Forward Together; SC & the Nation in WW-I

you it's a long way to tipperary it's a long way it's a long way to tipperary so the sweet his girl my move I pick a daily fare we're better when it's a long long way to tipperary spot my heart [Music] and we're well I welcome you to this presentation I mean I've got a brief introduction and and then the president will come to speak to us this evening now let's set the stage this is a special appearance of the 28th president Thomas Woodrow Wilson it is the evening of September the 25th 1919 the Great War has been over for ten ten months we are in Pueblo Colorado it is the 21st day of Wilson's arduous round the country speaking tour to win public support for the League of Nations a project he helped design and believed in passionately his hope utterly utopian to our present age or is it was the league that would banish future Wars and lead mankind into a new era of permanent peace and universal democracy that fall however the league was in trouble in the United States Senate Senate which had to approve it by at least a two-thirds vote in 1919 however Republicans held a public a Senate majority and to varying degrees they and particularly senator Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Henry Cabot Lodge jr. wanted the league covenant revised to ensure American sovereignty which they believed the draft covenant in danger especially article 10 of 26 which they claimed stripped from Congress the power to take us to war a minority of Wilson's foes the irreconcilable wanted no league at all so Wilson took his case on the road to appeal directly to the public for support of an unamended League though he was apparently winning the public over there was a mounting problem his exhausting tour was bringing him to the to collapse in three weeks he had given 36 major addresses and eight minor ones he had already suffered a small stroke in July and while he was rallying popular support he was wearing out faster hours after the Pueblo speech he broke down completely and his doctor cancelled the rest of the tour reluctantly bowing to the inevitable Wilson looked out the train window tears streaming and said quote lodge will say I'm a quitter unquote the rest is high tragedy he suffered a major stroke three days later his beloved league died on the Senate floor and he endured the last one and a half years of his presidency and invalid believing to the end that without the league the world would be thrown into a major war with in general a generation a final note about the illustrations accompanying Wilson's addressed nearly all our selections from graphic materials of the World War one era the largest number being cartoons from the nation's leading newspapers now let us return to that evening in Pueblo new Civic Hall where as program chairman or chairwoman I say to you ladies and gentlemen give a warm Colorado welcome to the man who is striving to make the world safe for democracy the President of the United States the Honorable Woodrow Wilson [Applause] mr. chairman and fellow citizens it is with a great deal of genuine pleasure that I find myself in Pueblo Colorado and I take it as a compliment that I am to be the first speaker in your new Hall one advantage of it is I look about is that you are not too far away from me because there is nothing so reassuring and pleasurable to men who are trying to express the public sentiment as getting into real personal contact with their fellow citizens but I have had if I may call them unpleasurable experiences as well as I've crossed the continent I perceive more and more that men are busy creating an absolutely false impression of what the Treaty of Peace and the Covenant of the League of Nations contains and means I find further that there is an organized propaganda against the treating League coming from exactly the same sources it is to do away with these false impressions that I want to tell you a few simple things about two essential things the tree in the Covenant of the League to tell you convincingly how and to suggest why gentlemen have organized their propaganda I find that I must first go to the origin of the two key ideas to grow up out of this war one of permanent World Peace the other of a League of Nations which will act as the instrument of that peace both have their origins for me in the fundamental meaning of the American experiment and the world policies which that experiment implies no men dates if we would be true to our founding and history further these are ideas that have guided me all of my adult life especially since the beginning of the recent war some 10 months ago the America I know is more than a rich and powerful nation it has something else besides physical strength behind it America is a great spiritual concept and that is the one thing that the rest of the world cannot permanently resist and the spirit of America is peace and it is a spirit profoundly concerned with peace we are also a nation with a mission not a mission to help ourselves but to serve mankind since the first years of our founding there was the hope that it might in all it was and did show mankind the way to liberty and traditionally traditionally this missionary impulse has been a passive one of serving by good example but the time has come for us to play an active missionary role and lead the old world into a new era of peace and justice anchored on a concert a League of Nations critics critics say that I am utopian a modern-day Don Quixote well I say to that that America itself is idealistic with its mission of service it is in fact the only idealistic nation in the world and idealism will save the world selfishness and provincialism will only embroil it pardon in late november of nineteen and sixteen i felt the time had come for us to give a concrete expression to this missionary impulse what i thought to do was to approach each of the warring powers in such a way as would generate the first step toward peace putting the brake on the blind and deadly momentum of war if if human exhaustion if human exhaustion could influence the taking of that step then that fall was very nearly the time if not the time itself for our people to move for peace you see the long and deadly battle on the Somme just ended at costs the Allies a shocking 600,000 killed and wounded and the Central Powers nearly that number and the men in those horrid trenches were almost unanimous for peace