Cable Reporting on the Peace Conference

Title

Cable Reporting on the Peace Conference

Creator

Unknown

Identifier

WWP15794

Date

1919 June 11

Source

Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia

Language

English

Text

[Handwritten note]: "2nd article"

Yesterday in answer to an American criticism of newspaper reports of the Paris conference, I cabled an account of some of the fundamental difficulties which correspondents have to contend with, with the hope of further meeting American criticism of the results of the Conference which arise largely from lack of knowledge of inside conditions. I showed a passage from the same letter to an official who is well informed and solicited a statement from him. He declined to be quoted but outlined some of the difficulties which had been encountered. The passage in the letter was as follows:

“I am inclined to think that President Wilson has lost considerable prestige in this country; that is to say, I don’t think his personal influence and standing is as strong as it was when he first went to Paris. That statement, I think, is true generally. It is not, however, as concerns myself. While he has perhaps not accomplished as much as I had hoped he might, I have realized, I think, the difficulties which he had to contend with, and I still believe that no one could have done better than he has done. I sometimes hear it said that while we, the Allies, have won the war, we have lost the peace, meaning that the peace which is to be, is to resemble very greatly the peace following the Congress of Vienna. It was hoped that the peace settlement after this war would be on a different plan. I think people generally are beginning to feel that their hopes in that respect are going to be disappointed. I am hopeful, however, that the League of Nations may afford an agency which will help us over some difficult places in the future.”

My informant after reading above said: “Americans who have taken part in the proceedings here have felt all along that they had been hampered by lack of full publicity in America. From our viewpoint there was every reason for, and none against, this policy. If, however, we had insisted on having our way about this matter we would have offended so deeply against the habits and convictions, and perhaps the actual necessities, of our European colleagues that harmony in the Conference would have been sacrificed from the start. President Wilson arrived here with a reputation for dictatorial methods. Europeans believed that he was arbitrary, that he was an incurable doctrinaire who proposed to take advantage of the moral and material resources of the country which he represented, which were essential for their rehabilitation, to force his peculiar theories upon them. European diplomacy had braced itself for a certain amount of resistance, while among Americans a pretty widespread impression prevailed that all others than the President himself could render their best services in the direction of conciliation. So far from this idea proving correct, President Wilson showed from the first a flexibility, breadth and open-mindedness. He has disclosed himself here in such a way as to compel a revision of all pre-existing opinions of him. I have never known a man of like firmness who was so ready to listen to opposing views. Every suggestion, whether from European or American sources, has been given consideration. Many suggestions have been adopted and incorporated in the peace terms. In no single instance has he permitted pride of authorship to interfere with reasonable agreement.”

Now, what were the conditions which he found when he arrived? Europe was literally in ruins. Every country was prostrate. Business and industry were utterly disorganized. Millions of the flower of the population had been killed and other millions disabled. Every Government had passed through trials that had reduced it to a state of weakness. Unity, counsel or action was impossible. The Allied world as a whole was cut up into divisions with different outlooks on the dreary prospect which stretched out in every direction. Leaving on one side the main division, that between Germany and the Allies, there was first of all the various national standpoints which to some extent conflicted with each other. Within these, the nations themselves, there were at least three separate estates, each distinct and independent. There was first the Executive Branch of the Government, which was represented by the Premier clothed with nominal power and sitting in the Peace Conference. Then there was behind him the superior power of Parliament, of which the Premier is the creature and able at any moment to dismiss him. Still behind Parliament was the people itself, emaciated, shell-shocked and feverish. What these peoples desired was not entirely clear, even to themselves. The sentiment nearest to the surface and the one that made itself most vocal demanded punishment of Germany as the primary task of the Peace Conference. It is safe to say that every Government head personally took a broader and more philosophical view of what would constitute a sound and profitable peace than would have been tolerated in the state of passionate feeling aroused by Hun barbarism. Statesmen could think in terms of enlightened self-interest; they could look ahead to the necessity for getting millions who had been destroying each other back to work; they could reason that we could never have a well world with a sick Germany, but at the slightest show of plans inspired by such considerations there was a protest that was simply terrorizing. Until the Hun had been made to realize, acknowledge and as far as possible expiate his crimes, any discussion on the sense of abstract justice was rendered impossible by the popular temper.

