Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1919 — NO MORE WARS SAYS WILSON [ARTICLE]

NO MORE WARS SAYS WILSON

WORLD LEAGUE OF FOURTEEN NATIONS PROCLAIMED BY PRESIDENT. Paris, Feb. 14.—1 n addressing the plenary session of the supreme peace council today President Wilson began: “I have very great pleasure in presenting the report of the commission which has framed the constitution of a league of nations. lam particularly happy to say it is a unanimons report, signed by the representatives of ail the powers on the committee.” President Wilson spoke earnestly, but without oratorical effort. “The best report I can make,” the President continued, “is to read the document itself.” Thereupon he read from a printed sheet thg constitution of the league, while the assembly followed his reading with the closest attention. The results, said President Wilson, embodied the judgment of fourteen nations represented on the commission, and these fourteen nations were a representative group of the conference itself. “This is a union of wall in a common purpose,” the President proceeded. “It is a union which cannot beresisted, -and I dare say one which no nation will attempt to resist.” The President pointed out that the document was no “straightjacket.” It was elastic, and not a vehicle of might, he said. It was yet to be developed, and as yet care should be taken as to the clothes put on it. While elastic, yet it was definite. “It is definite,” continued President Wilson, “as a guarantee of peace. It is definite as a guarantee against aggression. It is definite against a renewal of such a cataclysm as has just shaken civilization.” ;; The President spoke with especial

emphasis as he referred to the wrongs committed against helpless peoples. “There is one especially notable feature in this document,” ‘he said. “We are done with .annexations of helpless peoples, at times accomplished in the past for the purpose of the exploiting of these peoples. In this document we recognize that these helpless commlunities are first to be helped and developed and that their own interests and well-being shall come before any material advantage to the mandatory entrusted with their case.” ' . Too often in the past, the President added, the world had seen the lands of helpless communities appropriated for political purposes. “And so,” he said, “while this is a practical document, it is, above all, a human document. It is practical, and at the same time it is designed to purify, to rectify, to elevate.”