can headquarters in Paris during the Peace Conference were in
the Hotel Grillion, which is on the Place de la Concorde in the heart of
the city. The room number 351 belonged to the suite occupied by Colonel
House and it was really the birth chamber of the League of Nations. The
nineteen men who made up the committee belonged to fourteen nations.
President Wilson, as chairman, called them together in this room. The
first meeting of this committee was held February third and was very
brief. In all, ten meetings were held and all were held in this room.
President Wilson presided at all but one of them. Each man brought his
suggestions in writing so there would be no chance for misunderstanding.
Full discussion of all points was always encouraged. When the entire
constitution was worked out it was agreed to unanimously and it was then
ready to be presented to the Peace Conference.

Until the Peace Treaty was ready to sign all meetings of the great
conference were held in the Foreign Ministry building in Paris. This is
across the river Seine from the Concorde. Many supposed all meetings
were held at Versailles but this is a mistake. Versailles is a city of
some sixty thousand people and about ten miles from Paris. The old
Palace is there but the great Hall of Mirrors where the treaty was
finally signed could not be comfortably heated in the winter time. So
for that as well as other reasons the meetings were held in Paris.

Through Mr. Ray Stannard Baker I received a pass to the Peace
Conference. These passes were only given to newspaper men and I
represented People's Popular Monthly. The great day was February
fourteenth, 1919. On this date eighty-four statesmen representing
twenty-seven nations, the combined population of which is more than
twelve hundred million people, were seated around one table. Clemenceau
was the chairman of the conference and sat at the head of the table. By
his side sat our own president, who at that time, towered head and
shoulders above the statesmen of the world. Let politicians rave and
senators criticize, yet the fact remains that Woodrow Wilson will have a
place in history by the side of the immortal Lincoln and Washington.

When he was introduced our president read the constitution, or covenant
as it was called, and then made some remarks concerning it. While I
stood listening to him as he thrilled the hearts and held almost
breathless this company of statesmen and noted their faces as he sa