Chapter XVI: Section 14: of the Lever Bill, which became the Food Control (8)

We entered this war because violations of right had occurred
which touched us to the quick and made the life of our own
people impossible unless they were corrected and the world
secured once for all against their recurrence. What we demand
in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is
that the world be made fit and safe to live in; and
particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation
which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its
own institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealings by
the other peoples of the world, as against force and selfish
aggression. All the peoples of the world are in effect partners
in this interest and for our own part we see very clearly that
unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us. The
programme of the world's peace, therefore, is our programme,
and that programme, the only possible programme, as we see it,
is this:

I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which
there shall be no private international understandings of any
kind, but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the
public view.

II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside
territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the
seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action
for the enforcement of international covenants.

III. The removal, as far as possible, of all economic barriers
and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among
all the nations consenting to the peace and associating
themselves for its maintenance.

IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments
will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic
safety.

V. A free, open minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of
all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the
principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty
the interests of the populations concerned must have equal
weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title
is to be determined.

Paris Crowds Greeting President Wilson

A general holiday was declared to welcome the President of the United States. This photograph was taken in the Place dé la Concorde.]

VI. The evacuation of Russian territory and such a settlement
of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and
freest coöperation of the other nations of the world in
obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity
for the independent determination of her own political
development and national policy and assure her of a sincere
welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of
her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of
every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The
treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months
to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their
comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own
interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy.

VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and
restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which
she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other
single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence
among the nations in the laws which they have themselves set
and demanded for the government of their relations with one
another. Without this healing act the whole structure and
validity of international law is forever impaired.

VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded
portions restored, and the wrong done France by Prussia in 1871
in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace
of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in
order that peace may once more be made secure in the interest
of all.

IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected
along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.

X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the
nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be
accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous development.

XI. Rumania, Serbia and Montenegro should be evacuated;
occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure
access to the sea, and the relations of the several Balkan
States to one another determined by friendly counsel along
historically established lines of allegiance and nationality,
and international guarantees of the political and economic
independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan
States should be entered into.

XII. The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman Empire should
be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities
which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted
security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of
autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be
permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce
of all nations under international guarantees.

XIII. An independent Polish State should be erected which
should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish
population, which should be assured a free and secure access to
the sea and whose political and economic independence and
territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international
covenant.

XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under
specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual
guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity
to great and small States alike.

III--HOW THE PEACE TREATY WAS SIGNED

A Description of the Historic Ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, June 8, 1919

(Reprinted from the New York _Times_.)

No nobler and more eloquent setting could have been found for this greatest of all modern events, the signing of the Peace of Versailles, after five years of terrific struggle on whose outcome the fate of the whole world had hung, than the palace of the greatest of French Kings on the hillcrest of the Paris suburb that gave its name to the treaty. To reach it, says the correspondent of _The New York Times_, the plenipotentiaries and distinguished guests from all parts of the world motored to Versailles that day, and drove down the magnificent tree-lined Avenue du Château, then across the huge square--the famous Place d'Armes of Versailles--and up through the gates and over the cobblestones of the Court of Honor to the entrance, where officers of the Republican Guard, whose creation dates back to the French Revolution, in picturesque uniform, were drawn up to receive them.

All day the crowd had been gathering. It was a cloudy day; not till noon did the sky clear. By noon eleven regiments of French cavalry and infantry had taken position along the approaches to the palace, while within the court on either side solid lines of infantry in horizon blue were drawn up at attention.

Hours before the time set for the ceremony an endless stream of automobiles began moving out of Paris up the cannon-lined hill of the Champs Elysées, past the massive Arc de Triomphe, bulking somberly against the leaden sky, and out through the Bois de Boulogne. This whole thoroughfare was kept clear by pickets, dragoons, and mounted gendarmes. In the meantime thousands of Parisians were packing regular and special trains on all the lines leading to Versailles, and contending with residents of the town for places in the vast park where the famous fountains would rise in white fleur-de-lis to mark the end of the ceremony.

A MEMORABLE SCENE

Past the line of gendarmes thrown across the approaches to the square reserved for ticket holders, the crowd surged in a compact and irresistible wave, while hundreds of the more fortunate ones took up positions in the high windows of every wing of the palace. Up the broad boulevard of the Avenue de Paris the endless chain of motor cars rolled between rows of French soldiers; and a guard of honor at the end of the big court presented arms to the plenipotentiaries and delegates as they drove through to the entrance, which for the Allied delegates only was by the marble stairway to the "Queen's Apartments" and the Hall of Peace, giving access to the Hall of Mirrors. A separate route of entry was prescribed for the Germans, an arrangement which angered and disconcerted them when they discovered it, through the park and up the marble stairway through the ground floor.

