Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1920-09-07

the league of nations. This commits
sion worked for two weeks on the
preparation of constitution" for the
league along the lines of the SHUTS
Cecil draft. The work had to be hur-
ried because President Wilson wished
to sail for the United States February
10. The day before he sailed, the COM
mission gathered its half-considered
ideas into a hastily written Con
stitution of the League of Nations"
and President Wilson presented it to
the Peace conference as a tentative
report. AS the Versailles proceedings
had been carried on in the darkest
secrecy, the most interesting point in
President Wilson's presentation
speech was his tribute to the publicity
which was to make the League of Ma
tons the great expression of "the
moral force of the public opinion of
the world" He said
1--WE are depending primarily and
chiefly upon one great force. and this
is the moral force of the public opin-
ion of the world, the pleasing and
clarifying and compelling influences of
publicity-so that intrigues can no
longer have their coverts, so that
designs that are sinister can at any
time be drawn into the open, so that
those things that are destroyed by the
light may be promptly destroyed by
the overwhelming light of the univer-
sal expression of the condemnation
Of the world"
Although the constitution had been
made public at Paris for the express
purpose of arousing comment and pro-
voxing criticism, it seems to have
been President Wilson's idea that this
privilege did not extend to the United
States. When he arrived in America,
with a copy of this constitution" he
requested no suggestions He pre-
scented is as a sacred text in which no
changes might be made. In his adj
dresses and his conferences he was
intolerant of any criticism. His speech
at Boston, Immediately after landing,
was a message of defiance to any one
who might disagree with him.
II should welcome no sweeter chal-
lenge than that" he said. 81 have
fighting blood in me, and it is some
times a delight to let it have scope,
but if it is challenge on this occa-
sion it will be an Indulgence"
This speech had no suggestion of
invitation to criticism or counsel-not
even an explanation of the terms of
the document itself. Instead it bris-
tied with resentment of the opposition
which he must have felt that his be-
travail of American interests would
arouse when the country learned of
it in detail. For there was no longer
that rigid domestic censorship which
could assure to him uniform praise
, for all he did.
So this first address upon his ar
rival shed no light upon the task he
had gone abroad to perform. 1t was
defiant justification of his acts,
against the criticism he knew would
be provoked by frank account of his
stewardship abroad 1t was con-
+ demnation of marrow, selfish and
provincial purposes which seem SO
dear to some minds that have no
sweep beyond the nearest horizon"
Not a word does he say about the de-
tails of the machinery which would
create a government over and above
the United States, and in whose hand
would be put the issue as to peace
and war for the United States; only
this, if the Wilson plan should fail:
Think of the pictured Think of the
utter blackness of the world
Yet the document which the presi-
dent had signed and for which he de
manded the senate's ratification built
up a new supreme government of the
world, pledged the use of the United
States army and navy in foreign wars
: guaranteed the permanence of the
! new boundaries of the nations, put in
the hands of the league the control
: of ornaments, took from congress the
constitutional right to make war and
subjected this right to the control oil
foreigners, rendered our economic life
subservient to the DEGREES of the
league, provided rules for arbitra-
ton whose violation meant war ant
set up a machinery of secretariats
and commissions whose powers trans
seconded those of the government il
Washington.
Before his arrival in Washington
President Wilson had invited the sen
ate and house committees on foreign
relations to dine with him at tht
White House. At that conference hi
told these committees that "unless
the United States entered the league
of nations, the league would fall ant
chaos and turmoil beyond description
would result in Europe"
Under the cross-examination of thu
committee members it developed tina
the presidents own ideas of the exac
workings of the league Constitution
were vague, that he had not ever
considered some of its most import
ant aspects, that the exact methods
of its operation were highly specula
tive, and that much of it's language
was ambiguous. During the confer
ence Senator Brandegee of Connect
curt said to the president"
"Mr. President. this league of ma
lions will not prevent war"
cit will not" admitted the president
Nothing will prevent war, but it viii
bring about the discussion before tn
beginning of war"
He laid all his emphasis at this tim
and throughout his brief stay in tn
United States on this element of dis
cussion and delay, always ignoring
or concealing the element of fore
which he later discovered to be eth