The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1919-09-09
TEXT OF WILSON'S SPEECH
ADVOCATING PEACE TREATY

ADVOCATING PEACE TREATY
Columbus, Ohio, September A.
Following is the text Of President
Wilson's address here today:
Mr.. Chairman, Governor Campbell
and My Fellow Citizens:
(Applause).
It is with very pronounced pleas
ure that I find myself face to face
with you. have for a long time
chafed at the confinement of Wash
ington. l have for long time wish
ed to fulfill the purpose with which
INV heart was full when I returned
to our beloved country, namely, to
20 out and report to my fellow coun-
trymen concerning those affairs of
the world which now need to be set
tied.
The only people l owe any report
to are you and the other citizens of
the United States and it has become
that I should report to you. After
all the various angles at which you
have heard the treaty held up, per-
haps you would like to know what
is in the treaty. I find it very diff
ficult in reading some of the speeches
that have read to form any con-
ception of that great document.
1T is a document unique in the his
tory Of the world for many reasons,
and I think / can not do better
service or the peace Of the world a
better service than by pointing out to
you Just what this treaty contains
and what it seeks to do.
Seeks to Punish Great Wrong.
In the first place, my fellow cit
izens, it seeks to punish one Of the
greatest wrongs which Germany
sought to do the world and to civili-
zation and there ought to be no weak
purpose with regard to the applica-
tion of the punishment. She at
tempted an intolerable thing, and she
must be made to pay for the at
tempt.
The terms of the treaty are Sc
we're, but they are not unjust. 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 per-
haps 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 Ger
many had disregarded, the long prep
aration she had made to overwhelm
her neighbors, the utter disregard
which she had shown for human
rights, for the rights of women and
children and those who were help
less. They had seen their lands de-
wasted by an enemy that devoted
itself, not only to the effort OF VIC
tory, but to the effort of terror, seek
ing 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 overwhelming 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 govern
ment to do what the German COVER
ment did.
IsIn the last analysis, my fellow
countrymen, as we in America
would be the first to claim people
are responsible fer the acts of their
government, if their government pur-
poses 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 I believe from what
can learn that there is nawakened
consciousness in Germany itself of
the deep iniquity of the thing that
was attempted.
War Great Crime Austrians Admit
When the Austrian delegates came
before the peace conference, they, in
so many words, spoke of the origina-
tion of the war as crime and admit
ted in our presence that it was
thing intolerable to contemplate.
They knew in their hearts that it
had done them the deepest conceiv-
able wrong; that it had put their peo-
IL Tho