of
incarnation. The Italians asked how the Monroe Doctrine could be
reconciled with the charter of the League of Nations, seeing that the
League would be authorized to intervene in the domestic affairs of other
member-states, and if necessary to despatch troops to keep Germany,
Italy, and Poland in order; whereas if the United States were guilty of
tyrannical aggression against Brazil, the Argentine Republic, or Mexico,
the League, paralyzed by that Doctrine, must look on inactive. The
Germans, alleging capital defects in the Wilsonian Covenant, which was
adjusted primarily to the Allies' designs, went to Paris prepared with a
substitute which, it must in fairness be admitted, was considerably
superior to that of their adversaries, and incidentally fraught with
greater promise to themselves.

It is superfluous to add that the continental view prevailed, but Mr.
Wilson imagined that, while abandoning his principles in favor of
Britain, France, and Bulgaria, he could readjust the balance by applying
them with rigor to Italy and exaggerating them when dealing with Greece.
He afterward communicated his reasons for this belief in a message
published in Washington.[299] The alliance--he was understood to have
been opposed to all partial alliances on principle--which guarantees
military succor to France, he had signed, he said, in gratitude to that
country, for he seriously doubted whether the American Republic could
have won its freedom against Britain's opposition without the gallant
and friendly aid of France. "We recently had the privilege of assisting
in driving enemies, who also were enemies of the world, from her soil,
but that does not pay our debt to her. Nothing can pay such a debt." His
critics retorted that that is a sentimental reason which might with
equal force have been urged by France and Britain in justification of
their promises to Italy and Rumania, yet was rejected as irrelevant by
Mr. Wilson in the name of a higher principle.

The President of the United States, it was further urged, is a
historian, and history tells him that the help given to his country
against England neither came from the French people nor was actuated by
sympathy for the American cause. It was the vindictive act of one of
those kings whose functions Mr. Wilson is endeavoring to abolish. The
monarch who helped the Americans was merely utilizing a favorable
opportunity for depriving with a minimum of effort his adversary of
lucrati