Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-05-03

there was no definite undcrot and;ng.
Mr.. Wilson's diplomatic exchange OF
notes with the British, French and
Italian government during the
months of September and October
were notable efforts to commit the
allies to a peace without rancor and
a peace that would not SOW the. seeds
of another war. Mr.. Wilson SlrOVe
for peace without selfishness.
Men like Prime Minister Lloyd
George, of Britain; Premier Clemen-
ceau, of France, and Premier Or
lando, of Italy, were not as ready to
embrace the Wilson idealism chiefly
because their own peoples wer2 not
in the mood to be wind to the enemy
who had given no quarter and had
Waged q relentless and ruthless bat
tie on helpless men, women and chill
dren-non-cOmbantants on land and
sea. Undoubtedly, Mr.. Wilson's
views were those of the far-seeing
statesmen--they were the terms of
dispassionate judgment not of anger
or prejudice. But it was a material
istic atmosphere which Woodrow
Wilson encountered on his arrival in
Europe at the head of the American
peace mission.
People everywhere cheered him. I
shall never forget the triumphal
drive of President Woodrow Wilson
down the Champ d'Elsee, of Paris, or
the fanatical welcome given him in
the streets of Rome or the spOn-
taneOus outbursts of the people Of
London and Manchester
Mr.. Wilson thought he had. won
public opinion to his side. 1t was
true-for' q while. What Mr.. Wilson
did not realize was that public opin-
ion in Europe is not made as it is
in America by the newspapers but
solely by the officials in power and
the professional cliques who control
parliamentary governments. Just as
soon as President Wilson began to
interpose objections to the plans of
the allied peacemakers, the press
was turned against him with the SIM
pie ease that one lights a match to
fire. Liberal opinion in Europe
stood by Woodrow Wilson, but it was
helpless. The French press guided
by the French government, and par
ticularly Monsieur CIemenceau and
his colleagues, kept up a constant
bOmbardment of the Wilson policies.
The French newspapers were con-
WINGED they were acting for the best
interests in France and that Mr. Will
sons plans would mean insecurity.
President Wilson agreed to many of
the allied proposals even though he
would have phrased them otherwise
If they had been given to him alone
to decide. The defects he accepted,
however, because of q belief that the
League of Nations would be a con-
tinuing peace conference, revising
constantly the mistakes of the treaty
and modifying those provisions which
in actual practice might work hard
ship.
SO President Wilson staked all to
get the League of Nations establish
ed. The French were won over to
the League idea only because of a be-
lief that the international orGaniza-
ton would be supplied with an army
and navy sufficient to police the
world and enforce the treaty. When
Mr.. Wilson refused to accept the idea
of an international police force, some
of the allied statemen, particularly
the Franch, We're dismayed.
To one who was an eyewitness in
Paris during the peace conference
and who later watched at close range
the debates in the United States SEN
ate over the meaning of the League
of Nations nothing could be more
contradictory than the two situa-
lions. For in Paris it was Woodrow
Wilson who was fighting almost the
entire allied group in constituting a
League of Nations which would not
be an interference with the sovereign.
ty of any SlSnatOry power but an
advisory body through which all the
nations could act independently or
jointly if they desired. In the senate,
however, the League proposal was
hailed as Il Super-gOVernment and a
surrender of American sovereignty
There was a time when the French
press criticised Mr.. Wilson'S refusal
to go along with the allied plans for
by military force, because of a be-
lief that the Republican in the
United Sattes would certainly sup
port the French militaristic idea. 1t
was interesting, indeed to see the
French press completely out Of tune
with what the Republican party in the
United States was actually seeking
to aCcOmplihs, and it was not until
many months after Mr.. Wilson re-
turned to America that Europe saw
at last that the Republican party
was drifting toward policy of isola-
ton while President Wilson was the
true friend of international Co-opera-
ton. Had Mr.. Wilson's position been
appraised sooner in Paris, he might
have been listened to more sympa-
theticalIy by the allied world.
Disappointment inevitably follow