The Medina sentinel. [volume] (Medina, Ohio) 1888-1961, 1921-03-11
who rendered the most signal service
to the great human cause.

reference to the close. of Hannibafs
career in failure and eclipse, "0n
those whom the gods love they lavish
infinite joys and infinite sorrows" II
has come back to my mind in refer
ence to the close of Wilson's career.
For few brief moments he became
the center of the worlds hopes-A And
then he fell, misunderstood and re-
jected by his own people, and his
great career closes apparently in sig
nal and tragic defeat.
What is the explanation Of this
tremendous tragedy which closely
concerns the whole world?
The position occupied sby President
Wilson in the worlds imagination at
the close Of the great war and at the
beginning of the peace conference was
terrible in its greatness.
Probably to no human being in al
history, did the hopes, the prayers,
the aspirations Of so many millions
Of his fellows turn with such poig-
nant intensity as to him at the close
of the war. h
His lofty moral idealism seemed
| for moment to dominate the brutal
passions, which had torn the old
world asunder.
In this atmosphere Of extravagant,
| almost frenzied, expectation he ar
rived at the Paris peace conference.
Without hesitation he plunged into
that inferno Of human passions.
And then he emerged with the
peace treaty. It was not Wilson
peace, and he made a fatal mistake
| in somehow giving the impression
that the peace was in accord with his
Fourteen Points and his various dec
larations.
1t was haggard peace with fea-
lures distorted with hatred, greed
and selfshness, and the little child
that it carried was scarcely noticed.
1 To Woodrow Wilson, the apparent
failure, belongs the undying honor
which will grow with the growing
centuries, Of having saved the little
child that shall lead them yet" Nt
other statesman but Wilson coulc
have done it. And he did it. +
The people, the common people q
all lands did not understand the sig
nificance Of what had happened. They
saw only that hard, unlovely Prus
sian peace, and the great hope diee
in their hearts.
And finally America Joined the pacl
and at the end it was his own peo
pie who tore him to pieces.
i Will this Judgment, born Of mo
mentarys disillusion and disappoint
Iment, stand in, future, Or will iessh
reversed? The time has not COM COM
!, to pass final Judgment.
# Wilson has been harshly, unfairly
unjustly dealt with, and has bhee'
made scapegoat for the sins p
others. LIZA. .sa sIss
i Paris proved this terrible trutl
once imofe. 1t was not Wilson VIII
failed there, but humanity itself, an
the people behind the statesmen.
As l said at the time, the req
peace was still to come, and it coul
only come from a new spirit in tn
people themselves.
What was really saved at Pari
was the child-the covenant of tn
League of Nations.
The political realists, who had thei
eye on the loot were prepared-how
J ever reluctantly-to throw that innt
J cent little sop TO President Wilson.
Others had seen with him the grea
: vision. But his was the power an
the will that had carried it thru.
The honor is very great, indeet
J for the covenant is one Of the gres
creative documents Of human histor!
The peace treaty will fade into mel
ciful oblivion.
But the covenant will stand as SUI
as fate.
= Forty-two nations gathered 'roun
iit at the first meeting of the leagu
at Geneva. And the day is not ia
: off when all the free peoples Of tt
' world will gather round it. It mu'
succeed, because there is no otht
way for the future Of civilization.
Americans Of the future will "
: proudly and gratefully rank hi
with Washington and Lincoln, ar
his fame will have more univers
Z significance than theirs.