Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-12-21
BY FRANK H. SIMONDS.


developed by President Wilson,
there can be nothing short of an alb
solute shock in any examination OF
the situation in Washington today.
The retreat from Paris is in many
respects the most impressive spectacle
since the retreat from Moscow.
Specifically. at least. to Judge by
every sign and symptom visible in
the National Capital. America today
is something totally different from
the picture painted by the President
in Paris year ago and accepted by
our European associates in the recent
war as truthful portrait.
With the political and partisan as
pect of the discussion around the
peace treaty 1 have not the slightest
intention or desire to deal. One may
believe the Senate. or the President
or both responsible for the deadlock
which now exists over the treaty; OF
one may even believe with at least
as much warrant that the people o,
the United States themselves are re-
sponsible. But what is striking, i'm
pressive to any one who saw the
Paris conference - more impressive
than all else-is the state of mind a,
the capital.
What the President Promised.
Stated badly, the situation in Paris
was approximately this: The Presi'
dent told the people of Europe thai
America was prepared to lay aside
her traditional policy of isolation
abandon her customary aloofness; his
very presence in Paris was taken a:
ultimate evidence of an American viii
to become a partner in world admin
istration, in a new ordering OF the
world 1t was regarded as proof thai
America felt that the war had I'M
posed upon her a mission. and tha'
mission was without selfish purpose
without any concern for private profit
to work for a fair peace settlement
and lend ner enormous strength, hel
resources in men as we'll as in money
to guarantee the perpetuation of tha'
settlement.
In all that he said the President a
all times was convinced that he spoke
for America So were all the Ameri
cans who in their official capacit!
went to the peace conference. So. Will
few exceptions. were all American
who were in Paris. All OF them ties
tify to the same state of facts. Ameri.
can idealism was again and again OF
mistakably of the opinion tina
America had come to Europe on
new crusade or an expedition to abol
ish old and evil continental standard
and replace them with an American
ideal, fortified by American strength
and calculated to make world peac
permanent.
No one has yet presented any accu.
rate picture of exactly the role played
by America in the peace conference
Those who preached the crusade!
through Europe centuries ago harol!
spoke with more assurance, more con
viction than many Americans EN-
ployed in Paris in describing thu
American mission. in proclaiming
new system of international relations
The phenomenon was emotional. ant
in the early days of the Paris confer
ence. at least, had the fervency ant
something of the intensity of an old
fashioned revival.
At bottom this new gospel rested
upon the view that American idea iiSm
force as vague and Invisible as al
electric current but not less potent
would become, if accepted by Europe
permanent protection against flu
ture war-a protection far more i'm
passable than the Rhine or the Alps
than any strategic frontier.
Believed People Behind Him.
It was the conception of the Presi.
dent, illustrated in his speeche:
again and again. that the principles
which he advocated. the American
ideals which he preached. were not
only American, but accepted by the
masses of the plain people of Euro
pean nations. of the nations recently
associated in an alliance against Ger
many and of the Teutonic allies as
we'll The President believed implicit
ly that the views which he expressed
were the views of the whole Ameri-
can people: that the principles which
he championed were Endorsed by his
fellow countrymen. and that the re-
sponsibilities which he was prepared
to undertake in their name would be
accepted by them.
In the reaching Of the new gospel
the President was enormously forti-
fled by the fact that he was the chiet
executive of the American nation. MOI
was he less aided by the unmistaka bic
circumstance that America was the
single world power with resources
still sunimpaired-a sound giant in q
world inha bited by the crippled and
the manned. In affirming his doctrine
he gave it Irresistible force by pro-
claiming that if peace were made in
accordance with American principles
all the mighty resources OF this ma
ton would be available to defend
those principles. whether they were
expressed in terms of frontiers or OF
finance.
AS to the principles. Europe remain
ed skeptical. 1t accepted some through
necessity. Others it succeeded in
France never felt strong enough
openly to challenge the president s
purposes. Moreover. the people and
the statesmen saw as the CHIEF article
in the peace treaty of Versailles that
American pledge that assured Amer
lean appearance in European councils
saw the league of ma
tions as the factor which brought
America to Europe. and accepted ii
on this understanding.
No American who was not in Eu-
rope last winter can conceive the
moral prestige of his nation at that
hour The war had almost mirac-
terminated in victory made
possible only by the arrival of Amer
lean masses. Millions of men and
women as well as children in northern
France. in Belgium, in all of eastern
and southern Europe. owed their lives
to American food. They were liter
ally living on American generosity.
America was a symbol of something
far more noble and beautiful, as well
as powerful. than the masses of peo-
pie had hitherto conceived could exist
on this planet If one may say it.
America was then the single illusion
left to a disillusioned. ruined. suffer-
ing continent. And even in Germany
was regarded in not few
quarters as the sole bulwark between
the German people and victorious foes
seeking their extinction.
have dwelt upon this aspect of
American participation in the Paris
because it was after all the
most remarkable, the most astonish-
nf tho xvhnla acSep,-