we'll, the actual
rule of conduct among the govern
ments of the world, has been one of
the agreements accepted from the first
as the basis of peace with the central
powers.
Saw Necessity for League.
The statesmen of all the belligerent
countries were agreed that such a
| league must be created to sustain the
settlements that were to be effected.
But at first l think there was feel
ing among some of them that, while
it must be attempted, the formation of
such league was perhaps a counsel
of perfection which practical men
long experience in the world of affairs,
must agree to very cautiously and
with many misgivings.
1t was only as the difficult work OF
arranging an all but universal adjust.
ment of the worlds affairs advanced
conference to another, that it became
evident to them that what they were
seeking would be little more thar
something written upon paper, to be
interpreted and applied by such meth
DDS as the chances of politics might
make available, if they did not provide
a means of common counsel which al
were obliged to accept, a common au
thority whose decisions would be rec
ognized as decisions which all mus
respect.
SkepticaI Turn to League.
And so the most practical, the mos
skeptical among them turned NOR
and more to the league as the author
ity through which international actiol
was to be secured, the authority with
out which, as they had come to see il
it would be difficult to give assure
effect to this treaty or to any other il
ternational understanding upon whic
they were to depend for the maintt
nance of peace.
The most practical of the COZ
ferees were at last the most read
to refer to the league of nation
the superintendent of all interest
which did not admit of immediat
determination of all Administrative
problems which were to require
continuing oversight. What ha
seemed a counsel of perfection ha
come to seem plain counsel of nece
sity. The league of nations was Il
practical statesman's hope of succe:
in many of the most difficult thing
he was attempting.
And it had validated itself in tt
thought of every. member of the Co
ference as something much bigge
much greater every way than mel
instrument for carrying out the pr
visions of a particular treaty. 1t W;
universally recognized that all Il
peoples of the world demanded of II
2 conference that it should create suC
, a continuing concert of free natioI
as would make wars of aggressiC
! just ended, forever impossible. A G.
, had gone out from every home
every stricken land from which sol
/ and brothers and fathers had gol
> forth to the great sacrifice that SUI
: sacrifice should never again
: exacted.
1t was manifest why it had be-
exacted. 1t had been exacted becau
!, one nation desired dominion and 9th
;, nations had known no means of d
fense except ornaments and alliance
People Now Know Truth.
S War had lain at the heart of eve
S arrangement of Europe-of eve
t arrangement of the world-that pl
! sceded the war. Restive peoples hi
r been told that fleets and armies, viii
h they toiled to sustain, meant peac
# and they now know that they had be-
r lied to; that fleets and armies HI
been maintained to promote nation
! ambitions and meant war They kne
= that no old policy meant anything ell
J. but force, force-always force. A
e they knew that it was intolerab
Y bureau reports that Bella Kul
r strength is spreading.