The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1921-02-11
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Commerolalizing Public Archives

Commerolalixing Public Archives
Washington, Feb. 8.-"The country is
about to be treated to the spectacle of
private citizen being called into the
White House, put in charge of vital
documents and told to collate them for
the personal use of Mr.. Wilson in the
future" declares the Republican Pub
licity Association, through it's president,
Hon. Jonathan Bourne, Jr. "Mr. Ray
Stannard Baker has offered, and the
President has accepted, his services to
collect and arrange for ready reference
the papers and documents in Mr.
Wilson's possession relating to the work
of the peace conference. The files are
being put in shape to facilitate the
preparation of book by Mr.. Wilson
when he has retired from the White
House and resumed the status of a
private citizen. 1t is understood that
for several weeks Mr.. Baker has passed
part of each day at the White House,
asserting the Versailles data, and
presumably the President will take it
with him to his Office in his new
residence
us this the material that Mr.. Wilson
refused to transmit to the Senate by his
failure to respond to resolutions re-
questing it9 In all the months that the
peace treaty was under consideration
in the Foreign Relations Committee
and in the Senate itself, Senators were
denied access to the data upon which
the league and treaty were based and
which was available at all times to the
President while he was in Paris. Is the
original copy of the peace treaty itself,
returned to the President by the Senate,
to be included in the collection and
carted away to take its place in the
private files of Mr.. Wilson,
There should be way found to pre-.
vent such wholesale spoliation of the
United States records of state. Mr..
Wilson is now President, and as such
is charged by the Constitution with the
negotiation of treaties. Our future
relations with Germany are still un.
determined, and the president has the
power to resume negotiations with her
at any time; indeed, it has been his
duty to do 80 ever since the rejection of
the Versailles treaty by the Senate.
While matters remain in their present
state it is proper that the President
retain in his possession the data bearing
on the war and its termination.
But it will likewise bee come the
duty of President Harding to take up
our international relations in the con.
dition in which they are left by his
predecessor and endesyor to restore
them to normal ouce more. In the
discharge of that duty he has right to
all public records that are now at the
hand of Mr.. Wilson. Such records are
the property of the United States, and
their future use should be with respect
to such international negotiations as
may be entered upon by President
Harding or his successors 1t may be
proper to permit Citizen Wilson or any
other duly accredited citizen access to
them for reference in the writing of
history or for any other purpose. but
that they shall become q part of the
personal memoranda of Woodrow Will.
son, Is unthinkable.
''The President made the fatal mis-
take while at Paris of treating the
Versailles treaty as an undertaking
between Germany, the allies, and
Woodrow Wilson, the individual, rath.
or than President Wilson, the agent Of
1l0, 900, 900 American citizens. It was
largely because of his disregard of their
interests that the treaty was uucermon.
iously rejected by their elected repre-
sentatives in the Senate. Now appar.
emily he assumes that records aud
documents that formed Ia part of these
negotiations are his personal property
instead of part of the national arch
ives. Mr.. Wilson's mind should be
disabused of that idea before March 4th,
and before he has had q chance to carry
his plans Of confiscation into effect"