The delegates and plenipotentiaries began to arrive shortly after 2 p. m., their automobiles rolling between double lines of infantry with bayonets fixed--it was estimated that there were 20,000 soldiers altogether guarding the route--that held back the cheering throngs. The scene from the Court of Honor was impressive. The Place d'Armes was a lake of white faces, dappled everywhere by the bright colors of flags and fringed with the horizon blue of troops whose bayonets flamed silverly as the sun emerged for a moment from behind heavy clouds. At least a dozen airplanes wheeled and curvetted above.

Up that triumphal passage, leading for a full quarter of a mile from the wings of the palace to the entrance to the Hall of Mirrors, representatives of the victorious nations passed in flag-decked limousines--hundreds, one after another, without intermission, for fifty minutes. Just inside the golden gates, which were flung wide, they passed the big bronze statue of Louis XIV., the "Sun-King," on horseback, flanked by statues of the Princes and Governors, Admirals and Generals who had made Louis the Grand Monarque of France. And on the façade of the twin, temple-like structures on either side of the great statue they could read as they passed an inscription symbolic of the historic ceremony just about to occur: "To All the Glories of France."

NOTABILITIES ARRIVE

One of the earliest to arrive was Marshal Foch, amid a torrent of cheering, which burst out even louder a few moments later when the massive head of Premier Clemenceau was seen through the windows of a French military car. To these and other leaders, including President Wilson, General Pershing, and Premier Lloyd George, the troops drawn up all around the courtyard presented arms. After Clemenceau the unique procession continued, diplomats, soldiers, Princes of India in gorgeous turbans and swarthy faces, dapper Japanese in immaculate Western dress, Admirals, aviators, Arabs; one caught a glimpse of the bright colors of French, British, and Colonial uniforms. British Tommies and American doughboys also dashed up on crowded camions, representing the blood and sweat of the hard-fought victory; they got an enthusiastic reception. It was 2:45 when Mr. Balfour, bowing and smiling, heralded the arrival of the British delegates. Mr. Lloyd George was just behind him, for once wearing the conventional high hat instead of his usual felt. At 2:50 came President Wilson in a black limousine with his flag, a white eagle on a dark blue ground; he received a hearty welcome.

By 3 o'clock the last contingent had arrived, and the broad ribbon road stretched empty between the lines of troops from the gates of the palace courtyard. The Germans had already entered; to avoid any unpleasant incident they had been quietly conveyed from their lodgings at the Hotel des Reservoirs Annex through the park.

THE SCENE INSIDE

The final scene in the great drama was enacted in the magnificent Hall of Mirrors. Versailles contains no more splendid chamber than this royal hall, whose three hundred mirrors gleam from every wall, whose vaulted and frescoed ceiling looms dark and high, in whose vastness the footfalls of the passer re-echo over marble floors and die away reverberatingly. It was no mere matter of convenience or accident that the Germans were brought to sign the Peace Treaty in this hall. For this same hall, which saw the German peace delegates of 1919, representing a beaten and prostrate Germany, affix their signatures to the Allied terms of peace, had witnessed in the year 1871 a very different ceremony. It was in the Hall of Mirrors that the German Empire was born. Forty-nine years ago, on a January morning, while the forts of beleaguered Paris were firing their last defiant shots, in that mirror-gleaming hall was inaugurated the reign of that German Empire the virtual end of which, so far as the concept held by its originators is concerned, was signalized in Versailles in the same spot on Saturday, June 28. And in 1871 President Thiers had signed there the crushing terms of defeat imposed by a victorious and ruthless Germany.

In anticipation of the present ceremony carpets had been laid and the ornamental table, with its eighteenth century gilt and bronze decorations, had been placed in position on the daïs where the plenipotentiaries were seated. Fronting the chair of M. Clemenceau was placed a small table, on which the diplomatic instruments were laid. It was to this table that each representative was called, in alphabetical order by countries, to sign his name to the treaty and affix to it his Governmental seal. The four hundred or more invited guests were given places in the left wing of the Hall of Mirrors, while the right wing was occupied by about the same number of press representatives. Sixty seats were allotted to the French press alone. Besides the military guards outside the palace, the grand stairway up which the delegates came to enter the hall was controlled by the Republican Guards in their most brilliant gala uniform.

THE PEACE TABLE

The peace table--a huge hollow rectangle with its open side facing the windows in the hall--was spread with tawny yellow coverings blending with the rich browns, blues, and yellows of the antique hangings and rugs; these, and the mellow tints of the historical paintings, depicting scenes from France's ancient wars, in the arched roof of the long hall, lent bright dashes of color to an otherwise austere scene. Against the sombre background also stood out the brilliant uniforms of a few French guards, in red plumed silver helmets and red, white, and blue uniforms, and a group of Allied Generals, including General Pershing, who wore the scarlet sash of the Legion of Honor.

But all the diplomats and members of the parties who attended the ceremony of signing wore conventional civilian clothes. All gold lace and pageantry was eschewed, the fanciful garb of the Middle Ages was completely absent as representative of traditions and practices sternly condemned in the great bound treaty-volume of Japanese paper, covered with seals and printed in French and English, which was signed by twenty-seven nations that afternoon.