if the contest were allowed to continue by such a Trisha if million after million of human lives could be offered up until there were no more to offer if if feelings of resentment could be kindled that would never die our hopes for a lasting peace would forever elude us certainly as a neutral nation whose fortunes rights policies were deeply affected by the war our nation had a clear right to ask the warring powers to make peace neutrality in fact would give us an advantage in doing this I would go so far as to say that neutrality vouchsafed a special blessing to us if a universal catastrophe was to be avoided some part of the great family of Nations must keep the processes of peace alive our nation by remaining at peace and fit and free was in a unique position to serve as mediator to the world and I know that God intended us to play that role well in the summer of 1916 December what I decided to do was to ask and by the way the gentlemen were already setting themselves against me what I decided to do was to ask each set of the warring powers to tell the world for they had not yet done so what conditions and positions if attained would satisfy them then if each set of replies proved at least minimally acceptable to the other side my hope was that we would go into conference for the purpose of forging a general and God willing permanent peace sadly if the men in those horrid trenches hungered for peace their political and military leaders wanted only victory moreover each side lamb basted the other side using my proposal as the pretext in sometimes they went after me the Allies told me that discussions of peace could not begin until victory was won otherwise autocratic Germany autocratic Germany would never yield up its determination to rule all of Europe they also said that my proposal made no moral distinction between the two sides showing my total failure to understand that British democracy was upholding at an appalling sacrifice the very principles they thought we also live by some even questioned our courage one English leader charged that it was fear of the submarine and of ourselves becoming embroiled in war that lay behind my haste my haste can you imagine my haste to arrange a peace well that's for the Germans as for the Germans who had submitted a very suspect peace proposal their own just days before mine they replied with equal acidity the Kaiser himself pummeled the on tante powers for their arrogant criminal rejection of his peace proposal and declared that now the war must continue until the inevitable German victory but early in the New World in the New Year my hopes rose although neither side had given us their lists of war objectives reports were the German mood had softened we're ready to go to arbitration in the light of this my close advisor Colonel Edward house cabled me this mr. president if these reports prove true we should soon be able to do something of far-reaching importance House well it was this this bloom of Hope that led me to go before the Senate and force the world with my own preconditions for peace an early version of my fourteen points but beneath them was a concept and a proposal which I called peace without victory peace without victory you see I understood that if either side won a total victory it would be a victors terms imposed upon the vanquished terms accepted only under duress and that enormous sacrifice leaving only bitter memories under those conditions peace would rest not on solid ground but on quicksand only a peace between equals could beckon peace to come with healing in its wings and come to stay but as you remember well my peace without victory proposal my peace without victory proposals found no takers in fact before I even proposed it the Germans were undermining it with malice aforethought Prussian autocrats earlier in January decided to resume unrestricted submarine warfare knowing full well that would bring America into the war but believing they could starve England out before we made our presence felt sinkings would begin the first day of February Oh Lord the turn of the world now simply reversed itself for me once again we had to face that that barbaric form of warfare which against all maritime precedent and practice condemned to death without warning or hope of rescue innocent merchantman and civilians rival ISM I thought that our Lusitania in Sussex protests of 1915 and 1916 would have persuaded the Germans to yield up permanently this form of terrorism at least for the neutral vessels but now now every vessel of what have a class flag cargo or destination was apparently to be ruthlessly sent to the bottom without warning I say apparently because I could not believe that the Germans would pay no heed to that ancient friendship between America and themselves and being a man who refused to be hurried into action particularly by popular well for the next few months two months to be exact I watched and I hoped and I worried because I knew that if America became a belligerent in this war though we might not be able to say Europe afterwards but my hope German sense and reason was a shimmer by March the thinking's of American merchantman was on the rise and the only conclusion seemed to be that the German war machine was a threat to the freedom of free men everywhere but but it was another act of German perfidy that finally pulled loose my stronghold on neutrality at about the same time the German military who are deciding to relaunch their submarines the German Foreign Minister one Arthur Zimmermann cabled his ambassador in Mexico City this vile proposal in the event of a war between Germany and America if Mexico would join with Germany Berlin would afterwards return to her territories taken in the eighteen forties war Zimmermann astonishing what they were planning but to strip away our sovereign states of Texas New Mexico and Arizona what deceit what deceit at the very time that we and they were talking peace and friendship they were plotting a hostile coalition against us an unholy coalition they even did their plotting on our undersea cable which we had generously made available to them but to provide secure transmissions for what they claimed would be cave discussing peace well our patience was now at an end consequently on April the 6th 1917 the Congress responding to my war message of four days before declared war on the German Empire so belligerent status was now forced upon us