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Show . ' PEACE CONGRESSES '-tonz Gaiiagftw , PV "17 IEWING the poaco conference by some of tho h candlelights of history we ask ourselves what eV part the purely human equation and what part I gy. political Ideas will have in the settlement. Ip The present council of the powers invites com- B' parison with the Congress of Vienna, which made l.- many of the European adjustments which must p ' now be undone. Wf At each conference we see a dominating per- S'" sonality. Then it was Prince Metternich; now it is President Woodrow Wilson. Then it was a I , statesman schooled in the secret diplomacy which r secured for Napoleon his divorce from Josephine !Beauharnais so that he might wed the daughter of Metternich's royal master of Austria; which fin- ally overthrew the upstart empire of Bonaparte and divided the spoils at the Congress held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The most natural comparison of personalities, therefore, is between Woodrow Wilson and Metternich. Metter-nich. In both intellect is to be observed as the predominating element, then statesmanlike vision of the future, wide knowledge of world affairs, and a masterful self-poise which in the one case If often enraged Napoleon and in the other has 1 ccoly outgeneraled the kaiser and driven him from his throne and into exile. & "We shall meet at Vienna," cried Napoleon in iff ' a paroxysm of fury when, in 1813, Metternich jfe coldly refused him the means wherwith to regain ' & his lost glory and prestige. mt "I shall stand no nonsense from America after vk the war," said the kaiser angrily to the American if ambassador. iffi And now the New Jersey schoolmaster, who, it vX- is related, studied in musty tomes how he might become president of the republic of the United t1 States, is to dictate what shall be done with the V T empire of William of Hohenzollern and with most T of the world beside. ' "The fate of the world may be said to rest I In your hands," said President Poincare of France, addressing himself td President Wilson at the 1 vjt opening session of the peace conference. I h At the congresB of Vienna the fate of the world I 8s rested largely in the hands of Metternich. I jf 9 p At that time the modern movement was just 1 e beginning. The English, American and French ijl revolutions had made "liberty" the watchword of 1 i, mankind, jubI as "liberty" and "democracy" are B Bs the watchwords today. But at the Congress of 1 if"' Vienna even Great Britain, which had already S e made something of a success of free, representa- 8t tive government, found nothing better to do than I to divide the spoils with governments which had S if little faith In popular rights and clung to the doc-9 doc-9 trine of the divine right of kingB. m m Among those who attended the Vienna confer- jfl ik ence were the monarchs of Russia, Prussia, Aus- 3 b tria, Denmark, Bavaria and various small German $ P- states. 9 1 Among the statesmen were Wellington, Castle- jflf' reagh, Metternich, Talleyrand, who tried to bribe H our John Adams on a mission to Paris; Nessel- HP rode, Hardenberg and Stei Today we seldom Hfta hear any of these statesman mentioned except Wk Metternich, Talleyrand and Wellington. How B P , shall it be a century hence when our successors jL read that the present conference was attended M & by Woodrow Wilson. Secretary Lansing, Lloyd 0 y George, Balfour, Clemenceau, Orlando and the J3 jDF Japanese delegate, Makino. Which of these names R- will survive the wear and tear of a hundred years? mi m ' Perhaps it may be well to mention some of the judgments of the Congress of Vienna. The main stipulations were: ' The retention by France ot the limits sub- jftr sisting at the outbreak of the French revolution; the restoration of the Austrian monarchy without Belgium, Bresgau and West Galicia, but with the addition of what has come to Tie known In our day as Italia Irredenta, namely Venetla, Dalamatla, etc.; the restoration of the Prussian monarchy without most of the territory taken in 1807 to form the duchy of Warsaw and with the addition of half of Saxony, territories in the region of the Rhine and Swedish Pomerania; the formation of the German Confederation under the hegemony of Austria; the creation of a new kingdom of Poland under the Russian dynasty; the establishment of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, including Holland Hol-land and Belgium; the retention of Norway by Sweden, the retention of Finland by Russia; the restoration of the Sardinian monarchy with the annexation of Genoa; the restoration of the states of tho church; Avignon and Venaissin being left to France; the reconstitution of the Swiss confederacy confed-eracy with enlarged limits; the retention by Great Britain of Cape Colony, Ceylon, part of Dutch Guiana, Mauritius, Tobago, Malta and Helgoland; the establishment of a British protectorate over the Ionian islands; the restoration of the Bourbons Bour-bons and other former dynasties in Spain, Naples, Tuscanv and Modena." When we scan these terms we cannot but wonder won-der what the people of a hundred years from now will say of the terms agreed upon at Versailles. Will they say that the United States, although It set out in a crusading spirit to make the world safe for democracy, was content simply to recon-situte recon-situte the dynasties of Belgium and Serbia, to