As a contrast with the Franco-German peace session of 1871, held in the same hall, there were present some grizzled French veterans of the Franco-Prussian war. They took the place of the Prussian guardsmen of the previous ceremony, and gazed with a species of grim satisfaction at the disciples of Bismarck, who sat this time in the seats of the lowly, while the white marble statue of Minerva looked stonily on.

ENTRANCE OF CHIEF ACTORS

The ceremony of signing was marked only by three minor incidents: a protest by the German delegation at the eleventh hour over the provision of separate entrance, the filing of a document of protest by General Jan Smuts of the South African delegation, and the deliberate absence of the Chinese delegates from the ceremony, due to dissatisfaction over the concessions granted to Japan in Shantung.

Henry White

Former Ambassador to France and Italy and one of the United States delegates to the Peace Conference.]

The treaty was deposited on the table at 2:10 p.m. by William Martin of the French Foreign Office; it was inclosed in a stamped leather case, and bulked large. Because of the size of the volume and the fragile seals it bore, the plan to present it for signing to Premier Clemenceau, President Wilson, and Premier Lloyd George had been given up. A box of old-fashioned goose quills, sharpened by the expert pen pointer of the French Foreign Office, was placed on each of the three tables for the use of plenipotentiaries who desired to observe the conventional formalities.

Secretary Lansing, meanwhile, had been the first of the American delegation to arrive in the palace--at 1:45 p.m. Premier Clemenceau entered at 2:20. Three detachments each consisting of fifteen private soldiers--from the American, British, and French forces--just before 3 o'clock and took their places in the embrasures of the windows overlooking the château park, a few feet from Marshal Foch, who was seated with the French delegation at the peace table. Marshal Foch was present only as a spectator, and did not participate in the signing. These forty-five soldiers of the three main belligerent nations were present as the real "artisans of peace" and stood within the inclosure reserved for plenipotentiaries and high officials of the conference as a visible sign of their rôle in bringing into being a new Europe. These men had been selected from those who bore honorable wounds. Premier Clemenceau stepped up to the poilus of the French detachment and shook the hand of each, expressing his pleasure at seeing them, and his regrets for the suffering they had endured for France.

PRESIDENT WILSON ENTERS

Delegates of the minor powers made their way with difficulty through the crowd to their places at the table. Officers and civilians lined the walls and filled the aisles. President Wilson entered the Hall of Mirrors at 2:50. All the Allied delegates were then seated, except the Chinese representatives, who were conspicuous by their absence. The difficulty of seeing well militated against demonstrations on the arrival of prominent statesmen. The crowd refused to be seated and thronged toward the center of the hall, which is so long that a good view was impossible from any distance, even with the aid of opera glasses. German correspondents were ushered into the hall just before 3 o'clock and took standing room in a window at the rear of the correspondents' section.

At 3 o'clock a hush fell over the hall. There were a few moments of disorder while the officials and the crowd took their places. At 3:07 the German delegates, Dr. Hermann Müller, German Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and Dr. Johannes Bell, Colonial Secretary, were shown into the hall; with heads held high they took their seats. The other delegates remained seated, according to a prearranged plan reminiscent of the discourtesy displayed by von Brockdorff-Rantzau, who at the ceremony of delivery of the peace treaty on May 7th, had refused to rise to read his address to the Allied delegates. The seats of the German delegates touched elbows with the Japanese on the right and the Brazilians on the left. They were thus on the side nearest the entrance, and the program required them to depart by a separate exit before the other delegates at the close of the ceremony. Delegates from Ecuador, Peru, and Liberia faced them across the narrow table.

THE GERMANS SIGN

M. Clemenceau, as President of the Peace Conference, opened the ceremony. Rising, he made the following brief address, amid dead silence:

"The session is open. The allied and associated powers on one
side and the German Reich on the other side have come to an
agreement on the conditions of peace. The text has been
completed, drafted, and the President of the Conference has
stated in writing that the text that is about to be signed now
is identical with the 200 copies that have been delivered to
the German delegation. The signatures will be given now, and
they amount to a solemn undertaking faithfully and loyally to
execute the conditions embodied by this treaty of peace. I now
invite the delegates of the German Reich to sign the treaty.'

There was a tense pause for a moment. Then in response to M. Clemenceau's bidding the German delegates rose without a word, and, escorted by William Martin, master of ceremonies, moved to the signatory table, where they placed upon the treaty the sign-manuals which German Government leaders had declared over and over again, with emphasis and anger, would never be appended to this treaty. They also signed a protocol covering changes in the documents, and the Polish undertaking. All three documents were similarly signed by the Allied delegates who followed.

WILSON SIGNS NEXT

When the German delegates regained their seats after signing, President Wilson immediately rose and, followed by the other American plenipotentiaries, moved around the sides of the horseshoe to the signature tables. It was thus President Wilson, and not M. Clemenceau, who was first of the Allied delegates to sign. This, however, was purely what may be called an alphabetical honor, in accordance with which the nations were named in the prologue to the treaty. Premier Lloyd George, with the British delegation, came next. The British dominions followed. M. Clemenceau with the French delegates, was next in line; then came Baron Saionji and the other Japanese delegates, and they in turn were followed by the representatives of the smaller powers.

