Great Falls daily tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1895-1921, 1921-01-03
PEACE CONFERENCE
REVELATIONS.

REVELATIONS.
DARNEY BARUCH's recent book
l. which deals with the Peace Con-
ference at Paris and the part Presi-
dent Wilson took in it has awakened
even more interest and discussion in
Europe than it has in this country.
The Manchester Guardian, a Brit
ish newspaper Of radical tendencies,
but wide circulation and influence,
thus comments on it:
.'Mr. Baruch's argument to show
that the president could not have
done better for his ideal of a peace,
and that the treaty embraced all that
could have been obtained Of his prin-
ciples, raises number of very inter
estlng questions. 1t turns on his
reading Of the political situation in
the winter of 1918-l9 Re thinks
that situation was desperate, and that
reason could make no head against
passion. President Wilson had laid
down the lines of peacc which he
thought just and statesinanlike. The
allies had accepted his basis il
formal and public manner. Germany
had surrendered on the understand
ing that the peace would conform to
these conditions. So far everything
was relatively simple. Unfortunate
ly there was human nature" to be
considered. Germany was SO com
pletely crippled by the conditions OF
the arinistice that it was no longer
necessary to consider her. The allies
had only to consider their obligations
and the expectations Of their elector-
ates. Now Mr.. Lloyd George in
England ard NJ. Clenenceau in
France had raised these expectations
to such point that any peace made
on the presidents lines would have
provoked storm in which their gov
ernments would have gone under.
The president, therefore, was fight
ing from the first losing battle. If
America had been out of it the peace
would have been much more vindic-
tive.
For example, the French and
British delegations, as we learn from
Mr.. Baruch, pressed the contention
that Germany was liable for the
whole cost of the war. The prcsi-
dent on his way back from America
received full report of this argu-
ment by wireless He replied that
the delegation must dissent, and, if
necessary, dissent publicly, from
procedure clearly inconsistent with
what we deliberately led the enemy
to expect, and cannot now alter sim
ply because we have the power
This is perhaps the most interesting
revelation in Mr.. Baruch's book.
This full claim was then dropped,
but the final arrangements were so
drastic that the president only &C
cepted them from necessity after
spending days and weeks vainly en-
deavoring to convince their col
leagues in the allied and associated
governments that it was impossible
for Germany to pay anything like
the sum required under the cate
gories.
"Mr. Baruch's apologize suggests a
question which must have come into
many minds during those tedious
wrangles at Paris What would have
happened if President Wilson had
stayed at home and kept unflinch-
ingly by his principles, answering all
proposals as he answered in the dis
patch quoted by Mr.. Baruch, or if,
having come to Europe, he had ap-
pealed to the people when he saw
the governments would not carry out
his prineiples7 He made one appeal
ON Fiume-but he chose bad is
sue, and the way in which it was
done showed how little he knew of
Europe. His ignorance and the un-
suitability of his particular intellec-
tual qualities for personal negotia-
ton put him at the mercy Of the
minds he encountered at Paris. Were
the Americans right in thinking that
Ekile British and French peoples were