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able to defend them against intrigue or aggression, and that there is no force of foresight or of prudence in any modern Cabinet to stop war. And therefore they say, 'There must be some fundamental cause for this," and the fundamental cause they are beginning to perceive to be that nations have stood singly or in little jealous groups against each other, fostering prejudice, increasing the danger of war rather than concerting measures to prevent it; and that if there is right in the world, if there is justice in the world, there is no reason why nations should be divided in the support of justice.

WORLD COUNTING ON US

They are therefore saying if you really believe that there is a right, if you really believe that wars ought to be stopped, stop thinking about the rival interests of nations, and think about men and women and children throughout the world. Nations are not made to afford distinction to their rulers by way of success in the manoeuvres of politics; nations are meant, if they are meant for anything, to make the men and women and children in them secure and happy and prosperous, and no nation has the right to set up its special interests against the interests and benefits of mankind, least of all this great nation which we love. It was set up for the benefit of mankind; it was set up to illustrate the highest ideals and to achieve the highest aspirations of men who wanted to be free; and the world-the world of today-believes that and counts on us, and would be thrown back into the blackness of despair if we deserted it.

I have tried once and again, my fellowcitizens, to say to little circles of friends or to large bodies what seems to be the real hope of the peoples of Europe, and I tell you frankly I have not been able to do so because when the thought tries to crowd itself into speech the profound emotion of the thing is too much; speech will not carry. I have felt the tragedy of the hope of those suffering peoples.

It is tragedy because it is a hope which cannot be realized in its perfection, and yet I have felt besides its tragedy, its compulsion -its compulsion upon every living man to exercise every influence that he has to the utmost to see that as little as possible of that hope is disappointed, because if men cannot now, after this agony of bloody sweat, come to their self-possession and see how to regulate the affairs of the world, we will sink back into a period of struggle in which there will be no hope, and, therefore, no mercy. There can be no mercy where there is no hope, for why should you spare another if you yourself expect to perish? Why should you be pitiful if you can get no pity? Why should you be just if, upon every hand, you are put upon?

SPIRIT OF THE SOLDIERS There is another thing which I think the critics of this covenant have not observed.

They not only have not observed the temper of the world, but they have not even observed the temper of those splendid boys in khaki that they sent across the seas. I have had the proud consciousness of the reflected glory of those boys, because the Constitution made me their Commander in Chief, and they have taught me some lessons. When we went into the war, we went into it on the basis of declarations which it was my privileg to utter, because I believed them to be an interpretation of the purpose and thought of the people of the United States. And those boys went over there with the feeling that they were sacredly bound to the realization of those ideals; that they were not only going over there to beat Germany; they were not going over there merely with resentment in their hearts against a particular outlaw nation; but that they were crossing those three thousand miles of sea in order to show to Europe that the United States, when it became necessary, would go anywhere where the rights of mankind were threatened. They would not sit still in the trenches. They would not be restrained by the prudence of experienced Continental commanders. They thought they had come over there to do a particular thing, and they were going to do it and do it at once. And just as soon as that rush of spirit as well as rush of body came in contact with the lines of the enemy, they began to break, and they continued to break until the end. They continued to break, my fellow-citizens, not merely because of the physical force of those lusty youngsters, but because of the irresistible spiritual force of the armies of the United States. It was that they felt. It was that that awed them. It was that that made them feel, if these youngsters ever got a foothold, they could never be dislodged, and that therefore every foot of ground that they won was permanently won for the liberty of mankind.

NEW ATTITUDE OF EUROPE And do you suppose that having felt that crusading spirit of these youngsters, who went over there not to glorify America but to serve their fellow-men. I am going to permit myself for one moment to slacken in my effort to be worthy of them and of their cause? What I said at the opening I said with a deeper meaning than perhaps you have caught; I do mean not to come back until it's over over there, and it must not be over until the nations of the world are assured of the permanency of peace. Gentlemen on this side of the water would be very much profited by getting into com munication with some gentlemen the other side of the water. We sometimes think, my fellow-citizens, that the experi enced statesmen of the European nations are an unusually hard-headed set of men, by which we generally mean, although we do not admit it, that they are a bit cynical, that they say "This is a very practical

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world," by which you always mean that it is not an ideal world; that they do not believe that things can be settled upon an ideal basis. Well, I never came into intimate contact with them before, but if they used to be that way, they are not that way now. They have been subdued, if that was once their temper, by the awful significance of recent events and the awful importance of what is to ensue; and there is not one of them with whom I have come in contact who does not feel that he cannot in conscience return to his people from Paris unless he has done his utmost to do something more than attach his name to a treaty of peace. Every man in that conference knows that the treaty of peace in itself will be inoperative, as Mr. Taft has said, with out this constant support and energy of a great organization such as is supplied by the League of Nations.

