New-York tribune., 1919-08-13
n N THE discussion now going forward over
! the Treaty Of Versailles there is one
line of attack being mada unon the

the Treaty of Versailles there is one
line of attack being made upon the
President by the so-called and self
styled "lberass" which is at one time un-
founded and mendacious. 1t is solemnly
asserted that the President had but to stamp
his foot and the vast millions of organized
Socialists of the Continent would have come
to his assistance, and that, instead of accept
ing the role of leader of the European Left,
he permitted himself to become the tool of
the reactionary Right.
Now, the fact is this: 1t is true that the
Socialists of the Continent and their rela-
lively paler shadow in England were perfect
ly ready to accept Mr.. Wilson's leadership
when he came TO Europe, but condi-
ton, namely, that he lead them against the
governments in power in their several coun-
tries. Mr.. Wilson's fourteen points and his
league of nations ideas little more than
water remedies for dynamite diseases in
the minds of these radicals.
Eager for Bad Treaty
Moreover, these radicals were not interest
ed in the treaty which to be made--that
is, they were not eager to contribute to max
ing this treaty just and viable thing. On
the contrary, they were eager that Lloyd
George, Clemenceau and Orlando should
make bad treaty, which would weaken the
prestige of the order they represented. 1t is
just as easy to believe that President Wilson,
for example, could have satisfied the Repub-
licans in the United States Senate by any
document he procured at Paris as that NJ.
Clemenceau could have pleased the French
Socialists
The Socialists Of France were at war with
Clemeneeau, exactly as the Republicans were
at with the President, but with this
difference, that while Republicans and Demo-
Gratis alike in the United States are agreed
preserving essential institutions and
quarrel only over the control of the machin-
cry of government, the Socialists of France
seeking to destroy the form of govern
ment and substitute wholly different
machinery.
AS President of the United States Mr.
Wilson represented the country which is, on
the whole, the most reactonary, from the
point of view of French Socialism, in all the
world, far more reactionary than monarchcal
Germany. Mr.. Wilson's ideas of peace, as
he expressed them before he went to Europe,
were, if one please to say it, progressive on
the moral side but they the whole
reactionary or unimpressve on the economic
side. and French Socialism and Continental
Socialism generally little concerned with
Anglo Saxon ideas of moral reforms.
1he Value Of Mr.. Wilson
All through the war the value of Mr.. Will
son to the French Socialists lay in the var-
Gus clashes between his views and those of
the ruling elements in French politics. The
hope of the French extremists was that when
he came to Europe Mr.. Wilson would so diff
fer with Clemenceau and Lloyd George over
political questions, territorial and otherwise,
that he would come into actual collision, and
thus become useful weapon in the hands of
the Socialists, not for the establishment of
Mr.. Wilson's fourteen points but for the
destruction of that form of government
Clemenceau and Lloyd George represented
and the French Socialists were endeavoring
to destroy.
on have got to understand the French
situation to grasp the essential inveracity of
the argument now used by American Glib
erals" against the President The French
Socialists seeking to destroy an order
of society on the whole analogous to our own
They were not concerned primarily with
questions of Shantung the Sarre Basin
they were seeking a new weapon for attack
ing the old enemy, they saw in Mr. Wilson
such weapon, but they did not see in Mr..
Wilson's views any doctrinal harmony with
their own.
Mr.. Wilson had lost all possible title to