The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-04
TRIP TO EUROPE MARKED EPOCH
T Memorable Voyage And Fight n For League Of Nations Was
 Fs Spectacular

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 a,. WASHINGTON, Feb. 8.-(By Asso- ciated Press) Woodrow Wilson's par hcipation in the peace conference at Paris at the conclusion of the world war was aptly described by one writer ss presidential voyage leading to the discovery of Europe"
 .. It was a voyage which aroused the httsrest partisanship in the United States.
 Mr. Wilson's judgment was that siuee the United States had taken a principal part in the war and since he as president had laid down certain prin- cples of the peace as a means of pre- .aysnting wars in the future, his place nwss at the conference where the peace was to be made.
 ,s tn Congress, but having made his de- cisfon, Mir. Wilson went ahead with it, ... ~ was characteristic of him.
 xs. D. NJ. House, whom the president ap- ,l pointed one of the members of the n American Peace mission, already WAS rss h Paris; 30 was Major General Bliss, eA<VeAscA AASAAbCAs A1ChAy " AAect ANt hA~A ambassador to France, appointed niember as republican, and Robert Lansing, MT. Wilson's secretary of state went on the same ship with the presi- sdent. Facts Distorted -. Hostile critics of the presidential Vnyage distorted many of the facts in connection with it and as a result Mir. Wilson suffered some in the public eyes, 1tswas widely stated, for instance, that the president caused to be built at pub lie expense on the steamer George Washington, a glass enclosed prome- made deck for his personal comfort. The fact was that the Germans had equipped the George Washington with glass enclosed deck as an attraction to Ameri- can tourist travel. MT Wilson simply used the same deck. It was widely re- ported, as a subject of criticism, that MT. Wilson at public expense carried along an orchestra to play for him. The fact was that the George Washington was being used as a transport to bring home wounded soldiers and sailors, and in her ships company was an orchestra of enlisted men, which did play.
 MT. Wilson felt that sort of criticism very keenly, although he never answer ed it.
 The presidents troubles began before the George Washington left the dock at Hoboken. He had ordered that only the peace mission party and its neces- sary attaches be permitted to board, and was amazed to find the ship crowded with army officers, naval officers, minor attaches of the diplomatic attaches of admirals and generals and scores of Afhara xsrhA kAH %o selves assigned to passage-all with the obviously principal objective of en- toying the distinction and prestige of landing in France as a member of President Wilson's official party.
 Parasites on Trip Annoyed Him
 Inasmuch as MT. Wilson had flst,y declined to take with him many esse+ persons who made their fsqpests a per sonal matter and bad ever refused tc take one of his song in-taw on fre ground that be couId not make ;he ", age junteS at public sxpanse. he was very much annoyed sna esnod for fp1 hsf of tbe p&ssenetry IT h definite csscr5paons c7 sls duties which they eieime5.
 .T hhsv. foa ss aid, helplessly n A confidsaee, "tfs ..early everyone f4~L- Ac ~At " uh occAoeuhS pbo is goins ta oe an assistant to an assistant ,n somebody else. l shall be criticised for this, too, and l shall not tc able to explain it."
 To one or two other confidantes, however, Mir. Wilson did speak with some degree of freedom, saying at that early day that he believed the amount of indemnity which the allied govern ments proposed to exact from Germany was beyond her capacity to pay; that he would entwine the treaty of peace and the covenant of the League of Ma ions so inseperably that any nation would be unable to accept one without accepting the other; and that if the European nations declined to make a practical application of the terms he was proposing he would withdraw the American mission and go home. Time proved that he was speaking by the Book. If there was any doubt of his plans it was not in his own mind for he told these confidantes what he in tended to say to Lloyd George. to Gle menceau and Orlando and be later &C., tually said all those things.
 Lands at Brest
 Landing at Brest on December 18th, on the most memorable trip ever made by any American president, MT. Will son entered into a period of public acclaim, and adulation approaching hero worship on the one hand; and 8 net work of diplomatic intrigue on the other. He learned very soon that the peoples of Europe, tired of war and wars, hailed his proposal of League of Nations as a panacea for all their ills, while the statesmen with whom he had to deal were admittedly luke warm and immediately concerned in in demnities from Germany and material guarantees against recurrence of her, dreams of world conquest, Mir. Wilson firmly believed his League of Nations. such a guarantee and he openly set about to enlist the peoples of Europe on his side so solidly that her statesmen would be obliged to yield. He openly s.izxss.zs.l adznd +hst Lis