And men who when I first went over there were skeptical of the possibility of forming a League of Nations admitted that if we could but form it it would be an invaluable instrumentality through which to secure the operation of the various parts of the treaty; and when that treaty comes back, gentlemen on this side will find the covenant not only in it, but so many threads of the treaty tied to the covenant that you cannot dissect the covenant from the treaty without destroying the whole vital structure. The structure of peace will not be vital without the League of Nations, and no man is going to bring back a cadaver with him.

PUZZLED BY SOME CRITICISMS

I

I must say that I have been puzzled by some of the criticisms-not by the criticisms themselves; I can understand them perfectly, even when there was no foundation for them; but by the fact of the criticism. cannot imagine how these gentlemen can live and not live in the atmosphere of the world. I cannot imagine how they can live and not be in contact with the events of their times, and I particularly cannot imagine how they can be Americans and set up a doctrine of careful selfishness, thought out to the last detail. I have heard no counsel of generosity in their criticism. I have heard no constructive suggestion. I have heard nothing except "will it not be dangerous to us to help the world?" It would be fatal to us not to help it.

From being what I will venture to call the most famous and the most powerful nation in the world we would of a sudden have become the most contemptible. So, I did not need to be told, as I have been told, that the people of the United States would support this covenant. I am an American and I knew they would. What a sweet revenge it is upon the world. They laughed at us once, they thought we did not mean our professions of principle. They thought so until April of 1917. It was hardly credible to them that we would do more than send a few men over

and go through the forms of helping, and when they saw multitudes hastening across the sea, and saw what those multitudes were eager to do when they got to the other side, they stood at amaze and said: "The thing is real, this nation is the friend of mankind as it said it was." The enthusiasm, the hope, the trust, the confidence in the future bred by that change of view are indescribable. Take an individual American and you may often find him selfish, and confined to his special interests; but take the American in the mass and he is willing to die for an idea. The sweet revenge, therefore, is this, that we believed in righteousness, and now we are ready to make the supreme sacrifice for it, the supreme sacrifice of throwing in our fortunes with the fortunes of men everywhere. Mr. Taft was speaking of Washington's utterance about entangling alliances, and if he will permit me to say so, he put the exactly right interpretation upon what Washington said, the interpretation that is inevitable if you read what he said, as most of these gentlemen do not. And the thing that he longed for was just what we are now about to supply; an arrangement which will disentangle all the alliances in the world. SEES ALL ALLIANCES DISENTANGLED

Nothing entangles, nothing enmeshes, a man except a selfish combination with somebody else. Nothing entangles a nation, hampers it, binds it, except to enter into a combination with some other nation against the other nations of the world. And this great disentanglement of all alliances is now to be accomplished by this covenant, because one of the covenants is that no nation shall enter into any relationship with another nation inconsistent with the COVenants of the League of Nations. Nations promise not to have alliances. Nations promise not to make combinations against each other. Nations agree that there shall be but one combination, and that is the combination of all against the wrongdoer.

And so I am going back to my task on the other side with renewed vigor. I had not forgotten what the spirit of the American people is, but I have been immensely refreshed by coming in contact with it again. I did not know how good home felt until I got here.

The only place a man can feel at home is where nothing has to be explained to him. Nothing has to be explained to me in America, least of all the sentiment of the American people. I mean about great fundamental things like this. There are many differences of judgment as to policy-and perfectly legitimate-sometimes profound differences of judgment; but those are not differences of sentiment, those are not differences of purpose, those are not differences of ideals. And the advantage of not having to have anything explained to you is that you recognize a wrong explanation when you hear it.

In a certain rather abandoned part of the frontier at one time it was said they found a man who told the truth; he was not found telling it, but he could tell it when he heard it. And I think I am in that situation with regard to some of the criticisms I have heard. They do not make any impression on me, because I know there is no medium that will transmit them, that the sentiment of the country is proof against such narand such selfishness as that. commend these gentlemen to communion with their fellow-citizens.

