Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-10-11
CONTROVERSY DUE
/ T0'PAR|S. Me- TH0|)S
Poor Translation of Words
] of President Basis of
! Spencer Attack.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE,

+ NEW YORK, October 1.-THE time
has arrived. when the President can
enter the campaign. Gov. Cox. wants
him to do So.
The, issuance of a, statement
refuting what. Senator Spencer said
about the proceedings of the peace
conference and alleged promises to
give American military aid. to
Rumania and Serbia was the first
step. The controversy which ensued
will be cleared up by the President
in a day or two. Unquestionably, it
hre' coming out:
! Az usual, both sides had justifica-
ton for what they said. Senator
Spencer took a newspaper account
supporting to give an accurate copy
Of what the President said. Mr.. Will
son himself, knew he had never made
such promises.
/! The writer attended the Paris peace
conference and remembers the diff
Guilty which everybody experienced
In getting an accurate transcript of
what was said in the open sessions.
This was because half the proceed
ings were in French and the other
half in English.
h IntesRretexss~ Meth0A
L AS soon as President Wilson finish
ed speaking. Lieut.. Mantoux of the
French army, a. remarkable interpre-
ter, would arise and repeat in French
from memory-almoats verbatim, but
not actually, Of thing
that, had heen said. in English.
The interpreter reinforced. his men,
DRY with land-hand notes, as he him.
self was not a. stenographer. but
while he did an extraordinary piece
of work. sometimes repeating speech
les a. half hours. length without in
did not get the precise
meanings, of. many of the English
words.
] When the President himself said
that so far as he knew no actual
stenoEraphic transcript of his speech
was in existence, he had in mind I'M
sdouhtedly the fact. that what Lieut..
EMantoux said was taken down by
sFrench stenographers and, possibly
into English. The copy
which Senator Spencer saw was oh
'tained from French sources, and the
of an American version was
until Fred Carlson. of Chi
scago, an American stenoErapher. told
that he had taken the proceeding in
shorthand and was forwarding a copy
ito the White House..
Same a. Knox Provision.
The discrepancy appears to be be-
tween a specific promise of American
military aid. to. Rumania and the send
ing Of q fleet to Europe as reported
by Senator Spencer, and a general
promise that il the world should be
troubled again as it was in 1917, and
American rights were violated. the
United States would not hesitate to
send a fleet and an army to Europe
once more to save civilization.
i This iS practically the, same thing
ixs Senator Knox included in. ais IA
tmouan paragraph 5 in the resolution
j he wrotss as a substitute for the
SIeague OF nations.
Thee issuance Of the documents
showing. how President Wilson was
lin freauent cable communication with
former President Taft during, the
peace conference isa plainly intended
by the. democrats, and by the Presi-
dent himself as a, refutatinn of the
5oft-repeated charge. that he never
anybody OF that he wanted
the pact ratified without the Cross
ing of q ct" or the dotting Of an 81"
Sexactly aa he wrote it.
Copyright. 19e6C