Count von Brockdorff-Rantzau

Foreign Minister of Germany and President of the German Peace delegates.]

During the attaching of the signatures of the great powers and the Germans a battery of moving picture cameras clicked away so audibly that they could be heard above the general noise and disorder of the throng. The close of the ceremony came so quickly and quietly that it was scarcely noticed until it was all over. M. Clemenceau arose almost unremarked, and in a voice half lost amid the confusion and the hum of conversation which had sprung up while the minor powers were signing declared the conference closed, and asked the Allied and associated delegates to remain in their seats for a few moments--this to permit the German plenipotentiaries to leave the building before the general exodus.

THE GERMANS DEPART

None arose as the Germans filed out, accompanied by their suite of secretaries and interpreters, just as all the plenipotentiaries had kept their seats when Dr. Müller and Dr. Bell entered. The Germans went forth evidently suffering strong emotion. Outside an unsympathetic crowd jammed close to the cars which took them away. There was no aggression, but the sentiment of the throng was unmistakable.

Meanwhile the great guns that announced the closing of the ceremony were booming, and their concussion shook the old palace of Versailles to its foundations. Amid confusion the assembly dispersed, and the most momentous ceremony of the epoch was at an end.

The great war which for five long years had shaken Europe and the world was formally ended at last. It was a war which had cost the belligerents over $200,000,000,000; which had caused the deaths of 8,000,000 human beings, and which had left the world a post-war burden of debt amounting to $135,000,000,000. It was a war which had changed the whole face of Europe, which had brought many new nations into existence, which had revolutionized the organization of all national and international life. It was a war which had brought the world the consciousness of its common obligation to unite against all war. The booming of the great guns of Versailles seemed to proclaim a new epoch.

IV--THE PEACE TREATY--ITS MEANING TO AMERICA

America's "Place in the Sun" Due to Her Efforts to Secure a Just Peace

By GEORGE W. WICKERSHAM

Formerly Attorney-General of the United States.

"The cause of our entrance into the great war," declares Dr. David Jayne Hill in a recent essay, "being the violation by the German Imperial Government of our legal rights as a nation, our object in the war was to make our rights respected. The one clear duty of the treaty-making power in concluding peace with Germany, therefore, is to secure this result."[25]

[25] "Americanizing the Treaty."--_North American Review_, August, 1919.

In these words, one of the most distinguished and accomplished of the opponents of the treaty of Paris reveals the profound abyss which separates those who oppose from those who are urging the approval of the Treaty of Versailles. Dr. Hill, perhaps unconsciously, gives expression to a sordid, narrow, selfish view of the issues of the war, which would transmute into the most elemental act of self-defense one of the greatest crusades of high idealism ever conducted by any people in the history of nations. If, in fact, the cause of our participation in the war was merely to repel attacks upon our legal rights as a nation, then indeed, that end being attained, and the aggressor reduced to impotence for the future, we may return within our own borders, withdraw unto ourselves, disclaim all responsibility for the condition of the world elsewhere and plunge into the selfish exploitation of our national resources, "the world forgetting, by the world forgot." It is a strange perversion of the facts of recent history that leads to such a conception of America's responsibility for the future of civilization.

There were undoubtedly, as Mr. Wilson said, "violations of right which touched us to the quick." Was it merely violations of our own national rights that roused this peace-loving nation to array itself for battle; that sent two million of our young men across three thousand miles of ocean to take their places beside the heroes of Verdun and the Marne, the veterans of Cambrai and Arras, Ypres and the Somme; infused the weary defenders of civilization with new courage; converted their defense into an irresistible offensive which shattered the greatest military machine of history, overthrew the Kaiser and his government, and brought the German nation to its knees? No! It was not the German attacks upon our rights as a nation; it was the German challenge of the whole basis of modern Christian civilization. It was her cynical disclaimer of the binding character of treaties; her inhuman method of warfare; her brutal cruelties of non-combatant men, women and children; her ruthless destruction of monuments of art--the possessions of not merely one nation, but of the entire world of men and women in every land who love beauty and revere art. It was the growing conviction that a government which ordered the sinking of the _Lusitania_ and the _Sussex_; that destroyed the priceless literary treasures of Louvain; that separated families in Belgium and France, and deported great companies of men to work in German munition factories; that ruthlessly cut up by the roots the fruit trees and shrubs of the occupied regions of France; that sought to destroy not merely the men, but the souls of nations, so that its own horrid philosophy of Force might reign over them--that such a government must no longer exist; that its pestilential influence was more noxious than tuberculosis or the bubonic plague.

