South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-01-05
.ARENTS OF
YANKS WAIT
FOR ANSWER
Secretary Declares League of
Nations and Not the Mere
Adherence to Words or
Phrases Demanded.
Associated Press Service

Associated Press Service:
BUFFALO. n. Y, Jan. speak
ing here tonight before the Buffalo
chamber of commerce. Sec'y of War
Baker declared it inconceivable that
the peace conference would make
the world war an insupportable
tragedy by failing 10 provide for u
league of nations or some other ar
rangement TO prevent such disasters
in the future.
We here in America who have
worked and paid" he said. the
fathers and mothers who have given
their sons, surely have a right to
some high assurances of future
peace as a consolidation for their
sacrifices. one cannot close his
eyes and think Of the peace confer
ence at Versailles without feeling
that there hovers over il the spirits
Of millions of dead men demanding
that their sacrifices be not in vain,
that the statesmen of the world now
secure 70 mankind the blessi ngs
which they died to obtain"
Mr.. Baker said he had no inten-
ton of speaking for the president.
whose statements had been explicit
and in whose hands the case Of
America was now placed.
Wilson Fights for Freedom.
He stands with head erect" said
the secretary, lin the ancient places
of the oid world where other kinds
OF treaties used to be made. and
represents a great and free people.
He is the advocate not OF a form
but OF a principle.
1T may be that there are voices
i'm this country which culver with
hesitation and. here and there,
timOrOus uncertainty, but back OF
him in that council chamber are the
voices OF the democracies of the
world, of the men who labor and
the women who sacrifice: he is by
force OF events the spokesman Of
the democracy of the world and the
compositions of this war viii be a
new Magma Charta. a new Bill Of
Rights to libeTate the children Of
the future from the burdens Of the
past"
=
nations. Mr. Baker said it was not
such a scheme as the Holy Alliance
suggested by some Of its critics. 1t
is not proposed out of cabinets Of
absolute ministers he said. but
is rather the passionate demand of
the man OF the street. the simple
and the uusophisucated who know
little of the intrigues and wiles Of
statecraft. but who know very
great deal about the suffering and
sacrifice which war entails
Baker Wants Results.
For my own part. I refuse TO be
timid about Americas capacity 10
do new things which are needed in
a new world. ] decline TO distrust
our purposes or TO shrink from
moving forward because the road
seems wider and higher than roads
we have travelled hitherto. 1 do not
know what form these arrange
ments can take. I am not welded
to any particular method of pre-
serving the peace of the world.
DO not believe that 80 great an OBJ
Jet can be accomplished by merely
adherins TO "a particular form Of
words or phrases.
The peace conference. Mr.. Baker
said, undoubtedly faced intricate
and difficult geographical and racial
questions Ii would be conceiv-
ably possible. he added. TO mako
treaties ending this war in the old
way. quieting its present discords
and dealing with each national
claim as though II were individual
and OF no general interest
but we had a world organized
in the old way in 1914" he contin-
lCONTINTED on PAGE FOuRl