Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-03-09
WILSON'S LETTER

The text of President WILSON'S letter
in full follows:
..NIy Dear Senator Hitchcock under
stand that one OF two OF your colleagues
do me the honor of desiring to know
what nv views are with reference TO
Article 10 of the league of nations ana
the effect upon the league of the adop-
ton of certain proposed reservations to
that article / welcome the opportunity
to throw any light l can upon subject
which has become so singularly be
clouded by misrepresentation and mis-
interpretations Of every kind
There. is nc escaping the moral OBJ
legations which are expressed In positive
terms in this article of the covenant. We
won 4 moral victory over Germany far
greater even than the military victory
won on the field of battle, because the
opinion of the whole world swung TO our
support and the support of the nations
associated with US in the great struggle.
II did so because OF our common pro-
fession and promise that we meant to
establish an organization Of peace which
should make Il certain that the COM
bined mower Of free nations would cheek
every invasion Of right and serve to
make peace and justice the more secure
bv sffording a definite tribunal OF opinion
10 which all must submit and by which
every international readjustment that
can not be amicably agreed upon by the
peoples directly concerned shall be sane
toned This promise and assurance were
written into the preliminaries OF the
armistice and into the preliminaries of
the ueace itself and constitute one OF
the most sacred obligations ever assumed
BY any nation or body Of nations. 1t Is
uuthinkable that America should set the
example Of ignoring such a solemn moral
engagement.
DECLARES LOYALTY
TO FIGHTING MEN.
For myself. l feel that ] could not
look the soldiers of our gallant armies
in the face again II / did not do every
thing in my power to remove every
obstacle that lies in the way Of the
adoption of this particular article Of
the covenant, because we made these
pledges to them as we'll as to the rest
Of the world and 1t was to this cause
they deemed themselves devoted In
spirit of crusaders. l should be forever
unfaithful to them II I did not do my
utmost to fulfill the high purpose for
which they fought
II think my dear senator. We can
dismiss from our minds the idea that
1t Is necessary TO stipulate in connection
with Article 10 the constitutional methods
under it. We gain nothing by such stipu-
lations and secure nothing which is not
already secured. 1t was understood as a
matter of course at the conference In
Paris that whatever obligations any gov
eminent assumed or whatever duties II
undertook under the treaty would of
course have to be fulfilled by it's usual
and established constitutional methods
of action. Once or twice in meetings OF
the conference, when the treaty was under
consideration, reservations we're made to
that effect by the representa- ves of in
dividual powers, and those reservations
were invariably received in the way in
which men who have met for business
and not for talk always receive acts Of
scrupulous ogation-listened to
with Indifferent silence, as such men
listen to what is a matter OF course and
was not necessary to say.
There can be no objection TO explain
Ing again what our constitutional method
is and that our congress alone can de-
clare war or determine the causes or oc-
casionS for war, aud that 1t alone can
authorize the use of the armed forces OF
the United States on land or on the sea.
But to make such a declaration would
certainly be work of superero CATION.
OBSERVATIONS SEEN
ONLY AS NULLIFIERS.
Il am sorry to say that the reserva 70
tons that have come under my notice
are. almost without exception, not inter
pretations of the articles to which 1t is
proposed to attach them, but In effect
virtual notifications of those articles
ANY reservation which seeks to de-
prive the league of nations Of the force
of Article 10 cuts at the very heart and
life of the covenant itself. Any league
of nations which does not guarantee, as
a matter of incontestable right. the pO-
litical independence and integrity of eacE
Of it's members might be hardly more
than a futile scrap of paper, as inef.
fective in operation as the agreement be
tween Belgium and Germany which the
Germans violated in 1914. Article 10, as
written into the treaty Of Versailles, rep
resents the remuneration by Great Britain
and Japan, which before the war. had be
gun to find so many interests in common
in the Pacific; by Franco, by Italy-by
all the great fighting powers of the world
of the old pretensions Of political con
quest and territorial aggraudizemc1t IT
is a new doctrine in the worlds affairs
and must be recognized as there is - ,
secure basis for the peace which thc
whole world so longingly desires and so
desperately needs. If Article 10 10 not
adopted and acted upon, the governments
which reject 1t will, l think, be guilty
of bad faith to their people whom they
induced to make the Infinite sacrifices Of
the war by the pledge that they would be
lighting to redeem the world from the
old order of forceess2 aggression. They