Woodrow Wilson - The Fifteenth Point The Fifteenth Point

WOODROW WILSON CONTENTS FOREWORD 7 I. CALL TO ARMS 1 1 II. A RECONSTRUCTION CHILD 1 III. FUGITIVE FROM THE LAW 3 1 IV. THE HAPPY YEARS 45 V. A POLITICAL EDUCATION 58 vi. THE MACHINES CANDIDATE 70 vn. THE PEOPLES CHOICE 82 VIII, NO TIME TO THINK QQ ix. INCREDIBLE CATASTROPHE 116 X. FIGHTING FOR CONCILIATION 128 XI. MESSAGE OF DEATH XII. THE WAR TO END WAR XIII. AUTOCRACY IS DEAD XIV. INTERMISSION XV. VICTORY WITHOUT PEACE 2 SO XVI. VERSAILLES, FIRST PHASE XVII. WASHINGTON INTERLUDE XVIII. VERSAILLES, SECOND PHASE XIX. MEN OF ILL WILL 304 XX. THE LAST CRUSADE 319 XXL THE WRECKAGE ggg ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 35 1 INDEX FOREWORD T J. HE assertion that all international tragedies from the French invasion of the Ruhr to the rise of the Nazis and the present war stem straight from the Versailles Treaty has been so widely repeated that it is in danger of becoming history by default. A document that could draw Hitlers hysterical screams of rage might be com mended on that basis alone, but of course that is no sounder an argument than Hitlers own. It is important to go back to the facts, and examine once again just how the Versailles settlement came about and what it was This book is an attempt to present the case through the medium of the treatys chief architect. Before it was drafted, Woodrow Wilson expressed the worlds hopes for it. While it was being framed, he was the principal nego tiator. After it was signed, he was the center of the first great storm it raised. Even after he died he remained its symbol. Since then much new light has been thrown on the forces whose interplay defeated the hopes of igiSs war weary generation. Since then, too, we have seen the na tions plod blindly back to 1914, placing the United States in the predicament of 1917. Wilson, whom the men of those days relied upon to ob tain a lasting peace, left in his own papers an unusually complete record that enables us to study every step in the development of his program. The pages that follow have been written in the belief that a true understanding of that development and program is essential if this time the world is to break out of the fatal circle of war once and for all. WOODROW WILSON CALL TO ARMS X TEUTRALITY IS NO LONGER FEASIBLE OR DESIRABLE IN where the peace of the world is involved and the freedom of its peoples. The words, spoken in the mellow, cultivated voice of the President o the United States, a voice the country had come to know well during recent years of struggle for social and economic reforms, carried easily through the densely packed House of Representatives. Outside a soft spring mist pressed close about the Capitol. Inside the lights blazed down upon a breathlessly silent crowd o Senators, Representatives, diplomats, jurists, Cabinet members and lucky holders of visitors tickets. They had listened, tingling, to a stern indictment of the German Government for high crimes against civilization. Tensely conscious of the historic significance o the moment, they heard the clear tenor The menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic governments backed by organized force which is controlled wholly by their will, not by the will of their people. We have seen the last of neutrality in such circumstances. The President, acclaimed even by his enemies as a master of persuasive eloquence, was using the most effec tive of oratorical forms unadorned simple sincerity. Hewas almost as motionless as his audience. Only his lips 11 12 WOODROW WILSON moved steadily, firmly, and now and again his eyes shifted from die sheets of paper in his hands to where, just below him, the venerable Chief Justice, white-bearded, wise, in tent, sat in his place with ga. e fixed upon the speaker...