THE BASIS OF PEACE

Therefore, the Youth of America joyously leaped to arms and crowded overseas in the greatest of all crusades, insuring victory and promising the opening of a new and better epoch of human history. It was the recognition of human kinship; the perception of human brotherhood, that inspired them to the great endeavor. Our proud sense of American nationality took on a deeper and holier significance as we joined forces with the older peoples in defense of the great principles of human right which had been formulated by our fathers and upon which was reared the American State. We were no less Americans that we had accepted a common responsibility with Great Britain, France and Italy for the preservation of the ideals of human freedom for which Washington fought and Lincoln died. Nay! better Americans, as we realized that the war was being fought in defense of those principles upon which our own institutions were founded and by which we had become the great, strong, free nation we are.

And as the hideous carnage went on, and we saw a whole generation of the youth of the free nations of Europe butchered because the German people had become so obsessed with their own sense of superiority that they were determined to rule the world and impose upon all other peoples subservience to their Moloch-like gospel of efficiency, another feeling began to struggle for expression in Europe and America alike--a determination that all wars of aggression must cease; that disputes between nations must be settled like those between individuals, by peaceful arbitration or conciliation; that the causes of war must be examined and, so far as possible, removed, and that no such war as this ever again should desolate the earth. This was the meaning of the phrase one came to hear on many lips, that it was "a war against war." How could such a result be attained? Obviously, only by the continued association in peace of those powers whose close coöperation in war was compelling the overthrow of German militarism, and the widening of that association to include all the other nations who should accept its program and give an earnest of adherence to its ideals. There was also the hope that some time--when they should have offered up that ancient sacrifice, "an humble and a contrite heart"--even the German people, enfranchised and regenerated, might be admitted into the society of Free Peoples and with new significance become entitled to be called a civilized nation.

These were the principles that underlay Mr. Wilson's program of peace--the fourteen points of January 8, 1918, and subsequent addresses; the only definite formulation of the basis of peace which was laid before the world, a program concerning which the American Congress expressed no definite criticism and for which it offered no substitute; a program which was accepted by Allies and opponents alike, and which constituted the Chart by which the Conference of Paris was required to endeavor to formulate the terms of the Treaty of Peace.

The work of that Conference now has been submitted to the judgment of mankind. It was accepted by the new government of Germany with a wry face, as the judgment of the victors naturally would be taken by the vanquished. It has been ratified by the Parliament of Great Britain, by Italy, by France and by Japan. It has been for weeks under debate in the Senate of the United States. Daily efforts have been made to create a partisan political issue over it, and to visit upon it party resentment against the past actions of the President.[26]

[26] This article by Mr. Wickersham was prepared prior to the Senate deadlock and the rejection of the Treaty with the Lodge reservations.

Dr. Hill again sums up the case against the treaty--the final basis which the confused gropings after some means of making it unpopular with the people finally have evolved--in these words:

"The League of Nations, as proposed, includes not only
obligations not related to the reasons for engaging in the war,
but also obligations opposed to the traditions, the
time-honored policies, and even the constitutional provisions
of the United States. It commits the whole future policy of
this country to the decisions of an international body in which
it would have only a single voice; it permits that body to
intrude its judgments, and thereby its policies into a sphere
hitherto regarded as exclusively American, and, in addition, it
demands that the territories held by each of the members of the
League under this treaty shall receive the permanent protection
of the United States as integral parts of the Nations that now
claim them."

Is it true? What is the real meaning of the Peace Treaty and its effect upon the people of the United States? The answer to these questions, and indeed to most of the criticism of the Covenant, is conclusively met by a reading of the treaty. But first let us turn for a moment to the fourteen points of Mr. Wilson's address of January 8, 1918. The basis of the territorial readjustment of Europe which he then proposed, was the giving of national expression to racial aspiration. Alien imperial rule such as that of Austria over Hungary and Bohemia, and that of Germany, Austria or Russia over Poland, was to end, and the Poles, the Croats, Serbs, Hungarians, Bohemians, and the Czechoslavs and Jugoslavs each were to be allowed national existence, with the right of self-determination. Whatever may now be thought of the wisdom of this theory, it was accepted by all of the Allies, who thereby were committed to a responsibility for the protection, certainly in the early years of their existence, of the new nations they united to call into being. Recognizing this fact, the fourteenth of the Wilson points provided for the creation of an Association of the Allied Nations to protect the work of their arms. Aside from that practical purpose, the League of Nations was recognized by many in every land as furnishing the only practicable machinery for the removal of causes of war and the prevention of new assaults upon civilization, such as that which Germany had launched in August, 1914.

=Victoria Hall at Geneva=

Selected by the Council of the Powers as the meeting place of the League of Nations.]

The first Chapter of the Peace Treaty, therefore, is a Covenant or Compact forming a League of Nations, whose purpose, as expressed in the Preamble, is "to promote international coöperation and to achieve international peace and security." Worthy objects, these: how are they to be attained? The Preamble answers,

"by the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war, by the
prescription of open, just and honorable relations between
nations, by the firm establishment of the understandings of
international law as to actual rule of conduct among
governments, and by the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous
respect for all treaty obligations in the dealings of organized
peoples with one another."

