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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1922)
: ::: .. .. ft; Ky iA--r irvSTr SECOND MAIN NEWS SECTION TWO SIX PAGES ' "EDITORIAL, SPORTS PORTLAND;: OREGON, ; SUNDAY MORNING, - JANUARY., 1, -1922t r : TTV r i i I I i I I yi I - I ''N'- . k li I I ' I I I ! '''' -. '' ' ' ' - . !.. -. 'I - - - ' 1 '" '"- - 1 ! ' 1 '' 1 1 "ii'ir'i. t "' ' '" I in ' a aaMWSsawaaaasi aaa-aaaaaaaw ii mm II im , I A i - ,,,,, V Th da lamal fcamttb ill Ilia tk Tk hw," wtr aa otbetlUIlT BBrnUva o( now Um pna of Parte m -HytH Weod w WUm Mr. Baker acoaat aU af hte prnooal and npohltehad papvra. wbkrfa ar tha only fUabi m4 iamauovartibto noorda o( tha facta wMek bcnUrfora aaa nmr ban auda poblia apacna laawra wui Da (nwiaoao to (Orrricat. 1(22. by Daablaaay. Pmm Ca. , v Um Mcdiira Pawapaj pRESIDENT WILSON kept on bU desk at Paris, during the peace con -, . ference, a larse steel document box with a sprint; lock. I have seen him at the close of the day, after the session of the Council of Four, method- . ; , lcally put Into this box all the papers and memoranda ' Jtay 'ltaasard, Bakar. long and bitter the best response complete account of the conference, ' word of mouth to present the history . .and documents. A KAir OF SLLBKCE " But the president, who bad been des- - parately ill, was welgbd down with . the , burdens of his closing adminlstrav ' tlon. Moreover, no man who ever sat in j the White House was so little self-explanatory as Mr. Wilson. He rarely de fended himself when attacked, nor gave - his" friends the ammunition for such a defense. His end of a personal contro versy was "silence to seme of his ene- ; mles, an' Infuriating' alienee. He seemed ' incapable of presenting or dramatising htm own 'actions. A student of hlau vol uminous speechee and writings will find few jMges devoted to telling what he dld,9w he did It, or why. He has been a' gnat Actor upon the world's stage, the , rhief figure in supreme events ; but he does not readily visualise either events or personalities; his characteristic and Instinctive 'interest is in ideas. He can ; I tall what 'he thinks aad hopes and be "lle-aa:"llvlnc man 'can do It better vut Jje.hes.no genius or telling what he did.' , ' In December, 1920, he wroU tone as follows; ; . ,tt. i . . . . i ;. "H Is clear to me that it will not . i. ' he poetlble for me to write anything , such as you suggest, but I believe - ' that you could do It admirably. .' . 1' have a trunk full of - papers, and the next time you are r, . down here X would like to hae you , vVg-o through them an.daee what they ..are and what the best use Is that ' . ' can be srutoe of them. I plunked , fhem Into the trunk In Parts and ' have not had the j time or physical ' energy even to sort or arrange them. ','t sm ' looking forward with v great , 1 satisfaction . to the work you are ; proposing to do!" . ' In January, 1921. I began working , upon, these documents atr&ie White House. 1 They were In two trunks and three steel boxes and for the most part , had not been touched since the president put'- them aside In Paris. They can be . grouped In three categories ; First: The complete minutes from April 1 to June 24. 11. of the Council of Vonr (which consisted of the presi dent of the United States. Mr. Lloyd George, -thj prime minister of Great Britain; M. Clemenceau, president of the Council of France, and Sirnor Or lando, premier of Italy.) ' totrjiiiirots records I A-widespread belief has existed that . ," nej records were kept of the crucially , Important meetings of , the Four. It. is : true that: the first two or 'three weeks 'ef these conferences, from about March 24 to April It. were entirely Informal ; and. while no official minutes were made of the actual conversations, this period Is excellently documented with memoranda, letters, reports and copies . ef resolutions; and there exist informal - records, such aa my own. of daily con versations with the . president, which fill the gap. After April li, however. , and until the close of the conference, a ' remarkably- complete and methodical record Of the entire proceedings was kept la one or two Instances exact steaographlo reports of the conversation are in existence; but for the most part the record was. made In English by sir Maurice Hankey of the British foreign ; effloe, who was the secretary of the Four He was sometimes the only man 7 preeenyVlth th Four or the Three; bat , usually Mantaux. : the French In terpreter,' was there artd when Orlando - attended he also had his aecreUry, , Count Aldrovandl. with him. for Orlando was the only . oae of the - Four who spoke no English. , While Hankey's min ute are not verbatim, but are written is th KngUsh style of Indirect narrative, reporting speeches a nd discussions In i- the third person, they- reach, with the appendices, the rather tremendous bulk of some Itoe typewritten pages, legal s!xe. probably not far short or three quarter of a - million words, and give a remarkably faithful, and often vtvM, latlrfartm almrfr T). ((.naigl 1L.W'. 