New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1922-03-29

| to others.-The Freeman. s..
History As She Is Wrote.
This time it is Ray stannard Baker in
the New York Times, engaged in the Off
cial defense Of Mr.. Wilson's colossal fail
ure at Paris, setting forth how that gentle
man was deceived by our beloved allies
in hiding from him their secret treaties.
Mr.. Wilson, it will be remembered, when
the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee
called upon him at the White House,
August 10, 1919, declared that he had
never heard Of these treaties until he
reached Paris. Replying to Senator Bo-
rah's question whether he had any know
ledge of these treaties until you reached
Paris" he said: "Not unless there was
information at the State Department Of
which / knew nothing" Mr.. Lansing
testified similarly; he, too, knew nothing
of them except some vague rumors about
the London agreement. Were you famil-
lar with any other agreements between
- he was asked by Senator Johnson.
"No"- said Secretary Lansing. Mr.. Ba-
ker's pity for this uniformed President
is unbounded. mo real enlightenment
(about these secret treaties) came to the
President from any source" he writes,
and he accuses Mr.. Lansing not only of
''blank ignorance but ''culpable neglect"
But, bless his kindly, plying soul, Mr..
Baker himself is nearly as bad as either
|of them. For he fails utterly to state
that these secret treaties were all pub
lished in the New York Evening Post and
various other newspapers of the United
States ten months before Mr.. Wilson
sd led for Paris, that is, in January-Feb-
ruary, 1918; that they were reprinted in
pamphlet form and sold on subway news
stands by tens Of thousands; that Colonel
House received copies and that a copy
Of the pamphlet was placed in the hands
of every member of Congress. Plainly,
Mr. Wilson and MIR. Tumulty were very
easily victimized by Colonel House and
Mr. Lansing. An expenditure of ten
cents would have placed them in the
possession Of information the lack Of
which, Mr.. Baker points out, put them
at complete disadvantage in the most
important negotiation in history.
These treaties came to the Euemsng
Post by way of Vladivostok rather mys-
teriously, but the superstition always has
been that they were smuggled in next
to the skin of some Russian stoker or
sailor. For it is sardonic fact that the
American censorship and the British CEN
sorship were both bent upon keeping
these treaties out Of the United States
and they would have done so but for
the Evendng's Posts publication The
amusing feature of it all is that the cen
sorship did keep the facts from reaching
the White House, since neither the White
House nor the State Department read
the newspapers. Neither did they read
the debates Of the House Of Commons,
for during the summer Of 1918 they were
frequently debated in that interesting
body, notably on June %, when Mr.. Bal
four-the same Mr.. Balfour who has re-
Gently been in Washington rose in his
seat and said by these treaties we stand
our national honor is bound up in
them" So both Mr.. Wilson and Mr..
Lansing, if they had only heard Of such Al
publication as Hansard, would have
been warned in advance Of exactly what
was going to happen in Paris, and Colonel
House too. The then President Of the
United States was q busy man, but he
did have several secretaries and several