no question mister yes I think that's it belligerent status was now thrust upon us without question but if honor demanded the end of Note neutrality I can tell you with some pride that the ideals and goals which guided us in peace now instructed us in war our aim you see was not revenge selfish interests or the showing of American strength but only the vindication of human right of which America is the world's only champion our fight is for the Peace of the world for the privilege of free men everywhere to choose their way of life even the Germans if they would throw over their autocrats the world must be made safe for democracy by such a coalition of free peoples as would assured justice peace and openness to all nations as for our part in the actual fighting I think I only need remind you that America surprised the world by the speed with which they put large forces into the fray and by the Valor with which they fought both very unwelcome surprises to the Germans I can assure you well getting a well-armed America quickly into France was the work chiefly of our great friend Bernard Baruch who rose from his Camden South Carolina beginnings to become a multi-millionaire financier but when war and country called he set those things aside as director of our munitions manufacturer among many other things Barney was the man to go to to get action our military skills shocked the Germans equally their generals you see thought us a fat rich people a nation without honor who would do anything to avoid a war what they actually met as when our lads for example broke through the impregnable Hindenburg line was something else entirely an army of courageous fresh and battle-ready young men in this case boys from the Carolinas and Tennessee of the Old Hickory division whose attack and success at the Hindenburg line marked the beginning of the end for the Germans but victory victory was only step one now came the peacemaking and it was my deep hope to have that peace without victory I've spoken of and a League of Nations able to provide lasting peace and justice to all peoples in this well I knew I spoke the minds of a weary mankind I also knew the Allies did not see things as I did so I realized that no matter its toll on me personally I would have to enter this battle too and so I assumed the lead of our peace delegate for the Paris conference my critics were quickly dismissive arguing that I only coveted the role of the world's leader well yes I did covered that but for America not for myself and when we reached Paris last December my optimism rose the enormous crowds that thronged every Parisian Boulevard and Avenue shouting vive Marik and Nielson Wilson well they were astonishing but I soon was aware of some very grave problems I already knew about the secret treaties of the Allied powers this of course was what kept them from giving us their war goals I now discovered the Allies determination to impose a vengeful settlement upon the Germans the deep it was this deep cynicism of the Allied leaders that most distressed me darwinian cynicism which in politics says that the great shall eat the small and it will always be so in my presence the cynical men indulged my league perhaps because of the great reception we'd received what they really were thinking was oh yes Wilson well we must humor him along so that he won't make a public fuss over it but in the next month's and we were there for six with a brief bury at home in the next month's a very curious thing happened the cynical men found that the league was necessary to set right the flaws that had crept into the treaty what had seen a council of perfection now came to see a plane council of necessity for the men learned and found that the tree he could not even be implemented without the league ultimately it was made an inseparable part of the treaty itself I have to tell you if I may depart from the story just a minute I you know I have lived in some awfully torrid southern states I had homes with my family in Augusta Georgia and Columbia South Carolina and Wilmington North Carolina where it was plenty hot I can tell you I simply do not remember September this hot as you have here in Pueblo well I'll try to survive almost feel feverish well back to the story much has been made you know about my job in Paris with premier Klim also the latigo de France and the tiger of France well if truth be known I like the old man and I shall miss him his ideas were mostly straight and he had many lovable qualities but forbearance and suffering fools were not among them the Belgian prime minister once said to him right after the war started did he wish there was something he could do for little Belgium whereupon Clem also growled best thing you can do for Belgium is resign or die well as we sailed home in July from these colleagues and scenes I realized that I had been present at a wonderful time in the history of nation nations had often formed compacts but never partnerships they had frequently gathered together temporarily associated together temporarily but never permanently for permanent world peace it was this achievement and and promise which only two days after docking in New York I optimistically presented to the Senate which as you know had to approve the treaty and the league by at least a two-thirds vote imagine then my consternation and anger when my Republican opposition now claiming enough votes to sink the treaty if not greatly amended proffered not congratulations to me but abuse and accusation I was involving the nation in a treaty they said they would take from Congress the power to take us to war if I succeeded our very independence and constitutional integrity would be compromised my response to this wrongheadedness to call over to the White House two by two and three by three my Republican opposition to tell them the facts of the league surely the best way to correct misinformation yes no the truth is the league was not that target at all what drove them was political partisanship pure and simple they had opposed my 1916 peace plan for example with the absurd argument it would only encourage Europe to meddle in our affairs undermining the Roah doctrine many Republican senators declared their opposition to the league before we'd even finished drafting it and just two months ago the irreconcilable is among them pledged to defeat it without without I am certain even reading the Covenant but I'm not the