The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-03-09
Wilson's Job m Paris Harder Than Pershing' s
Many Conflicting Interests Be Harmonized But the President Has Taken the Lead and Earned the Re spect, if Not the Love, of All His Colleagues. Big Three Rules the Conference and Forms Ideal Team-French Demand for
 Real Guarantees

mary United States means first among equals.
 The proprietor of one of the greatest French newspapers described this sttua- tion to me in an epigram last night and described it with absolute accuracy. We have at the conference, he said, here great men. We have on the one side M. Wilson, the idealist on the other NJ Clemenceau, the realst, and between l them M. Lloyd George, the opportunist." This may sound rather cruel to Mir. Lloyd George but he did not use the
 word "opportunist" in the sense of dis arrangement which 1t usually bears in England. He meant it as a compliment, and in that sense it is absolutely true. Lloyd Georges compromise is nowhere common sense compromise is nowhere more useful than in reconciling the per haps sometimes impractical idealism of the President with the stark realism and practicality of the old French premier, whose own people love to refer to him as "the tiger
 An excellent example of compromise of this sort is the decision arrived at about the future control of the colonies formerly owned by Germany by civil ized powers acting under a mandate l from the league of nations. It is no se | cret that the President wanted these
 colonies administered directly by the l league of nations and the elimination | of all European national interests in them. It is equally well known that | Clemenceau, the tigerish old idea1ist, | demanded that the nations which had won the colonies from Germany should keep what they had won. Lloyd George ] stepped in between with his idea of a mandate and managed to satisfy both parties. Clemenceau is satisfied because I it is perfectly well understood that the powers at present in possession of the | colonies will be the mandatory powers and it is equally well understood that l failing some crying scandal in adminis-. I tration they never will be compelled to 1 relinquish them. The President is satis | fled because he has made the title to the colonies rest on good administration and !, it can be revoked in the case of outrages like those falsely attributed by German agents to the Belgian administration in the Congo.
 WILSON IS PRACTICAL Let it not be understood, however, that the President is proving an impractical idealist at the conference who must | be kept in check by his more practical
 colleagues. Woodrow Wilson, while his principles are founded on high ideals, ! is an exceedingly practical politician
 when it comes to putting those principles
 into effect All the European politicians | for instance understood by his phrase "open covenants openly arrived at" that 1 he would insist on public meetings of the peace conference and they proceeded with
 much misgiving, to arrange for open
 meetings. But when the President ar rived, he declared that he never meant anything of the sort and that while he would insist on open publica tion of all 1 the results arrived at, no sane man could expect that delicate negotiations like ! all of those coming before the confer ence could be carried on in the pres ! ence of all the world. National and 1 personal passions would be aroused and l the conference would be wrecked in | week if unlimited publicity were to be | the rule. The result was the decision I to hold only the plenary sessions in ] public and I am told that the Pres- dent insisted on the clause that the pulp ! lie might be excluded even from these when the conference thought it desira- l ble
 I The Presidents extreme practicability i was also displayed in what followed The relations between the French press ana 1 the big politicians is very close and dur | ing the first few days of the confer ence the French newspapers were ex- | traordinarily well informed of what was going on behind closed doors. MT. Will
 /, son protested and M. Clemenceau prom ised to "muzzle" his press I am using
 | hint was conveyed from high quarter
 l to the American correspondents that they
 had been indulging in little too much
 | intelligent speculation. There was an l other incident when one of Lord North l cliffe's papers displayed a surprising knowledge of the secrets of the council room. The President is said to have declared that if this went on he would have to go back to America and MT. Lloyd George called the English cores pondents together and gave them what | one described as the greatest dressing down they had ever had in their lives
 i By this time Mr. Wilson's colleagues ] understand that when he says thing l he means it and that while he IS open ! to argument and reasonable compromise he insists that the terms agreed on peihg carried out to the letter.
 ATTITUDE OF FRANCE
 ] It is hard to analyze the Presidents popularity in France. With the plain l French people he undoubtedly IS the l most popular man in France today, | hut that is because he stands for the l America which they love and which I they recognize came to their rescue when they were in desperate straits. With the politicians and leaders or French opinion it would be untrue to say that he is popular. All re- spect him, most of them admire nm | and a good many fear him. The fact 1 is that he does not speak the same language either with his tongue or