Republican farmer., 1919-07-18

power to do to make the triumph of freedom and of right a lasting trl- umph in the assurance of which men might everywhere live without fear. old entanglemcnts Of every kind stood in the way---prOmises which governments had made to one an ether fin the days whom might and right were confused and the power of the victor was without restraint. En- agreements which contemplated any dispositions of territory. any exten- sions of sovereignty that might seem to be to the interest of those who had tho power to insist upon them. had been entered into without thought of
 what the peoples concerned might ! wish or profit by: and these could not always be honorably brushed aside.
 It was not easy to graft tho new or | the fruits of the grating may, I fear, the friuts of the grating may, I fear, flor a time be bitter. But, with very few exceptions ,the men who sat with us at the peace table desired as sin cerely as we did, to get away from the bad influences. the illegitimate purposes, the demorahzing ambitions. the international counsel and expedi- ents out of which the sinister designs | of Germany had sprung as a natural
 growth.
 | It had been our privilege to formu- ! late the principles which were ac- ! cepted as the basis of the peace but | they had been accepted, not because
 we had come in to hasten and assure | tho victory and insisted upon them, | but because they were readily ac- | ceded to as the principles to which | honorable and enlightened minds | everywhere had been bred. They | spoke the conscience of the world as | well as the conscience of America and | l am happy to pay my tribute of re- ] spect and gratitude to the able. for ! ward-looking men with whom it was | my privilege 10 cooperate for their | unfailing spirit of co-opera ton, their constant effort to- accommodate the | interests they represented to the | principles we were all agreed upon. | The difficulties which were many, lay ] in the circumstances, not often in the | men. Almost without exception the ! men who led had caught the true and | full vision of the problem of peace as | an indtvisible whole. a problem, not | of mere adjustments of interests but
 of Justice and right action.
 | The atmosphere in which the con- | ference worked seemed created, not | by the ambitions of strong govern | ments, but by the hopes and aspira- | lions of small nations and of peo. ! pltS lilAHtTNo undtE DOnuaSe 10 the | power that victory had shattered ! and destroyed Two great empires | had been forced into political bank | ruptcy ana we were the receivers | Our task was not only to make peace | with the central empires and rem | edy the wrongs their armies had | done. The central empires had liv- l ed in open violation of many of the | very rights for which the war had | -I4 | ples over whom they had no natural | right to rule. enforcing, not obedi- | ence but veritable bondage, exploit | ing those who were weak for the | benefit of those who were masters
 and overlords only by force of arms.
 There could be no peace until the
 whole order of central Europe was | set right.
 That meant that new nations were
 to be created-Poland. Czech Slovaki
 to be created-Poland Czecho Slova-
 kia, Hungary itself. No part of an | cient Poland had ever in any true 1 sense become part of Germany, or of Austora, or of Russia. Bohemia | was alien in every thought and prin- | ciple to the monarchy of which she l go long been an artificial part; and the uneasy partnership between Aus | tria and Hungary had been one of
 
 | Slaves whom Austria had chosen to force into her empire on the south | were kept to their obedience by noth- ing but fear. Their hearts were with their kinsmen in the Balkans. These
 were all arrangements of power not
 arrangements of natural union or as-
 sociation. It was the imperative task
 of those who would make peace and
 make it intelligently, to establish a
 new order which would rest upon the
 free choice of peoples rather upon
 the arbitrary authority of Hapsburgf
 | or Hohenzollerns.
 More than that, great populations bound by sympathy and actual kin to Rumaniz were also linked against their will to the conglomerate Austro- | Hungarian monarchy or to other alien sovereignties and it was part of the task Of peace to make a new Ru- mania as well as a new Slavic state e [ clustering about Serbia.
 And natural frontiers could be found to these new fields of adjust , ment and redemption. It was neces- : sary to look constantly forward to
 other related tasks. The German ) colonies were to be disposed of. They } had not been governed; they had been exploited merely, without thought of l the interest, even the ordinary hu-
 man rights. of their inhabitants.
 The Turkish empire, moreover, had , , fallen apart. as the Austro-Hungar- . ian had. It had never had any real |, unity It had been held together , only by pitiless, tnhuman force. Its f peoples cried aloud for release. for
 succo- from unspeakable distress, for : all that the new day of hope seemed = at last to bring within it's dawn ? Peoples hitherto in utter darkness
 [ were to be led out into the same light ? Land given at las. a helping hand g Undeveloped peoples and peoples I ready for recognition but not yet r Iiready to assume the full responsibili. y ties of statehood were to be given l adequate guarantees of friendly pro- - lection, guidance and assistance. I And out of the execution of these 1 gerat enterprises of liberty sprane 0 opportunities to attempt what states s men had never found the way before l to do; an opportunity to throw safe = inc rights of racial. na-