only one to see petty political partisanship and play many sensible Republicans do as well for example esteemed newspaper editor William Allen white of the Emporia Kansas Gazette has written the Senate gentlemen are intent on discrediting Wilson for political reasons they want an issue and are willing to jeopardize the Peace of the world to create it it is small business even my two Republican predecessors Theodore Roosevelt and built aft certainly no fans of mine have given strong support to the league President Taft ex-president Taft was actually as angry at the Senate Republicans as was that ass of white for he has said the Senate gentlemen are so full of partisan rage and personal jealousy that they will on no account do their duty this hey political partisanship had its most scandalous appearance the night I reported to the Senate in July the gentleman winked thrust tongue-in-cheek whispered that I had failed to make good at the end they even refused to applaud what a colossal irony in the beginning the gentleman wanted to get into the war they abuse me for refusing now that they are in and are caught in the web of peacemaking and world responsibilities they want to break out and stay out a moment's indulgence I simply must cool off if you'll pardon me and allow me to do this I know that my dear wife Edith out there is highly embarrassed by my doing something like this but I'm just in hopes that much better than she would rather have a live embarrassment of a husband and one who collapses from heatstroke well back to the story again all of these things explain why I'm here with you in Pueblo I also know that you have been told that facts are being withheld that America will be at a disadvantage in the league well whoever has told you that was either deliberately falsifying or had not read the Covenant I am here to tell you the facts of the league and I will go the limit to win Americans support for it what are the facts well the gentlemen tell you that article 10 the core of the covenant gives to the league the power to take our nation into war article 10 as you likely know requires every league member to preserve commits every league member to preserve and protect the territory of any nation threatened by external aggression and empowers the league's executive counsel to advise ways to do this but my good friends do keep this in mind the council can only advise and it cannot do that without the vote of the United States why gentlemen should fear that Congress would let itself even be advised to do something it doesn't want to do it is beyond me nevertheless the gentlemen insist on amending article 10 to reserve explicitly to the Congress the right to approve any recommendation by the league not only is this change in the Covenant unnecessary it will delay the passage of the peace treaty indefinitely well by forcing it back on to the Paris conference and require renegotiation by all signatories well this is chiefly what the gentlemen say is wrong with the league what's right about it what is essential about it most importantly the league will be a force for lasting peace with its many safeguards and its spirit of openness no single great nation will ever again be able to do what the Germans did secretly plot war and begin it with the whole strength of its people whom in this case it did not even consult but reject the league reject the league and I predict a coming world catastrophe within a generation now it's true the league is no absolute insurance against war but I ask you would you rather have no insurance at all as the gentlemen seem to prefer would you have no probability that war will not recur but only the probability that it will I assure you you do not want those options I recently walked the battlefield of and saw way that a lovely Belgian city and a distinguished Canadian regiment were ground to bits and where the Germans first made use of poison gas against the foe 10 million men lost their lives in this war including some one hundred sixteen thousand of our brave dough boys with the league we will not have to face such scenes and statistics again the old nationalistic outlook which is responsible for them namely that the great powers ought to dominate and direct the destinies of the small the old nationalistic outlook will give way to a new internationalism to a new league principle which is the American principle that the rights and the quality of the weak man for the league the weak nation are the same as those for the strong but reject the new internationalism and keep the old nationalism as the gentleman seemed to want and there'll be another war another thing the league will do it will provide the platform on which America and long last can play its due role in the world and what's more prompt and cordial American participation in it will validate the goals and the idealism of our nation which has earned a new place in the world which it would be folly to impair you see Europe believes and trusts America don't you see what a compulsion that is you do not earn a reputation and then fail to live up to it finally finally the league will redeem the pledge we made to our boys who now lie dead in France we told them they were not fighting to demonstrate American prowess but to see to it that no such war ever comes again with a league well I can I can look every mother of the country in the face and sisters and sweethearts and tell them the boys will not have to do this again fellow citizens the stage is set the destiny disclosed for the league has come about by no plan of our conceiving but by the hand of God who has led us in this way we cannot turn back we can only go forward with lifted eyes and freshened spirit to follow the vision it was of this that we dream from our birth America in truth will show the way the light the light streams only on the path ahead and nowhere else my good fellow citizens may I invoke God's blessing to you and to on our wonderful nation who is seeking to lead the old world into the cars of Liberty may we always stand for peace thank you [Applause] Hindry excuse me Henry Lodge should be here to see this even the reservationist among you are welcome to ask a question it's you that I want to turn in a new direction well I am I felt a little rum today you know a fever and difficulty breathing but I'm sure I'll pep up tonight yes they look like they need a reception thank you so much [Applause] [Music]