The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1919-07-11

admit OF Immediate determination. OF
all administrative problems which
were to require a continuing oversight.
What had seemed a counsel of nerfec-
ton had come to seem a plain counsel
Of necessity. The League of Nations
was the practical statesman's hope of
success In many of the most difficult
things he was attempting.
Wars Forever impossible.
Ard it had validated itself In the
thoughts of every member of the con-
ference as something much bigger,
much greater every way than a mere
instrument for carrying out the pro-
visions of a particular treaty. 1t was
universally recognized that all the peo-
Piles of the world demanded of the
conference that 1t should create such
a continuing concert of free nations as
would make wars of aggression and
spoliation such as this that has just
ended forever impossible.
Rule of Force Rejected.
A cry has gone out from every
home In every stricken land from
which sons and brothers and fathers
had gone forth to the great sacrifice
that such a sacrifice should never again
be enacted. 1t was manifest why 1t
had been exacted 1t had been exacted
because one nation desired dominion
and other nations had known no means
of defense except ornaments and ALI
ances. War had lain at the heart of
every arrangement of Europe-every
arrangement of the world-that preced-
ed the war. FESTIVE peoples had been
told that fleets and armies which they
oiled to sustain, meant peace, and now
that they had been lied to; that fleets
and armies had been maintained to
promote national ambitions and meant
war. They knew that no old policy
meant anything else but force, force.
.force-always force. And they knew
that 1t was intolerable.
New Purpose Proclaimed.
Every true heart In the world and
every enlightened judgment demanded
that, at whatever cost of independent
action, every government that took
thought for its people OF for justice or
for ordered freedom should lend itself
to a new purpose and utterly destroy
the old order of international politics.
Statesmen might see difficulties. but
brook no denial. A war In which they
had been bled white to beat the ter
ror that lay concealed In every balance
of power must not end in a mere VIC
tory of arms and a new balance. The
monster that had resorted to arms
must be put In chains that could not
be broken. The united power of free
nations must put a stop to aggression.
and the world must be given peace. II
there was not the will or the intelli-
gence to accomplish that now, there
must be another and a final war and
the world must be swept clean OF every
power that could renew the terror.
The League of Nations was not
merely an instrument to adjust and
remedy old world wrongs under a new
treaty of peace. 1t was the only hope
for mankind. Again and again had the
demon of war been cast out of the
house of the peoples and the house
swept clean by a treaty OF peace. only
to prepare a time when he would en-
ter In again with spirits worse than
himself. The house must now be CIV
en- a tenant who could hold 1t against
all such.
Convenient, indeed indispensable, as
statesmen found the newly planned
League of Nations, they saw 1t in a
new aspect before their work was fin
ished. They saw II as the main object
of the peace, as the only thing that
could complete Ii or make 1t worth
while. They saw 1t as the hope OF
the world, and that hope they did not
dare to disappoint. Shall we or any
other free people hesitate to accept
this great duty? Dare we reject II
and break the heart of the world?
And so the result of the conference
of peace, so far as Germany is con
cerned. stands complete. The Difficult
tiles encountered were very many
Sometimes they seemed insuperable
II was impossible to accommodate the
interests of SO great a body OF nation:
interests which directly or indirect
ly affected almost every nation In thu
world-without many minor comprom
Uses. The treaty, al a result, is no
exactly what we would have written
II is probably not what any n OF tn
national delegates would have written
But results were worked out which o.
the whole bear test. / think that |
will be found that the compromise
which were accepted as inevitable nc
where cut to the heart of any princi
pie. The work of the conference
squares, as a whole. with the primo
pies agreed upon as the basis of tn
peace as well as with the practice
possibilities of the international situa
tons which had to be faced and deal
!, with as facts.
America Disinterested.
We were welcomed as disintereste
friends. We were ~resorted to as arb
ters In many a difficult matter. 1t wa
recognized that our material aid woul
be indispensable In the days to CONF