4r nmi aanallj uuvocsoot tat PnMfahail ky Spaeial AiraBceaacBt witk ar BradkmU.) which had come to him in the course of the day's pro ceedinc s. From time to time, as the box filled up and the documents were no longer required, they were re moved to larger boxes and trunks." one of them beau tifully made by the ship's carpenter of the George Washington. All of these were brought home with him to the White House. . In the winter of 120 - 1921 great pressure was brought to ' bear upon the president to give his own account of what happened at Paris. He had been under attack, and his friends, confident that I to these criticisms was a true and urged him both by letter and by of the events, using actual records account of the discussions Trom day to day. Hankey was one of those incredibly able and efficient men of the super secretarial type, who came Into prom Inence at the peace conference. Mantaux was another, of whom I hope to speak again. This record of the Council of Four, together with the minutes of the Council of Ten (consisting of the five chief representatlvea of the great .powers America, France, Great Britain, Italy and Japan each accompanied by his foreign minister) from January. 12, 1J19. to June fi7 (although the Ten. after March 15. met infrequently), and the so-called Council of Foreign Ministers, the "Little Flve; (Secretary Lansing for America, Mr. Balfour for Great Britain. M. ' Plchon for France, Baron Sonnlno for Italy and Baron Makino, though WM "ot a" foreign minister.' for Japan), from Wreh 7to June 13. to which I have also had access these tatter records also , comprising, , wtth l their appendices, over 1200 typewritten pages,- some half-million words make, up the complete and only off lclal record f ihe peace conference, none of which has yet been ' published. J Second : The -Second category includes a large number of reports and memor anda made by the members of the Amer ican delegation for the president, so British and French reports that came Into his hands In tha course of the dis cussions, together with many of the rec ords and minutes of the subsidiary com missions, such as the supreme economic council, and tne various expert and In vestigatory committees. These docu ments contain much valuable historical material, revealing the attitude of the various nations 'represented at Paris at each point In the discussions, and the exact opinions of the delegates and ex- XARGtKAL MEMORANDA 1 In this category, also, I should place the president's own Invaluable memoranda, often on the margins of documents, sometimes upon separate sheets written upon his typewriter or In his wji. steno graphic hlerloglyphlcs-which he has. In some cases. Interpreted for the .writer. Especially valuable jnd Interesting are the notations In the president's hand showing the development of the League of Nations covenant and the extraor dinary number of changes made in cer tain of the articles. Here also are the original drafts of the covenants made by the president. Colonel House. Lord Robert Cecil. Baron Philllmore, General Smuts, M. Bourgeois, the Italian and Swiss schemes, and others. AU this ma terial came naturally into the hands of Mr. Wilson. There is nowhere probably a more complete or explanatory record of every step In the development of the league covenant than this. Third j The third category, in many ways the most Interesting of any. con tains the varied correspondence, peti tions, resolutions, letters, which came personally to the president for help In a hundred causes how the stricked people of the nations turned with hope and faith to America, how bitter the suffer ing was. and how vital. the need. I found the examination of this material a breathless and exciting experience, like going through a treasure chest not filled with gold, but with the Very soula, of mankind. Here, for example. Is a bulky Petition from 17.000 Jugo-SIavs in the Flume district beautifully bound In em broidered silk with .an eloquent state, ment of how the names had been col lected, partly by girls and women, some times with great risk to themselves. Here are pathetic appeals from starving Ar menians, discontented Persians, suffer ing Albanians, ambitious Ukranians, all eager to get the ear and the friendly help of America; here ar communica tions la the strangest variety; and from every sort of people: autograph letters from most of the beads of European na tionsfor example, one from the king of l , 1 Spain written ) in . English and ; enckwipg a letter In CSerman from' ."my cousin Charles, the lte ' emperor' of Austria," here letters from. Lloyd George, mem oranda frorq Clemenceau and Orlando, appeals fronvj leaders and publicists of America, t;reat Britain. .France andi other . countries. , suggestions, from 'ex- Uperts not connected; with, the conference. warnings' fromj radical leaders; an ex traordinary exhibit of the thought of the world. 