New-York tribune., 1922-11-22
Text Of Tigers Speech

They have heen great nation. and
they will be grest nation again. l
am not opposed to that as long IS
they don & dismember MY nation.
Now, IL | speak of the violation OF
oaths, the violation OF signatures, 1t
is because you must understand what
Ia the feeling that we may be asked
Go enteytain toward Germany. Thers
are no exclusive differences between
Germany and the French. There are
differences between Germany and the
rest of the world. The rest os tho
world live in good faith.
They believe in signature and mn
engagement is n signature and fa an
engagement. And man who doesn't
think in those terlns--well, l will
leave to you what TO do.
have seen during this war Gem
eral Pershing over there and was n
great admirer of him and tho Amer
lear soldiers. | am q great admirer
of the English soldiers. They were
brave and, when called upon to do
things, always did them we'll.
But may ! say word about the
French soldier? He was very stern
and he was very patriotic aud he did
his duty without question. remem-
her that In one of the battles of the
war a group of soldiers were gath
cred together In "a certain place. 1t
was an exposed place where the bull
let's were flying around thick and
fast, and one of the commanders
came along and asked them what they
were doing there, and they said they
were resting, that they had been told
to rest and that they were resting
in an exposed position, risking thcir
lives.
And the war pursued its way, and
you know how it ended. We came
TO tho arrnistice. Here I want Some
OF your attention, because it is
very important point, and, In fact,
something like the foundation of my
reasoning. have heard great
many things about the armistice.
is that the United States had a very
general and noble idea, an idoa
that, before the war was over, wa
should all say what we had made
war for and what we wanted, so that
nobody could attempt after the war
was over to ask for more than it
thought Of before.
fourteen Points" Given
As Treaty's Rasic Issue
And President Wilson came with
his commission. So we all discussed
and we oil agreed about the four
teen pointa, which have become so
well known, and from that time the
world, the Germans, every one, knew
that on such conditions NO would
make peace.
So that when the Germans said,
eve agree on the fourteen points;
we mean exactly the fourteen points"
we had no choice but to accept the
armistice that was proposed. The
whole world would have arisen
against US If we did not accept it.
SO the armistice was in fact auto
matte. The most remarkable point
about it is this: That it was an
American idea that had brought
President Wilson to act as he did
and the American ides entered into
the practice as the war was over.
and our conditions were accepted
by the. Germans, And thence we
began TO see the thing that ia not
being considered at all in this coun-
Try as far as / snow--that the way
was yours as we'll as ours. You
took your share III it.
Treaty Largely Work of
America, He Points Out
II we lost an enormous number Of
men and you lost g. comparatively
small number, it was because the
war did not last longer. Otherwise
we would be losing less and less
and General Pershing's troops would
be losing more and more. But make
up your mind that III the arinistice.
in the treaty and all that followed
There was great share of pure
American work.
For instance. in the armistiee
there was n line saying "Repara-
tions, damages, repairs" There was
also line in the fourteen points.
There was line in the armistice
that was placed in the conditions
of peace that ] would not accept,
and Colonel House agreed with me.
III the armistice the damages wero
to be paid, and President Wilson
said if that kind of peace is not
assured we will go on. did not
ask them to bo executed, but
asked that they begin to be execut-
ed If we had known that for three
years the thing that was guaran-
teed to US was not coming to US we
would have gone to Berlin.
| don't want to take too long.
viii try TO stop as soon as l can.
see my dear friend Paderewski. He
won honor both in the field of art as
we'll as in the political field of his
noble country. He is here as wit
ness to these conditions Of peace.
| will leave the French conditions
and the American conditions. 1t was
not only a question of peace between
France and Germany. We made some
thing which nobody speaks of, which