Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1919 — WILSON TELLS SENATE LEAGUE IS NECESSARY [ARTICLE]

WILSON TELLS SENATE LEAGUE IS NECESSARY

Lawmakers Told That Without Pact Other Wars An Bound to Come. CHIEF WELCOMED BY SOLONS Execeutlve lieclares Agreement f«MW Society of Nations Made Foundation of lleat of Peace Condition*. Easier. Washington, July 11. President Wilson, in presenting the pence treaty with Germany to the senate, declared that "a league of free nations had become a practical necessity," to which the framer* of the treaty felt obliged to turn “ns an Indispensable Instrumentality for the maintenance of the new order it has been their purpose to set up in the world. The “most skeptical” of the peaceconferees at Paris, the president said, had turned more and more to the league, as discussion progressed. In seeking solution of the problems that arose In framing the terms of the treaty Itself. - League Made Work Easier. “The fact that the covenant of the league was the first substantive part of the treaty to be worked out ana agreed upon,” the president said, “while all else was in solution, helped to make the formulation of the reat easier.” Mr. Wilson said the agreement on the covenant had given the conferee* a feeling that their work was to be permanent and that the moat practical among them “were at last the most ready to refer to the League of Na tions the superintendence of all interests which did not admit of Immediate determination, of all administrative problems which were to require a continuing oversight.” “Rebel" Yells for Wilson. “What had seemed a counsel of perfection,” said the president, “had come to seem a plain counsel of necessity. The league of Nations was the practical statesman’s hope of success in many of the most difficult things ho was attempting.” When the president entered the senate chamber, escorted by a committee of senators, the crowded galleries rose and cheered for a minute In disregard of the senate rules. The president, mounting to the vice president’s seat, spoke briefly with Vice President Marshall as the cheering continued, punctuated with “rebel” yells.

Wilson's Address. President Wilson, in presenting the peace treaty and the League of Nations to the senate, spoke in part as follows: “Gentlemen of the Senate: The treaty of peace with Germany was signed at Versailles on the 28th day of June. I avail myself of the earliest, opportunity to lay the treaty before you for ratification and to inform you with regard to the work of the conference by which that treaty was formulated. “The treaty constitutes nothing less, than a world settlement. Why U. 8. Entered War. "The United States entered the whr upon a different footing from every other nation except onr associates on this side of the sea. "We entered it, not because our material Interests were directly threatened or because any special treaty obligations to which we were parties had been violated, but because we saw the supremacy, and even the validity, of right everywhere put in jeopardy and free government likely to be everywhere imperiled by tljie Intolerant aggression of a power which respected neither right nor obligation andwhose very system of government flouted the rights of the citizen as against the autocratic authority of his governors. “And in the settlement of the peace we have sought no special reparation for ourselves, but only the restoration of right and the assurance of liberty everywhere that the effects of the settlement were to be felt. We entered the war as the disinterested champions of right and we interested ourselves in the terms of the peace in no other capacity.

Yanks Had Saved Paris. “That first, never-to-be-forgotten action at Chateau Thierry had already' taken place. Our redoubtable soldiers and marines had already closed the gap the enemy had succeeded in. opening for their advance upon Paris —already had turned the tide of battleback, toward the frontiers of France

and begun the rout tha.' was to save Europe and the world. "Thereafter the Germans were to be always forced back, back; were never to thrust successfully forward again. And yet there was no confident hope. "Anxious men and women, leading spirits of France, attended the celebration of the Fourth of July last year In Paris out of generous courtesy—with no heart for festivity, little zest for hope. "But they camea way with something new in their hearts. They have themselves told us so. The mere sight of our men —of their vigor, of the confitfience that showed itself in every movement of their stalwart figures. "A great moral fore* had flung itself into the struggle. Their very presence brought reassurance. Their fighting made victory certain.

Yanks Were Crusaders. “They were recognized as crusaders, and as their thousands swelled to millions their strength was seen to mean salvation. And they were fit men to carry such a hope and make good the assurance it forecast. “Finer men never went into battle; and their officers were worthy of them. ‘‘But I speak now of what they meant to the men by whose sides they fought, and to the people with whom they mingled with such utter simplicity, as friends who asked only to be of service. They were for all the visible embodiment of America. “What they did made America and all that she stood for a living reality in the thoughts not only of the people of France, but also of tens of millions of men and women throughout all the toiling nations of a world standing everywhere in peril of its freedom and of the loss of everything it held dear, in deadly fear that Its bonds were never to be loosed, its hopes forever to be mocked and disappointed. Duty at Peace Table. "And the compulsion of what they stood for was upon us who represented America at the peace table. "It was our duty to do everything that it was within our power to do to make the triumph of freedom and of right a lasting triumph in the assur-' ance of which men might everywhere live without fear. “Old entanglements of every kind stood in the way. “It had been our privilege to formulate the principles which were accepted as the basis of the peace, but they had been accomplished, not ‘because we had come in to hasten and assure the victory and insist upon them, but because they were readily accepted to as the principle to which honorable and enlightened minds everywhere had V©© n bred. “They spoke the conscience of the world as the conscience of America, and I am happy to pay my tribute of respect and gratitude to the able, for-ward-looking men with whom it was my privilege to co-operate for their unfailing spirit of co-operation, their constant effort to accommodate the Interests they represented to the principles we were all agreed upon. - “The central empires had lived in open violation of many of the very rights for which the war had been fought, dominating alien peoples over whom they had no natural right to rule, enforcing not obedience, but vertlable bondage, exploiting those who were weak for the benefit of those who were masters and overlords only by force of arms. “There could be no peace until the whole order of central Europe was set right. “It was the imperative task of those who would make peace and make It Intelligently to establish a new order which would rest upon the free_cholce

of peoples rather "than upon the arbitrary authority of Hapsburgs or Hohenzollerns. "Peoples hitherto in utter darkness were to be led out Into the same light and given at Inst a helping hand. Common Agency Needed. “Future international conventions with regard to the control of waterways, with regard to Illicit traffic of many kinds, in arms or in deadly drugs, or with regard to the adjustment of many varying International administrative arrangements, could not be assured if the treaty were to provide no permanent common international agency, if its execution in such matters was to be left to the slow and uncertain processes of cooperation by ordinary methods of negotiation. •The idea of the league as a necessity to safegunrd counsels and maintain the peaceful understandings of the world, to make, not treaties alone, but the accepted principles of international law as well, the actual rule of conducst among the governments of the world, had been one of the agreements accepted from the first as the basis of peace with the central powers. The statesmen of all the belligerent countries were agreed to sustain the settlements that were to be effected. "The League Wf Nations was the practical statesman’s hope of success In many of the most difficult things he was attempting.

Old Policy Meant Force. "War had lain at the heart of every arrangement of the Europe—of every arrangement of the world —that preceded the war. Restive people had been told that fleets and armies, which they toiled to sustain, meant peace; and they now know that they had been lied to; that fleets and armies had been maintained to promote national ambitions and meant war. They knew that no old policy meant anything else but force, force —always force. And they knew that it was intolerable. Every true heart in the world, and every enlightened judgment demanded that, at whatever cost of Independent action, every government that took thought for its people or for justice or for ordered freedom should lend itself to a new purpose and utterly destroy the old order of International politics. Statesmen might see difficulties, but the people could see none and could brook no denial. A war In which they had been bled white to beat the terror that lay concealed in every balance of power must not end in a mere victory of arms and a new balance. The monster that had resorted to arms must be put in chains that could not be broken.” ~