1 .i . -." ' - i KO CLOISTERED SECLTJ6IOX ' Those who have a' picture of the presi dent Immured jin a . kind .of cloister, at Paris and . cut; off -from knowledge of what . the world ' was thinking about, have, of course , no knowledge ' of ' these sources of ihfermation and '.advice. ; It was the commonest experience, at Paris to' find eager delegations who had come hundreds of mijes, often with "difficulty land danger.' trying to get to the 'presi dent to give hint information he already possessed. It would have been better, upoh-the human side, if the president could have aeeij 'face to face all' these people be did see: an extraordinary va riety of them for they would nave gone away feeling lhat they had bad' a real part in shaplng the fate' of -the. world; but this was not 'only physically impos alble, but it wasi not the way "the preei- : i ' : " i . t ' -f . f. i ; . s , v - Vi-' ; : .; i .. ' ..a. ." ' .' : .n. ' : i ', . ; ! i .':'.! :'V V i - . i t y . I . ' 4 r i -i S ' t t T'f i ' '."' " - t ' A, 1 1" - ' V 4 V"- . ' - vi. o- , ,v'. -v vi s - Kr V ",K t"---''' ' ' " i i . ai'wywjfti'ia-Hiwv,.auia i WueK "uiujj I in : 1 ; . ' . r '. 1 i : -.:v . i , f As ' V-K. .-Kyi ' Vf. A: t V den worked.' " His training in , all, his prevlous'.iife.l It ehoold .not be ' forgotten, had been that of the scholar, the student. mot the' politician, accustomed to' getting' his, information not from people but' out of books,: documents, letters the written word. : Having thus wthe essence' of the matter he; probably underestimated. the value j, of, i these 'human contacts. And too . often it ; was 1 not real Information these delegations had to offer, but argu ments,' propaganda, irrelevant appeals forBympathy.. . . ; " - v . . -..!"'. , ' " iETKRTOHK A DIARIST , In the preparationiof this history the writer has also had the great advantage o manyf converns tions. both at Paris and since, with various members of the com missions, both T American ' and foreign, and has been - able , thus to supplement his own knowledge of specific events. e ; nas .also; had tha good : fortune : to f see the personal records made' by some of the men who wer there. , I suppose there never was a conference In which every human3; being struck with, a: kind of historic awe. Al most everyone, except the president, kepi a diary, of which the president was un doubtedly the 'central object, 'the chief interest. Some of them wrote surreptK Uously. some' boldly and without shame. Secretary ! Tensing - was 'an Indefatigable - t -5 t 4 " 'A v diarist v I remember t seeing-, him. many tubes 'sitting alone Jn his. Wff empty , of fice.. wriUng in a smail neat hookg In "a small, neat, formal i hand. j When ; one came in to talk with him he .would. lay down his pen. reach for a pad of paper and during the conversation -.draw ope after another pencil sketches of strange, grotesque and sinister faces. ; He worked5 equally well, with . his- right: r left band., . In: the course .of . the months at, Paris for he occupied hls; lime, in the: conferences in the - same way,., he must , have drawn thousands - of ., such pictures. !: lS-'----r -',,. - ' ' i Colonel - House dictated his record to his secretary, sitting.' on ' a long couch with a 'gay-colored blanket thrown over his legs.' He spoke in' a 'smooth, even yoice,-bringing his hands 'together soft ly from time ",to .time, sometimes Just touching the finger-tips, sometimes the whob palms. General; Bliss wrote, reg ularly . aad 1 voluminously , la longhand and like, the outright and .truthful oW soldier;; he is made no. bnes; about it It was with Mm a, method of clarifying his own thoughts, rather than of- setting down an account ot events.'. I shall like his memoirs best of all, I think, when he comes ; to publish them. As for the others , who, kept records in that vast CrlHion establishment: they were as the ' i S. ; J .J 3 4 . A i w '.'iW'!. -. . . , . . !.:ii';'V;;:V sands: of thej soa,- and - the . sounds'? of their? pen's (one. fancied he ' could 'Iden iiiiiiil tify it finally in the f watches' of i the night) was" like the washing of waves on 'the beach. 4 ' s .' :i-y.: : So much for . the' documentary 'and other material.' The . importance of the subject to be : treated must excuse ref erence also, to the writer's own sources of 'knowledge at Paris. -. .. -r .. . I : spent .nearly , all . of the .year 1918 as a seciaJ commisaioner of the state department, visiting -England, - France and;Italy aatf making a., series of -reports ' upon t certain "economic and" ,ptf lltical -conditions in the allied countries. -TheeVeporiy Wnt? primarily 'ttf the state t department : and .also' to' Colonel House, who ' was at the" bead of . the president's commission of Inquiry,- and some '"were - transmitted .direct to f the president' hSmself.' In the course of 'this year' of tremendous events .1 met many of .the, important leaders , In the Rallied ounrie"'aad endeavored, especia'ilytq see" and' understand the powerf "under currents (tae labor and. liberal; move ments. . at Wprk In an ; these countries. I had 'alwr a:ciose view; of the war it self on, the. French: and Belgian fronts, and . In Italy., l-1 saw - the stupendous efforts of our own army.