Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1921-03-02

great Hope was not the heralding OF
the coming dawn. as the peoples thot
| but only a dim imitation of some fan
| off event towards which we shall yet
have to make many long weary
i march. Sincerely we believed in the
moral ideals for which we had fought
| the temptation at Paris of a large
| booty to be divided proved too great.
| And in the end not only the leaders
/ but the people preferred a bit of booty
! here. a strategic frontier there. a coal
field or an oil well, an addition to their
population or their resOurccs-tO all
the faint allurements of the ideal AS
l said al the time, the real peace was
still to come. and it could only come
i from new spirit in the peoples them
selves.
What was really saved at Paris was
the Child-the covenant Of the League
of Nations. The political realists who
had their eyes on the loot were prepar-
ed--hoWeVcr reluctantIy-to throw
that innocent little sop to President
Wilson and his fellow ideaIists After
ALL there was not much harm in it, it
threatened to present national interest.
and 1T gave great pleasure to a num-
Der of good impractical people in most
countries. Above all. President Wilson
had to be conciliated. and this was the
last and the Sreate.'t of the fourteen
points on which he had set his heart
and by which he was determined to
stand 10 or fall. And so he got his way.
But it is fact that only a man of his
great power and influence and dogged
determination could have carried the
covenant through the peace conference,
Others had seen with him the great
vision. others perhaps had given moro
thought to the elaboration of the great
plan. But his was the power and the
will that carried it through. The cove
nant is Wilson's souvenir to the future
of the. world. No one Will ever deny
hIm that honor.
The honor is very great, indeed TOR
the covenant is one of the great crea-
tive documents of human history. The
peace treaty will fade into mercifuI OBJ
Iivion. and it's provisions will be grad
tides sweeping over the world But the
covenant viii stand az sure as fate
Forty-two nations gathered around it
at the first meeting of the league at Ge-
neva. And the day is not far off when
all the free peoples of the world viii
gather round it. 1t must succeed. be
cause there is no other way for the fu-
ture of civilization. 1t does not realize
the great hopes born of the war but it
provides the only method and instru-
ment by which in the course of time
those hopes can be realized. Speaking
as one who has some right to speak on
tho fundamental conceptions, objects.
and methods of the covenant. ! feel
sure that most of the criticism is based
on Observation-Disclosures. Those misun-
n y.,.tp q Il h.
one the peoples still outside the cove
rant will fall in behind this banner
under which the human race is going
t." march forward to triumphS of
peaceful organization and achievement
IIndreamt of by us children of an un-
happy era. And the leader who. in
spite of apparent failure. succeeded in
rs"ribinT his name on that banr"r
achieved the most enViable and en-
during Immortality. Americans of the
future will yet proudly and gratefully
rank him with Washington and Lin
coin. and his name will have a moro
universal significance than theirs.