Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-03-09
CHAPTER XXXIV
Nontinued)
Appreciated Position


No one more than Woodrow Will
son appreciated the tragedy of dis
appointment that might eventually
follow out of his efforts for peace,
but he was willing to make any sac
rif1ce to attain the end he had so
close to his heart.
He realized better than any one
that great expectations of the Ameri-
can people. Discussing these eXpec-
tations with Mr.. Creel, who was to
accompany him, he said, ct is to
America that the whole world turns
| today, not only with it's wrongs but
with it's hopes and grievances. The
| hungry expect us to feed them. The
! homeless look to us for shelter, the
I sick of heart and body depend upon
us for cure. All of these eXpecta-
tons have in them the quality Of ter
rible urgency. There must be no de-
lay. 1t has been so always. People
will endure their tyrants for years,
but they will tear their deliverers to
pieces if a millennium is not Great
ed Immediately. Yet, you know and
I know that these ancient wrongs,
these present unhappinesses, are not
to be remedied in day or with a
wave of the hand. What I seem to
see-with all my heart I hope that
I am wrong-is a tragedy of disap-
pointment."
| The president and I had often dis
cussed the personnel of the peace
commission before it's announcement,
and 1 had taken the liberty of sug-
costing to the president the name of
| eX-Secretary of State Elihu Root.
The president appeared to be delight
ed with this suggestion and asked
me to confer with Secretary Lansing
in regard to this matter. I confer
red with Mr.. Lansing, to whom the
suggestion, much to my surprise,
met with heary response. AT this
conference Mr.. Lansing said that
he and the president were attempting
| to induce some member of the SUI
preme COURT think it was either
Mr.. Justice Day or Chief Justice
White-to make the trip to Paris as
one Of the commission; but that they
were informed that Chief Justice
White was opposed to the selection
of a supreme court judge to partici-
pate in any conference not connected
with the usual judicial work of the
supreme court.
|
New York, there to remain with my
father who lay seriously i'll, and
when / returned to the White House
the president informed me that he
and Mr.. Lansing had had a further
conference with reference to the Root
suggestion and that it was about con-
cluded that it would be inadvisable
to make Mr.. Root member of the
I
it would be unWise to take Mr.. Root,
fearing that the reputation which
Mr.. Root had gained Of being rather
conservative, if not reactionary,
would work a prejudice toward the
peace commission at the outset.
Taft Considered.
Mr.. Taft's name was considered,
but it was finally decided not to
include him among the commissions
TO accompany the president.
| The personnel of the commission,
as finally constituted, has been much
criticized, but the president had
what were for him convincing rea-
sons for each selection; he had form
ed a high opinion of Colonel Z. M.
| Houses ability to judge clearly and
dispassionately men and events; Mr..
Robert Lansing as secretary of state,
was a natural choice; Mr.. Henry
White, Republican unembittered
by partisanship, had had lifelong
and honorable experience in diplo-
macy; General Tasker Bliss was en-
inently qualified to advise in mill
tary matters. and was quite divorced
from the politics of either party. The
president believed that these gentle
men would cooperate with him 10y
ally in a difficult task.
quote from Mr.. Creel: 1.-THE
truly important body-and this the
president realized from the first
was the group of experts that went
along with this commission, the pick
of the country's most famous spe'
cialists in finance, history, econom'
les, international law, colonial ques'
tons, map-making, ethnic distinc'
tons, and all those other matters
that were to come up OF the peace
conference. They constituted the
presidents arsenal of facts, and even
on board the George Washington, in
the very first conference, he made
clear his dependence upon them
You are, in truth, my advisers, he
said, for when I ask you for in