Are not these methods such as America has made her own? Have we not in many treaties accepted obligations not to make war until all peaceful methods of settling disputes shall have been exhausted; have we not striven to make the principles of international law rules for the government of nations; and was not one of the main points in the indictment of Germany on which we prosecuted the war against her that she had flouted the sanctity of treaties and made them mere scraps of paper?

The objects of the League therefore, as set forth in the Covenant, are expressive only of policies and principles to which the United States has given a consistent and unbroken adherence from the days of the Jay Treaty to the present hour. How are these objects proposed to be attained in the text of the Covenant? What is there in its provisions to justify the frantic abuse that has been heaped upon it by its opponents and to sustain the final accusation that it is "un-American?"

MACHINERY OF THE LEAGUE

First, as to the Machinery of the League. There is an Assembly of its members to which each Sovereign State may send delegates. There is an Assembly of its members to which each nation necessarily has one vote. In the United States Senate, Rhode Island and New York have equal representation, despite disparity in wealth and population. The principle of sovereignty requires this recognition of equality. But the powers of the Assembly are restricted to voting upon the admission of new members to the League, the addition of members to the Council, the disposition of international disputes which may be referred to it by the Council under Article XV, and the general consideration at its meetings of "any matter within the sphere of action of the League or affecting the peace of the world." This general authority only can embrace the right of discussion, save in very exceptional cases, as by Article V, "decisions at any meeting of the Assembly or of the Council shall require the agreement of all the members of the League represented at the meeting."

The actual governing body of the League is the Council, which is to consist of representatives of the five greater powers,--the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan, together with representatives of four other members of the League selected by the Assembly from time to time. These numbers may be increased, but only by the unanimous vote of the Council, approved by a majority of the Assembly.

As noted above, save in the very few expressly expected cases, the Council can reach decisions only by unanimous vote. What are to be its functions? They need not be enumerated in detail here. Briefly, they deal with the reduction of armaments, the control by governments of the private manufacture of munitions and implements of war, the consideration of any war or threat of war--"of any circumstance whatever affecting international relations which threatens to disturb either the peace or the good understanding between nations upon which peace depends." They require the formulation and submission to the members of the League for adoption of plans for the establishment of a permanent Court of International Justice. They empower the Council to endeavor to effect a settlement of any international dispute which shall not be submitted to arbitration by the parties; to investigate, consider and report upon any such dispute, and to publish its conclusions.

The parties to the League solemnly covenant and agree that if any dispute shall arise between them likely to lead to a rupture they will submit it either to arbitration or inquiry by the Council, and that in no case will they resort to war until three months after the award by the arbitrators or the report by the Council. They agree also to carry out in good faith any award that may be rendered, and not to make war against any member of the League that complies therewith. If a report by the Council is unanimously agreed to by its members, other than the representatives of the disputants, the members agree not to go to war with any party to the dispute which complies with the recommendations of the report.

OBJECTIONS TO THE PLAN

It is objected by some that the decision of questions between nations by these provisions is left to a body of delegates composing the Council who are not bound to decide according to rules of international law, but may reach conclusions merely as political expediency. This seems a strained interpretation. The members of the League agree to submit either (1) to arbitration or (2) to investigation by the Council, every dispute which may arise between them likely to lead to a rupture and in no case to resort to war until three months after the award by arbitrators or the report by the Council. They declare (by Article XIII)

"Disputes as to the interpretation of a treaty, as to any
question of international law, as to the existence of any fact
which, if established, would constitute a breach of any
international obligation, or as to the extent and nature of the
reparation to be made for any such breach," to be among those
which are generally suitable for submission to arbitration.
Disputes of the character thus enumerated are what are known as
justiciable, _i. e._, subject to be decided by a Court by the
application of the recognized principles of international law.

Mr. Root recommended that such disputes should be required to be arbitrated. The Conference at Paris, like those at the two Hague Conferences, would not agree to that. But in view of the declaration just quoted, any power which should bring before the Council a dispute of the character mentioned, but which it was unwilling to submit to arbitration, would have the burden of showing convincing reason for such attitude.

When the first draft of the Covenant was before the country, American critics objected that it would compel the United States to submit to arbitration on inquiry by the Council purely domestic questions such as tariff, immigration and coastwise traffic. To meet this objection, there was inserted in Art. XV the following paragraph:

"If the dispute between the parties is claimed by one of them,
and is found by the Council to arise out of a matter which by
international law is solely within the domestic jurisdiction of
that party, the Council shall so report, and shall make no
recommendation as to its settlement."

To this it is objected that the determination of the question whether or not a matter of dispute is by the rules of international law solely with the domestic jurisdiction of a member is left to the Council and not to the member. Surely, it requires no explanation to demonstrate, that if a member State may oust the Council of jurisdiction to inquire into a given dispute which threatens the peace of the world merely by itself asserting that it arises out of a matter within its exclusive domestic jurisdiction, a very imperfect means of averting war will have been provided, and the League Covenant will hardly have more efficacy than the second Hague Convention. Remember too, that the reports of the Council must be unanimous, and the unreasonableness of the objection to the provisions cited will appear.

