Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1921-03-04

AK ID, OLYMPIA, WASUINGTON
be reversed? The time has not come
to pass final Judgment on either Will
son or any OF the other great actors
in the drama at Paris. The personal
estimates will depend largely on the
Interpretation Of that drama In the
course of time. Az one who saw and
watched things from the inside |
feelcOnvinced that the present popu-
lar estimates are largely superficial
and will not stand the searching test
! of time. And | have no doubt what
ever that Wilson has been harshly,
unfairly, unjustly dealt with, and
that he has been made a scapegoat
for the sins Of others. Wilson made
mistakes. and there were occasions
when l ventured to sound a warning
note. But 1t was not his mistakes
that caused the failure for which he
has been held mainly responsible.
| Let US admit the truth. however,
bitter 1t Is to do so for those who
| believe in human nature. 1t was not
Wilson who failed. The position is
far more serious. 1t was the human
spirit itself that failed at Paris. 1t
is no use passing judgments and max
| ing scapegoats Of this or that indi-
| vidual statesman or group Of states
| men. Idealists make a great mistake
in not facing the real facts sincerely
and resolutely. They believe in the
power OF the spirit, in the goodness
which is at the heart Of things, in
the triumph which is in store for the
great moral ideals of the race. But
this faith only too often leads to an
optimism which is sadly and fatally
at variance with actual results, 1t is
the realist and not the idealist who
is generally justified by events. We
forget that the human spirit, the
spirit of goodness and truth In the
world, is still only an infant crying
in the night, and that the struggle
with darkness is as yet mostly an un-
equal struggle.
Paris proved this terrible truth
once more. 1t was not Wilson who
failed there, but humanity itself. 1t
SO much as the spirit of the peoples
behind them. The hope, the aspira-
ton for a new world order of peace
and right and justice-however deep
ly and universally felt-was still
| only feeble and ineffective in COM
parisOn with the dominant national
passions which found their express
sion in the peace treaty. Even IL Will
son had been one of the great demi-
gods of the human race, he could
not have saved the peace. Knowing
the peace conference as l knew it
from within. feel convinced in my
own mind that not the greatest man
born of woman in the history of the
race would have saved that situation.
The great hope was not the hearlding
of the coming dawn, as the peoples
thought, but only a dim intimation
of some far of event towards which
| we shall yet have to make many q
long weary march. Sincerely as we
believed in the moral ideals fro which
Paris Of large booty to be divided
proved too great. And in the end
not only the leaders, but the peoples
preferred a bit of booty here,
strategic frontier there, coal filed
or an oil we'll, an addition to their
population 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 peO-
pies themselves.
What was really saved at Paris
was the child-the covenant of the
League of Nations. The political
realists who had their eye on the
loot were prepared-however reluct-
antly- to throw that innocent little
sop to President Wilson and his fell
low idealists. After all, there was not
much harm in 1t, itthreatened no
present national interest, and it gave
great pleasure to number of good
impractical people in most countries.
Above all, President Wilson had to
be consolidated, and this was the last
and the greatest Of the II 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 fact that only man of his great
power and Influence and logged de-
termination 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 elabora-
ton of the great plan. But his was
the power and the will that carried
it through. The covenant is Wilson's
souvenior to the future Of the world.
No one will ever deny him that
honor. q
The honor Is very great indeed, for
the covenant is one of the great cre-
alive documents of human history.
The peace treaty will fade into mer-
ciful oblivion, and its provisions will
be gradually obliterated by the great
human tides sweeping over the
world. But the covenant will stand as