The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1921-03-13

man born Of woman in the history of
the race would have saved that situa-
ton. The great Hope was not the
heralding of the coming dawn, as the
peoples thought, but only a dim intl-
nation of some far off event towards
which we shall yet have to make
many a long weary march. Sincerely
as we believed in the moral ideals for
which we had fought, the temptation
at Paris Of a large booty to be divid-
ed proved too great And in the end
not only the leaders but the peoples
preferred bit of booty here, q strate-
gic frontier there, coal field or an
oil well, an addition to their popula-
ton or their resources-to all the faint
allurements of the ideal. AS l said at
the time, the real Peace was still to
come, and it could only come from a
new spirit in the peoples themselves.
What was really saved at Paris
was the Child-the Covenant of the
League of Nations. The political rea-
lists who had their eve on the loot
were prepared-however reluctantly
to throw that innocent little sop to
. lNsolOTilN w lI1OA sllii llo lNliOW lbNeh'
lists. After all, there was not much
harm in it, it threatened no present
national interest, and it gave great
pleasure to q number of good unprac-
tcal people in most countries. Above
all, President Wilson had to be con-
ciliated, and this was the last and
the greatest Of the Fourteen Points on
which he had set his heart and by
which he was determined to stand or
fall. And so he got his way But
it is a fact that only man Of his
great power and influence and dogged
determination could have carried the
Covenant through that Peace Confer
ence. Others had seen with him the
great vision, others had perhaps given
more thought to the elaboration of
the great plan. But his was the pow
er and the will that carried it through.
The Covenant is Wilson's souvenir
to the future Of the world. No one
will ever deny him that honor,
The honor is very great, indeed, for
the Covenant is one Of the great Gre
ative documents of human history
The Peace Treaty will fade into merci-
ful oblivion, and its provisions will be
gradually obliterated by the great hu-
man tides sweeping over the world.
But the Covenant will stand as sure
as fate Forty-two nations gathered
round It at the first meeting of the
League at Geneva. And the day is
not far off when all the free peoples
of the world will gather round it. 1t
must succeed, because there Is no
other way for the future of civiliZa-
ton. 1t does not realize the great
hopes born of the war, but it pro
vides the only method and instrument
by which in the course Of time those
hopes can be realized. Speaking as
one who has some right TO speak on
the fundamental conceptions, objects
and methods of the Covenant, | feel
sure that most of the present crit.
cism Is based on misunderstanding
These misunderstanding will clear
away, one by one the peoples still
outside the Covenant will fall in be-
hind this banner under which the hu-
man race is going TO march forward
TO triumphs of peaceful organization
and achievement undreamt of by us
children of an unhappier era. And
the leader who. in spite of apparent
failure, succeeded in inscribing his
name on that banner has achieved the
most enviable and enduring immortal
ity. Americans of the future will yet
proudly and gratefully rank him with
Washington and Lincoln, and his fame
will have a more universal signifi-
canoe than theirs.