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CONFIDENT OF THE FUTURE

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What are we to say, then, as to the future? I think, my fellow citizens, that we can look forward to it with great confidence. I have heard cheering news since I came to this side of the water about the progress that is being made in Paris toward the discussion and clarification of a great many difficult matters, and I believe that settlements will begin to be made rather rapidly from this time on at those conferences. But what I believe, what I know as well as believe, is this: That the men engaged in those conferences are gathering heart as they go, not losing it; that they are finding community of purpose and community of ideal to an extent that perhaps they did not expect; and that amidst all the interplay of influence because it is infinitely complicated-amidst all the interplay of influence, there is a forward movement which is running toward the right. Men have at last perceived that the only permanent thing in the world is the right, and that a wrong settlement is bound to be a temporary settlement-bound to be a temporary settlement for the very best reason of all, that it ought to be a temporary settlement, and the spirits of men will rebel against it, and the spirits of men are now in the saddle. When I was in Italy a little limping group of wounded Italian soldiers sought an interview with me. I could not conjecture what it was they were going to say to me, and with the greatest simplicity, with a touching simplicity, they presented me with a petition in favor of the League of Nations. Their wounded limbs, their impaired vitality were the only argument they brought with them. It was a simple request that I lend all the influence that I might happen to have to relieve future generations of the sacrifices that they had been obliged to make. That appeal has remained in my mind as I have ridden along the streets in European capitals and heard cries of the crowd, cries for the League of Nations, from lips of people who, I venture to say, had no particular notion of how it was to be done, who were not ready to propose a plan for a League of Nations, but whose hearts said that something by way of a combination of all men everywhere must come out of this. As we drove along

country roads weak old women would come out and hold flowers up to us. Why should they hold flowers up to strangers from across the Atlantic? Only because they believed that we were the messengers of friendship and of hope, and these flowers were their humble offerings of gratitude that friends from so great a distance should have brought them so great a hope.

It is inconceivable that we should disappoint them, and we shall not. The day will come when men in America will look back with swelling hearts and rising pride that they should have been privileged to make the sacrifice which it was necessary to make in order to combine their might and their moral power with the cause of justice for men of every kind everywhere.

God give us the strength and vision to do it wisely! God give us the privilege of knowing that we did it without counting the cost and because we were true Americans, lovers of liberty and of the right!

DEPARTURE FOR FRANCE

President Wilson went directly from the Metropolitan Opera House to the pier at Hoboken, where the United States transport George Washington was waiting to carry him and his little partyincluding Mrs. Wilson-to France for the second time. Owing to the recent attempt to assassinate Premier Clemenceau in Paris, extraordinary care had been taken to guard the President, both at his departure from Washington and on his arrival in New York. From the moment he left the train at the Pennsylvania station until he reached his suite in the George Washington long after midnight he was guarded by every available man in the New York police force. The provisions made in this regard were the most extensive in the city's history. In addition to the 700 detectives stationed in the vicinity of the opera house there were details of uniformed men from almost every precinct in New York, and similar precautions were taken at the pier.

The George Washington lay at the pier the rest of the night and departed quietly the next morning, March 5, at about 8:30, with few witnesses to see it off— a marked variation from the President's first departure for the Peace ConferAfter an uneventful voyage President and Mrs. Wilson landed at Brest on March 13 and proceeded at once to Paris.

ence.

Aims of Japan's War Party Checked by the
United States Before the Armistice

By CARL W. ACKERMAN

[CORRESPONDENT OF THE NEW YORK TIMES IN THE FAR EAST]

[Copyrighted]

Mr. Ackerman returned in March, 1919, from a tour of many months through Siberia, China, and Japan, and revealed certain facts, hitherto unknown outside of the Chancelleries, regarding Japan's activities in Siberia and the reasons why the expedition sent by the Allies to aid Russia had not accomplished all that had been expected of it. After explaining that Japan was divided between two parties almost equally strong a war party, which desired to go ahead with aggressive policies in Siberia and China contrary to the policies of the United States and the Allies, and a peace party, which sought a peaceful solution of Far Eastern problems by diplomatic methods, Mr. Ackerman wrote as follows:

M*

Y first observation in Siberia was that there were several times as many Japanese troops as all other allies combined. Japanese soldiers were stationed in every village and city. Above every

railroad station from Vladivostok to Tchita, along both the Amur and the Chinese eastern railroad lines in Siberia and Manchuria, waved the Japanese flag. Every railroad bridge and nearly every public building was guarded by Japanese. Whenever England, France, or the United States would order a Lieutenant or Captain to another town or village away from the base at Vladivostok on some special work, the Japanese would dispatch a Major to the same place. If the Allies sent a Major or Colonel, the Japanese would send a General. Every time the American headquarters or the French or British Army commanders in Siberia moved a soldier or a regiment, whenever an allied soldier or officer landed or arrived in Siberia, the Japanese General Staff in Vladivostok had to be informed, but the Japanese in turn never informed any of the Allies how many soldiers they had; how many were being brought into Siberia, nor where they were being sent. At first the Allies did not protest nor question the Japanese policy. The Allies had agreed to work in Siberia under the supreme command of the Japanese and they continued to give Japanese head

quarters their respectful support until the opposition within Siberia to the activities of the Japanese Army became so great that, in justice to the Russians and their own countries, the Allies had to take cognizance of the activities of the Japanese soldiers and of the policies of the Imperial General Staff and its political agents.

