Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-06-29

this detail
men the President reached Europe
he received one Of the most astonish-
ing welcomes ever given to any public
man in history, probably without
precedent. He was hailed with en-
thusiasm by millions who saw in
MN the promise of new age with
out any clear notion in their own
minds as to what this new and gold
en- age was to be- but with A plain
/ and poignant appreciation of what
the world they lived in had been in
recent years. For moment the
PRESIDENT was the most popular man
IN Europe. On the whole he lost
nearly, If not all. of this popularity
| In the following months. but not ali
or the responsi bility was his. al,
though in the case of France it was
| largely personal And the decline IN
! popularity of Lloyd George and
Nlemenceau was at least proporiiou-
| ate.
| Inc fact was that the millions who
welcomed the President with an un-
lorsettable enthusiasm expected a
| miracle. They did NOT. as many pow
| argue. look for a peace of concilia
''oh with Germany which should be
obtained by letting Germany of
iightiy and putting on their own
shoulders the burden of the costs of
| the war and the German depreds
! .iohs. On the contrary. they hated
the Germans with just as intense
| hatred as ever. and they were pre-
| pared to stand behind their respect-
| i've governments in all demands.
however extreme. which adyantaeed~
| themselves. The mood of the masses
was something quite different from
what has been asserted These mass
es had fought the war through. they
| were dog tired with the agonies and
| sunerings. they hated this recent
| war, they hated all wars. they want
| ed peace and the millennium but
/ they did not want to pay the price, if
any price could contribute TO the end
desired.
President Loses French Sympathy.
All of this the President was to dis
cover the moment he undertook to
apply cold logic to the claims of the
French. for example. Actually he dis
covered it even before this, for with
in one month after he reached France
he had lost French sympathy forever
oy single action. All France. every
Frenchman and Frenchwoman de-
manded, expected, awaited a presi-
Dental visit to the. devastated areas
France desired that Mr. Wilson should
see her wounds that he might better
appraise German offendings and there
| fore deal with them more severely
Seeing what the Germans had done in
all the industrial districts of the
| north, the French believed Mr.. Wilson
would the more readily accept French
estimates of the bills Germany must
pay.
On his part. however, the President
promptly and firmly declined these in
vitations. He explained that he de-
sired to act without passion and that
If he saw Flanders and Artois he
night see red" where it was essen .
| tial to see without emotion. The re-
fusal marked the immediate end of
Mr.. Wilson's popularity in France
The breach was final and irrevocable
Thereafter he disappeared from the
thoughts of the masses of the people:
henceforth he was no more than Or
lando or Lloyd George visiting
statesman. When in the course of
the discussion the voice of America
was raised to reduce French demands
on the financial side, the disappoint-
ment famed up into something like
positive anger. He has not seen our
wounds. yet he would reduce our in
people. big and little, said.
Yet since this is the case, it is plain
to perceive how unjustly the Presi-
dent is criticised by those who de-
nounce the terms of the treaty itself
and assert that had he chosen to in
sist upon more liberal terms the plain
people of Europe would have sup
ported him against their own states
men. What happened when the Pres
ident did appeal to the people of Italy
over the heads of their diplomats is a
final example of the inaccuracy of
this assertion. But the French case
is quite as Illuminating. To preserve
his mental balance-so his friends as
serted-the President stayed away
from the devastated districts. but this
single course was as fatal to his popu-
larity in France as was his Italian
gesture destructive of his support In
Italy.
MI. Wilson Was Never Master.
The truth, which certain glib COM
mentators do not seem to appreciate
yet, is that Mr.. Wilson was never
master of the Paris conference and
exercised a steadily declining infiu-
ence as the debate shifted from gen
eral questions. like the league of ma
lions. to specific problems concerning
Europeans directly. He came to Eu-
rope with a very clear idea in his own
mind that by applying his fourteen
points quite literally and following
them up with a league of nations he
could put world peace on a solid
He discovered very
that his fourteen points
were really no points at all. since
they could be used effectively by both
sides in any real controversy; he dis
covered that the millions who cheered