“So much for the attitude toward Germany. There naturally arose in the Conference questions among the Allies themselves and lack of unity among nations and within nations created a delicate situation calling for patient and tactful methods at all times. America’s aloofness from territorial and similar interests, her recognized desire to put herself at the service of the world and her great resources for putting that desire into actual practice, placed on the President, as representing America, the chief burden of championing the general cause of a sound peace which at times necessarily seemed to be in conflict with the desires and interests of an individual nation. To this difficult and somewhat thankless task he brought personal qualities that increased the influence possessed by his country. His patience and amiability knew no bounds. His indefatigable energy and his habits as a student enabled him to increase his knowledge of European intricacies until he came to understand any matter in controversy almost as well as the representatives of the various countries themselves. In these trying months he has done work that has been simply amazing on the score of energy alone. Nothing has been too much trouble for him. Those champion riveters who were breaking records in shipyards have nothing on him.

There is another quality in the President which it is necessary to know in order to understand and measure the work of the Conference. I refer to the sincere good fellowship which it is his nature to feel and practice in his relations with his colleagues. When he gets into the boat with comrades he doesn’t rock it. He may be wrong not to think more of his own individual interests at home, but there is something in him that prevents him from profiting in any manner at the expense of those with whom he is sharing great responsibilities.

Publicity was the thing which would have helped him. He believes in it. There was nothing that he was contending for that would not have been helped by it from his personal and political point of view. His refusal to sacrifice the interests of his co-laborers placed him in a false position and subjected him to a kind of criticism that could not be met. He had simply stood pat and taken his punishment. Throughout all the weary hours he has kept an even temper and in moments of strain his light touch and unfailing sense of humor have prevented differences from becoming serious.

“President Wilson may have come to Europe more of a philosopher and scholar than a man of action. Those of us close to him have witnessed a development that has been most interesting. This so-called doctrinaire has apparently learned something new at every turn and it has seemed to us as we have watched him that his principal growth has been along the line of accomplishing things. He has shown in a remarkable degree the American characteristic of zeal for “Carrying the message to Garcia.” Many a time he has been appealed to to withdraw from the Conference and leave the Europeans to fight it out among themselves, but nothing could shake his determination to hold on until the very last possible moment. It is not as a scholar or as a theorist, or even as an orator, that he has most impressed those who have seen him in his work in the Conference. It is as a man of affairs, submitting himself patiently to each day’s routine, showing a keen discrimination in separating essentials from non-essentials and wonderful quickness to improve opportunity as it has offered itself. He has grown constantly over here and I think that he is going home with many new weapons in his intellectual armory.

“Your friend writes that Wilson has lost ground in America and intimates that his work has been unsuccessful. Well, to those who expected a miracle in the treaty terms his work is a failure. Those who thought that the ruin of these five years could be made good within a few months at the treaty table are bound to be disappointed. But every sensible person knows, and particularly every sensible person who has had the advantage of precise knowledge, that dissatisfaction in every country is inevitable. This dissatisfaction is not a matter of the treaty terms. It arises from the destruction of the war. Conditions cannot be made perfect, they cannot even be made fairly good. The best that can be done is to set up some kind of order that will face in the direction of healing and reconstruction, and to provide instrumentalities which good-will and sense of justice in the world can lay hold of. There are years ahead of us which will make deep demands on our devotion and self-sacrifice. We have got a start along the right line and every influence that has been contributed by America has been in strictest aececord with the American spirit of broad-minded helpfulness.

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Citation

Unknown, “Cable Reporting on the Peace Conference,” 1919 June 11, WWP15794, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.