MEANS TO PREVENT WAR

Articles XI to XVI constitute the heart of the Covenant, the most effective means ever formulated to prevent war. The agreements of the nations not to resort to war until the processes of arbitration or inquiry are exhausted, are buttressed by the provision that should any member violate these agreements it shall _ipso facto_ be deemed to have committed an act of war against all the other members of the League, entailing as a consequence commercial boycott, expulsion and the application of armed force, if the members shall so determine. The employment of force in this case, as in every other contemplated by the Covenant, is not left to the decision of Council or Assembly. They can only recommend. The member States agree _not to go_ to war. There is nowhere in the document any provision compelling them _to go_ to war. Even where one State in violation of its Covenant threatens the peace of the world, the utmost the Council can do is

"To recommend to the several governments concerned what
effective military or naval forces the members of the League
shall severally contribute to the armaments of forces to be
used to protect the covenants of the League."

Much heated objection has been directed against Article X, which reads as follows:

"The members of the League undertake to respect and preserve as
against external aggression the territorial integrity and
existing political independence of all members of the League.
In case of any such aggression or in case of any threat or
danger of such aggression, the Council shall advise upon the
means by which this obligation shall be fulfilled.'

Again, it is left to the determination of each State what force it shall employ to enforce this provision. As a matter of fact, this article adds little, if anything, to the provisions of Article XI, which declares that "Any war or threat of war ... is hereby declared a matter of concern to the whole League, and the League shall take any action that may be deemed wise and effectual to safeguard the peace of nations." Any external aggression against the territorial integrity or political independence of a member of the League would amount to a war or threat of war, and would invoke action under Article XI, if not under Article X. But the guaranty of Article X is very necessary as affording a moral protection to the new nations brought into being through the peace Conference. The United States of America, whose President formulated the principles of peace to which these Nations owe their existence, can not afford to shirk responsibility for their protection. The Covenant abolishes the evil of secret treaties between the nations composing the League, while preserving the effectiveness of existing treaties of arbitration.

=William Howard Taft=

An earnest supporter of the President and his administration throughout the war, though of the opposite party.]

THE MONROE DOCTRINE

To meet the objection that the Covenant would deprive us of the Monroe Doctrine--a national policy adopted by the United States as its own and maintained for its own protection--Article XXI of the amended Covenant provides that--

"Nothing in this Covenant shall be deemed to affect the
validity of international engagements such as treaties of
arbitration or regional understandings like the Monroe Doctrine
for securing the maintenance of peace."

The phrase "regional understanding," as applied to the Monroe Doctrine, is not a happy one. But the article certainly excludes the Monroe Doctrine from modification or effect by the treaty. It secures from every one of the thirty-two original members and the thirteen other states which shall be invited to join the League, a recognition of the existence of the Monroe Doctrine and an agreement that it is not to be affected by anything contained in the Covenant. Certainly _that_ is not an un-American result to accomplish, and when one reads Dr. Hill's statement that the Covenant "does not embody our traditional American ideals," one wonders in what museum of forgotten lore the learned doctor has found those "traditional ideals" preserved. Dr. Hill's so-called ideals conflict with the expression in this great treaty of the peculiarly American ideal of averting war by providing peaceful methods of settling disputes among nations, with the express recognition by all the other nations of the doctrine that "was proclaimed in 1823 to prevent America from becoming a theater for the intrigues of European absolutism," and with the official commentary of the Delegates of Great Britain which says that--

"At first a principle of American foreign _policy_, it (Monroe
Doctrine) has become an international _understanding_, and it
is not illegitimate for the people of the United States to ask
that the Covenant should recognize this fact."

GERMAN COLONIES

One of the most difficult problems presented to the Peace Conference was the disposition of the former colonies of Germany in Asia, Africa and Australasia, and of the communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire. It was recognized that the victors in the war shared a common responsibility for the just and wise treatment of these peoples, who were utterly unable to stand alone. The method adopted declared all of them to be wards of the League of Nations and provided that they should be governed by Mandatory Powers willing to undertake the task and appointed by the League under charters framed by the Council. These Powers would be answerable to the League for the right exercise of their powers, and subject to inspection and report. A great deal of impassioned rhetoric has been expended over these provisions, upon the false assumption that thereby the United States was committed to a responsibility for the government of remote regions of the earth. The Covenant commits us to nothing. Our participation in the war has entailed upon us a common responsibility with our Allies for the protection and wise government of these communities. We no more can escape that responsibility with honor than we could after the Spanish War escape responsibility for the Philippine Islands.

But it is for the American Congress to determine the extent of recognition of our duty and the means by which we shall discharge it.