- and,' at" first hand. the' devastation wrought by-the H " , Germans. This experience I . found in vafuable in giving me a dear under standing of jthe backgrounds "of the peace conference; the real' foundations Of military ' force and economic heed upon which it rested. and ' the atmos phere of suffering.'" dread, hatred, new ly' aroused ambitions, in which at Paris the. discussions took place. ' Too many of fhe critics In 'America ot the con ference have been without an under standing of these underlying and prece- dent conditions. BAKER APPOINTED ' In December, 1S1I, several weeks be fore the peace conference opened; Presi dent Wilson . appointed the writer to direct the. press arrangements . of 1 the American commission in the follow ing letter to Colonel House, wherein he alsot outlined the general method of pubUclty to be employed. :f 5 My dear House: .; ' - , I have been thinking a great deal lately about the -contact of the com X mission with the pubUc through the ' Wss and particularly about the f v way In which Jhe commission should , k; deal with the newspaper men who ; have come , over from the United States I have come to the conclu- sion that much the best way to handle the matter is for you and the other commissioners' to hold a brief meeting each day and Invite the rep resentatives of the press' to come in at each meeting for such inter change of information or sugges-. 'tim aa may be thought necessary. This I am sure is preferable to any formal plan or to any less definite arrangement " I am convinced also that the prep ., aration.of all the press matter that . is to bes issued from the commission is a task calling for a particular ; !of experiencod , abHlty. I beg, f ; therefore,; - that you? and .your fellow .coromtssioners wlU agree to. the ap- ; .pointment T Mr. ZUy .Stannard Ba- , ."kfr- as your representative in ; the "k- performance ef tbia duty. V Mr Ba rker enjoys my confidence In a very" -' high degree- and I have o healta- r' tlon In commending Mm 0 you as 1 : a- man of ability, vision and Ideals. 4 He has been over here' for the better part of a year, has established rels- . . tlonshlps which will be of the high est value, and -is - particularly es- : f teemed by the very class of persons to, whom it will be most advanta- " geous to us to be properly inter preted'in the news that we have to issue. If you see no conclusive objection to this, I would suggest that you request Mr. Baker to do us the very great service of acting in fthls capacity. I am writing in the same terms to . the other members of the commis sion. ' Sincerely yours, WOODROW WJLSOX. PRESS BUREAU ORGANIZED. . So it became my task to organize the press bureau of the American commis sion and pf flees were opened at NoJ 4 Place de la Concorde, near the Hotel CrUton. Through this office passed all the official news of the conference, and it became, moreover, a center at which gathered the representatives of all the delegations and commissions, from all countries that came to Paris; everyone who was seeking the support of Amer ican Influence and American opinion, and who was not? We also saw all the various delegations from America; the Irish, the Jews, the labor leaders, the women's organisations, the negroes. It was one of the busiest offices of the commission. " t The writer's duties brought him into contact with the , American commU sioners every morning before, the daily session ', with . the correspondents, and during all the later months of the- con ference he saw. the president each aft ernoon following the, close of the, ses sion of the council of four (sometimes oftener). went over fully the happenings of the day,' determined upon exactly what should ; be made" public, "and after ward met the American correspondents. He ' crossed 'the ocean three times on the George Washington with' the presi dent and was able to serve him. In sev eral instances. In important matters not connected with publicity. The supreme economic council also appointed him as a member of the board of four men, one from 'each, nation, to direct 1U 'pub licity, and the records of this important commission .thus came into his hands. r ' . . . - .1.. - The press bureau, under , his direction, had charge of making and transmitting the American sunmiary of the treaty. The writer , offers no excuse for the personal , note he employs in ' various part; of this narrative ; - for only ; thus can he convey what he himself saw and knew. He is doing It also with the In tent of making It clear that ' the Judg ments of men and events are his own and not those of the president' The president's own views are expressed with great completeness In the documents. innoraoda? and ' letters hfch fare here. reproduced or quoted ' from. . -; : DISAGREES WITH WliBOKM-- : It Is only honest to say that the writer r did ot agree with the president to some ot his conclusions at Paris, and anrued. before the 'decision Via made a differ- course or action rrom- the one taken, as in the Shantung matter. , He finis In his journal of April 29 ;.' -. . "I went up to the president's housed , , at 9 o'clock this morning where I lald . before him tha notes 1 had made to-, gather with various memoranda fuiCrf to me ' by Williams and Hornbeck. 