enlarge the kingdom of Italy, to divide the lands of the Moslems among various competitors, to reconstitute re-constitute Poland, Bohemia and Rumania; to establish es-tablish Jugo-Slavla and to give Great Britain the German colonies? Or will they say that some grand Ideal such as the league of nations was a result, a concert of the powers to maintain peace and International justice. Will they say that the peace conference made the world safe for democracy democ-racy or that it merely resulted in a reactionary movement similar to the Holy Alliance which waB a concert of the powers to maintain the dynasties of Europe, to save Spain its American colonies and eventually to crush out republicanism in the new world. In these days we are somewhat losing sight of the fact the government of the United States Is a republic and not a democracy, a representative government and not a government directly by the people. Sometimes our British cousins are fond of describing our government as a "monarchical republic" because they discern in it strongly centralized elements which, in their opinion, make it much more enduring than a pure democracy. It is perhaps necessary to keep this distinction in mind if we are to view the proceedings of the peace congress and its conclusions in a clear light. At the time of the Congress of Vienna men were mouthing the word "liberty," for had not the French revolution fired the world with new Ideals and aspirations and had not the American republic already shown the power of republican Institutions? Institu-tions? Even Metternich talked of liberty, although his main purpose was to establish a modus vivendl which would restore order and permanent government govern-ment in Europe. Much of the radicalism preached by those wo colloquially call the "Reds" today goes by the name democracy. Men of such differing minds as Woodrow Wilson and Lloyd George on the one side and Trotzky, Lenine, Debs and Mooney on the other call themselves "democrats" or "social democrats." Will the "Red" democracy be as popular a hun- dred years from now as republican that is to say, representative institutions are today? Will M radicalism have asserted its supremacy and will the men of those days regard Woodrow Wilson as a reactionary like Metternich? . H There are some reasons for believing that his- ' M tory will not repeat itself in this regard. Remenv M ber, that representative governments as exempli- M fled by Great Britain and the United States were M already successful institutions of the time of Met- M ternich. Today social democracy has disclosed itself in (he cdllossal failure of. Russia. Nowhere H has social democracy won a success which entitles M it to claim that it is among civilization's perma nent institutions. M It is an odd sidelight on the two conferences that each began with the discussion of the Slavic H question. It required only a few days' discussion H of the Polish problem to throw the Congress of Vienna into confusion. Will the Russian question H cause a split in the Versailles conference or is it " to be called the Congress of the Qua! D'Orsay? H M Metternich found for the discord a remedy H which our ally may resort to. The prince was a H believer in gay dlvertlsement as an offset to the H disputes and quarrels of tho congress and he de- H vised most intriguing and elaborate festivities to H keep the delegates In a good humor. In fact, it H became a criticism of those days that Metternich's H festivities seemed to be the chief object of the H congress. BUt by this and more statesmanlike H means the brilliant prince succeeded in bridging H over all difficulties and in obtaining a settlement H which was satisfactory to his Imperial master, the H Emperor Francis of Austria. H H Perhaps we Bhall not find it dull to recall some H Of Metternich's maxims so that we may compare H them with the familiar maxims of the author of H "The New Freedom." In his "Political Testament" Metternich writes: M "To me the word freedom has not the value of a starting point, but of an actual goal to be striven M for. The word order designates the starting point. M It is only on order that freedom can be based. M Without order the cry for freedom is nothing more M than the endeavor of seme party for an end it M has in view. When actually carried out in prac- M tice that cry for freedom will inevitably express M itself in tyranny. At all times and in all situa- M tions I was a man of order, yet my endeavor was M always for true and not for pretended liberty." M These words, read in the light of present M events, sound like prophetic denunciation of that M form of liberty which degenerates into anarchy. H It has no regard for law, order, justice or morality. H It seems to argue that whatever is is bad and that H it is necessary to destroy existing institutions, to H throw all order the the winds before any attempt H should be made to establish an ideally free civlli- H zation. But fortunately for the world the forces H of anarchy have made out no case for them- H selves, On the contrary they have been a warn- H ing to the world that it should hold fast to the H good things of old until some of these amazing H new ideas have proved themselves has learned H it up to date, is that order and liberty must go H hand In hand. In that, at least, the Ideas of Met- ternich and of Woodrow Wilson and the other H allied statesmen agree. H |