In the beginning it should be explained that the "fundamental principles " upon which the Allies agreed to co-operate in Siberia were chiefly the following:

1. The allied Governments Japan, France, England, Italy, China, and the United States-were to land not more than 7,000 troops each; and

2. Except by mutual agreement no armies were to operate east of Lake Baikal, which divides Siberia roughly in half.

Instead of sending 7,000 men the Japanese military party, which was in power in Tokio and which controlled the Japanese headquarters in Vladivostok, sent 72,000.

The United States and the Allies saw immediately that the agreement had been violated, but they made no representations. Meanwhile the Japanese seized all caravan routes and blockaded all ports. Japanese gunboats and monitors were sent up the navigable streams and rivers into the interior. No caravan could move in or out of Manchuria or Siberia without passing Japanese guards. No railroad could be run without being

under the constant scrutiny of the Japanese. No ship could arrive or depart except under the ever-present gaze of a Japanese naval officer. By October, 1918, Japan had Siberia and Manchuria entirely under her power. Siberia was a sleeping giant guarded by 72,000 Japanese soldiers! Japan was in a position at any time to challenge Russians and Allies combined, because the military and naval strength of Japan was greater than that of all other powers combined.

ANXIETY AMONG ALLIES

By the middle of October this situation was causing a great deal of concern. The war was at its height. The Allies could not understand this policy of Japan, especially in view of the constant reports that the German military party and the Japanese military party had come to a secret understanding. There were reports also that Japan and Germany had a secret agreement under the terms of which Japan was to be given control of Siberia from Lake Baikal to the Pacific. This was immediately denied by the Tokio Governmen

The Allies, however, could not help but observe that even if there were no grounds for these reports, nevertheless the Japanese Army and Navy in Siberia and its ports were in a position where they could defy the Allies at any time. Their hold was so firm that if the war were compromised or if the Germans were to win, nothing in the world would force Japan from Siberia, and that country would become what South Manchuria is today.

Still, the Allies were silent. The fighting in France was attracting all of their attention and demanding all re

serves.

WAR PARTY WINS AGAIN

There were in the Far East, however, some men who went there for the purpose of helping Russia. These men, after making thorough investigations, reported to their Governments that the Russian railroads were in a terrible state of disorder, and that Russia could never be helped militarily or economically unless the Trans-Siberian Railroad was reorganized and placed upon an efficient

business basis. At this time there were present in Harbin and Vladivostok about 200 experienced American railroad men under John R. Stevens and George Emerson. These men had been brought to Siberia under an original agreement with the Kerensky Government, but they had been waiting patiently nearly a year for something to do.

England, France, Italy, and later China, together with the new Russian Government which had been formed in Omsk, gave the United States power of attorney to take over the Trans-Siberian Railroad and run it for the benefit of Russia. These six powers realized that nothing of importance could be accomplished in Siberia until the railroad was in efficient hands. When Japan was asked whether she would give her consent, she asked time to consider the proposal.

For two months, September and October, the question was debated in Tokio. The war party objected to any control which was not Japanese from top to bottom. This party maintained that Siberia was one of Japan's spheres of influence and that no other nation and no group of nations had a right to interfere with what the Japanese military party was doing. Another group of Japanese statesmen, backed by all the Chambers of Commerce and big financial institutions of Japan, wanted to compromise with the Allies. But the military party won its point, and Japan made counterproposals accordingly which destroyed all possibilities of an allied agreement regarding the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

For the first time the Allies were convinced by the attitude of the Tokio Government that Japan's policy in Siberia could not be reconciled with the allied policy.

LANSING TAKES A HAND

By Nov. 2 there were so many activities of the Japanese in Siberia which were causing dissension and disunion that Secretary of State Lansing, having all the data in his possession, sent for Viscount Ishii, the Japanese Ambassador in Washington. The Envoy came to the State Department about 4 o'clock one

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