4th Far- Eastern experts) tand by : WelUngton Koo and others of the'. Chinese delegation. There is no poa-. ' slble doubt where - the 'president's ; own sympathies lie. He is for the full rights of the Chinese. I told him tht the sympathy of the World was , undoubtedly with ihe Chinese, f . V. ' 1 know that,' he said. ; ' I "I made, as Btrong , a; case aa i. could for the Chinese' position, Urg-; ing some postponement at least' -Tha president pointed out how Inextric ably the whole matter was tied up " with the old secret treaties how" Britain felt herself bound to Japan, and how, with Italy already out of -f the conference and Belgium bitterly! ' discontented, the defection of Japan"; not an ' unreasonable v possibility,' might not only break up the peac, conference, but destroy the League ' of Nations." - ' ! - y , ' , I i It was also i my belief that a, much broader publicity, a construcUve pub licity, could have been had at the conference,- and this view was frequently urged upon the president and. upon the commissioners; , I sun believe that one of .the, greatest mistakes made . at, the eonfnce, ... particularly ; for 4 America, wa a' vant of better.,understandlng -of what happened there, and the exact reasons-why,, in each, particular case; the president decided . as he did, for J am confident that If the ( American people could know whal theprobleras Were 'in shell-shocked Europe 1n,lflrKtheprob-' tema those desperately harassed leader at Paris had to meet, there would to day be a better 'and more sympathetic understanding : of our newly developing international reiatlonahlps. This whole problem of publicity knd secrecy at Paris will be considered In h later chsp- But it must be clearly Bald that I be lieyed then in the essential truth of 'the great principles .the president laid -down at Paris, and do.' so still;, that I had then, and have' still, complete faith In the absolute sincerity- of the president's purpose, and the conviction that, what ever ifiay have been his mistakes, -he fought for his principles under such dir. ficultiea and, In such an atmosphere as the American people do not yet under stand. - - i " ' VflLSOX POIXTS WAT " (iMim. miu not in i utoee , oriel : months achieve the ,rnew world," the "new order,", he so .nobly phrased, so ardently desired, and- so continuously -fought for. ut- he chose .the battle ground and- set forth 'the issues which win engage the throught of the world" for many years to come. J And there' is no' more Instructive failure If it' was failure than the president's at' Paris,' for when we Approach it with a desire Pot to condemn or defend, but to Uu- tdersUnd. .. It reveals, ' as. nothinx else could," the real elements of the struggle ' which,' the liberal .of. the ' world ha v . yet before them.', We see s in a spot light 'the ''defects of our 'own ''govern ' mental machinery- ns ft concerns, foreign affairs. .We" are -ablertto:" judge "more clearly, the state ot .our own public opin ion, and above all to.ge a truer sense ' of our relationships ,with i-the other ': great ' nations of the"" world. ' ; v J 4 ' Finally, we see in high relief the flgi; ore of an extraordinary human being, with supreme qualHiea of many kinds.' with temperamental and physical' limi tation, who will never cease Ho fascin ate the historian and biographer of "rep resentattve and decisive characters. ; Unless Americans' can apprehend" what really happened at" Paris, what forces .we had to, meet there, Jiow we' were , led,' and !" what we . did, we s can - scarcely go ahead with firm ground tin- v der our feet-to discuss what to do next - -Paris.. must assuredly, be' the -Spring- "1 board for any. future plungr Into for eign affairs. Consequently , this is an ," American narrative, from an -American -point of view. It U" the accounts, of what happened by one who was there, ' who knew the men engaged, and who had .then and has had since, in even : larger measure.' a full access to the documents not merely the formal rec ords, but those 'tentative proposals, me moranda and correspondence,' - which often reveaL in their Impulsive sincer ity.'' later smoothed into" conventional complaisance the true purposes, the real desires of ' the actors upon that great stage., ' ' " - ' (T $t Costsnxd Xtil Saaear) 1 A- 1