Topic 59 
THE COLONEL AND THE TREATY

THIS country must keep its absolute economic independence and raise or lower economic barriers as its interests demand, for we have to look out for the interests of our own workingman.

"We must insist on the preservation of the Monroe Doctrine; we must keep the right to close the Panama Canal to our enemies in war time; and we must not undertake to interfere in European, Asiatic, or African matters with which we ought to have properly no concern."

That was Colonel Roosevelt's position as to what the peace treaty should in part contain as expressed by him after Mr.  Wilson had announced his intention of going to Paris, but before he sailed.  In this talk he covered the then nebulous field of treaty making, and, as my notes show, strongly indicated that he foresaw the complications that arose in the Senate when the finished document was presented to that body for action.  It was clear that he was not of those who approved of Mr.  Wilson's plan to take part in the Peace Conference and he was very much of the opinion that a definite statement of his position was due the American people from Mr.  Wilson.

He also made it clear that he was fearful the now almost forgotten "14 points" would be pressed to the disadvantage of our Allies.

"President Wilson," he said, "has not given the slightest explanation of what his views are or why he is going abroad.  He pleads for unity, but he himself is responsible for any division among the American people as regards the Peace Conference at this time.

"He has never permitted the American people to pass on his peace proposals, nor has he ever made these propositions clear and straightforward.

"As for the '14 points,' so far as the American people have expressed any opinion upon them, it was on November 5 when they rejected them.

"What Mr.  Wilson says of these' 14 points' is sheer nonsense.  He says the American army was fighting for them.  Why, there was not one American soldier in a thousand that ever heard of them! The American army was fighting to smash Germany.  The American people wanted Germany smashed.

"The Allies have never accepted the '14 points.' The United States has never accepted them.  Germany and Austria enthusiastically accepted them.  Here certain individuals including President Wilson, Mr.  Hearst, Mr.  Viereck, as I understand it, and a number of pro-Germans and pacifists and international Socialists have accepted them; but neither the American people nor the American Congress has accepted them.

"Mr.  Wilson himself has rejected at least one outright and has interpreted another in the directly opposite sense to its plain and obvious meaning.

"The simple truth is that some of the ' 14 points' are thoroughly mischievous under any interpretation, and that most of the others are so vague and ambiguous that it is nonsense to try to do anything with them until they have been defined and made definite.

"Inasmuch as Mr.  Wilson is going over, it is earnestly to be hoped that it is his business not to try to be an umpire between our Allies and our enemies, but act loyally as one of the Allies.  We have n't suffered anything like as much and we have not rendered as much service as the leading Allies.  It is the British navy and the French, British, and Italian armies that have done most to bring about the downfall of Germany and therefore the safety of the United States.  It is our business to stand by our Allies.

"The British Empire imperatively needs the greatest navy in the world and this we should instantly concede.  Our need for a great navy comes second to hers and we should have the second largest navy in the world.  Similarly France needs greater military strength than we do, but we should have our young men trained to arms on the general lines of the Swiss system.

"The phrase 'freedom of the seas' may mean anything or nothing.  If it is to be interpreted as Germany interprets it, it is thoroughly mischievous.  There must be no interpretation of the phrase that would prevent the English navy in the event of any future war from repeating the tremendous service it has rendered in this war.

"The British must, of course, keep the colonies they have captured."

Here the Colonel laid down his irreducible minimum of what the United States should insist upon printed above.

"As for Mr.  Wilson at the Peace Conference," he concluded, "it is his business to stand by France, England, and our other Allies and present with them a solid front to Germany."