In the case of the Philippine Islands, the United States set for the world a great moral example in the government of colonies, not in its own interest, but for the benefit and exclusively in the interest of the inhabitants of possessions which fell into our hands as a consequence of the war with Spain. The principle thus proclaimed and practiced has been followed in the case of the colonies and territories which the World War has left at the disposition of the Allied and Associated Nations. This principle, in the words of the Covenant, is "that the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civilization." The best method yet devised for giving practicable effect to this principle undoubtedly is,

"That the tutelage of such peoples be intrusted to advanced
nations who, by reason of their resources, their experience or
their geographical position, can best undertake this
responsibility, and who are willing to accept it, and that this
tutelage should be exercised by them as mandatories on behalf
of the League."

This is the American attitude toward undeveloped peoples. To remove these provisions from the Peace Treaty would be to _de_-Americanize the Treaty.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS

The Covenant brings within the cognizance of the League the regulation of international relations affecting (1) efforts to secure and maintain fair and humane conditions of labor for men, women and children--a subject elaborated and provided for in great detail in Part XIII of the Peace Treaty; (2) the execution of international agreements with regard to traffic in women and children, and in opium and other dangerous drugs; (3) the trade in arms and ammunition with the countries in which the control of this traffic is necessary in the common interest; (4) the prevention and control of disease.

The members of the League further agree (1)

"To make provision to secure and maintain freedom of
communication and of transit and _equitable_ treatment for the
commerce of all members of the League,"

and (2)

"to encourage and promote the establishment and coöperation of
duly authorized voluntary national Red Cross organizations
having as purposes improvement of health, the prevention of
disease and the mitigation of suffering throughout the world."

All these are subjects customarily dealt with in international agreements. These provisions are designed to bring into coördination with the League and make more effective all provisions concerning such matters.

The framers of this great program recognized that it was, necessarily, an experiment, and that experience doubtless would develop defects and suggest needed changes. Provision is therefor made for amendments which should take effect when ratified by the members of the League whose representatives compose the Council, and by a majority of the members whose representatives compose the Assembly. But, preserving the theory that the League is to be an alliance of Sovereign Powers, it also is provided that no member shall be bound against his will by any such amendment. It may dissent, and thereby cease to be a member of the League.

Finally, any member may, at will, after two years' notice, withdraw from the League,

"provided that all its international obligations and all its
obligations under this Covenant shall have been fulfilled at
the time of its withdrawal."

No jurisdiction is vested in any organ of the League to determine whether or not in any instance this condition has been complied with. It is conceivable that pending some arbitration or inquiry by the Council, the application of a commercial boycott or other disciplinary process for violation of a provision of the Covenant, the offending power should seek to escape the jurisdiction of the League, by exercising the right of withdrawal. The period of notice probably is too long to allow of this, and yet the slow process of international procedure might require more than two years to reach a conclusion. Does it not seem fair that before a nation should withdraw from this great association it should be required to fulfil its obligations under the treaty?

PROBABILITY OF WAR MINIMIZED

The treaty of peace with Germany deals with many questions of vital import to European nations, but with which America has but little direct concern. Part I, the Covenant, is the section which touches us most nearly. It is the part which embodies the idealism of our people, and through which we are enabled to discharge the responsibilities we assumed by formulating for friend and foe the conditions of peace. Human nature changes but little from century to century, but the highest and purest aspirations of the human heart find expression from age to age with greater force and with wider acceptance. Doubtless, in the future, the passions of man will again flare up in bloody wars, but the creation of an adequate machinery for discussion and cooling reflection, must tend to minimize the probabilities of war. The spirits of millions of slaughtered youth who sleep in the fields of France and Flanders call out to us, for whom they died, to consecrate their sacrifice by a new and greater endeavor to safeguard the future peace of the world.

The conferees of Paris have formulated a measure for this purpose. It is not perfect. Experience may develop even greater imperfections than study has revealed. But it contains much of hope and promise. It is practical; it is subject to amendment. It commits no one irrevocably to its provisions. It is instinct with American idealism. It is in accord with the best American traditions. Washington, Lincoln, McKinley, and Roosevelt--each has contributed to the establishment of some of its main provisions. No partisan, no provincial prejudice should be permitted to influence or control the judgment of our people concerning it.

* * * * *

=When Peace Came to Verdun=

It was 10:45 on the morning of November 11th in Verdun. The Germans had thrown a barrage over the little French city, now immortal; and shells were falling, plowing up the earth that had been turned over and over, ground to powder by four years of artillery fire. Would the Germans stop at 11 o'clock? Reason said "yes." Everyone in Verdun knew that at that hour the armistice would go into effect.

It was 10:50. The guns continued bellowing. A feeling deeper than reason came over those in the city that the Germans would not stop. Verdun had lived through four years of fire, smoke, thunder, blood, and ruin. Sometimes for days there would be a lull, but the guns were never quiet long. The Germans never forgave the "they-shall-not-pass" spirit that had hurled them back just as the prize--this military key to the West front--seemed within their grasp.

It was 10:55. Men were crouching between buildings. They kept coming--doughboys, Morrocans, English soldiers, more doughboys. Even the general and his aids began to look anxious.