The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1919-07-17

America at the peace table. 1t was
cur duty to see to it that every de.
| cision we took part in contributed so
far as we were able to influence It,
to quiet the fears and realize the
hopes of the peoples who had been
living in that shadow, the nations that
had come by our assistance to their
freedom. 1t was our duty to do every
thing that was within Our power to do
to make the triumph of freedom and
of right a lasting triumph in the as
surance of which men might every.
where live without fear.
Treaties to Be Enforced.
Future international conventions
with regard to the control Of water
ways with regard to the illicit traffic
Of many kinds, in arms Or in deadly
drugs. or with regard to the adjust
ment of many varying international
administrative arrangements could not
be assured if the treaty were to pro-
vide no permanent common interna.
tional agency, if it's execution in such
matters was to be left to the slow and
uncertain processes Of cooperation
by ordinary methods of negotiation,
If the peace conference itself was to
be the end of cooperative authority
and common counsel among the gov
ernments to which the world was look
ing to enforce justice and give pledges
Of an enduring settlement.
Regions like the Saar basin could not
be put under a temporary administra-
tive regime which! did not involve a
transfer of political sovereignty, and
which contemplated a final determine.
ton of its political connections by
popular vote to be taken at a distant
date. NO free city like Danzig could
be created which was under elaborate
international guarantees. to accept en-
ceptional obligations with regard to
the use OF its port and exceptional re-
lations with a state of which it was not
to form a part.
Properly safeguarded plebiscites
could llot be provided for where popa-
lations were at some future date to
make choice what sovereignty they
would live under, no certain and uni
form method Of arbitration could be
secured fer the settlement of .antici,
pated difficulties of final decision with
regard to many matters dealt with in
the treaty itself.
Nations League Essential.
The long continued supervision of
the task OF r%eDaration which Germany
was to undertake to complete within
the mex generation might entirely
break down. The reconsideration and
revision of administrative
ments and restrictions which the treaty
prescribed but which it was RECOGNIZED
might not prove of lasting advantage
or entirely fair if too long enforced
would be impracticahle. The promises
governments were making to one an
other about the way in which labor
was to be dealt with, by law not only,
but in fact as we'll. would remain a
mere thesis if there was to be no COM
mon tribunal of opinion and Judgment
to which liberal statesmen could" resort
for the influences which alone might
secure their redemption.
A league of free nations had become
a practical necessity. Examine the
treaty of peace and you will find that
everywhere throughout it's manifold
provisions it's trainers have felt obliged
to turn to the League of Nations as
an indispensable instrumentality for
the maintenance of the new order it
has beer their purpose to set up in
the world-the world of civilized men.
That there should be a League of
Nations to steady the counsels and
maintain the peaceful understandings
of the world, to make, not treaties
alone, but the accepted principles Of
international law as we'll, the actual
rule of conduct among the govern
ments of the world, had been one of
the agreements accepted from the first
as the basis of peace with the Central
Powers.
The statesmen Of all the belligerent
countries were agreed that such a
league must be created to sustain the
settlements that were to be effected,
but at first l think there was a feeling
among some of them that, while it
must be attempted, the formation of
such a league was perhaps a counsel
OF perfection which practical men, long
experienced in the world of affairs,
must agree to very cautiously and with
many misgivings.
1t was only as the difficult work of
arranging an all but universal adjust
ment of the worlds affairs advanced
from day to day from one stage of con-
ference to another that it became evil
dent to them that what they were
seeking would be little more than
something written upon paper, to be
interpreted and applied by such meth
DDS as the changes of politics might
make available if they did not provide
a means of ommon counsel which all
were obliged to accept. A common
authority whose decisions would be
recognized as decisions which all must
respect.
And so the most practical, the most
skeptical among them turned more and
more to the league as the authority
through which international action