c being considered is the difference of opinion between the
President and myself as to the wisdom of his assuming the role of a
delegate. While I did not discuss the matter with him except at the
first when I opposed his attending the Peace Conference, I have little
doubt that Colonel House, if he urged the President to decline to sit as
a delegate, which I think may be presumed, or if he discussed it at all,
mentioned to him my opinion that such a step would be unwise. In any
event Mr. Wilson knew my views and that they were at variance with the
decision which he reached.

CHAPTER III

GENERAL PLAN FOR A LEAGUE OF NATIONS

It appears, from a general review of the situation prior and subsequent
to the assembling of the delegates to the Peace Conference, that
President Wilson's decision to go to Paris and to engage in person in
the negotiations was strongly influenced by his belief that it was the
only sure way of providing in the treaty of peace for the organization
of a League of Nations. While his presence in Paris was probably
affected to an extent by other considerations, as I have pointed out, it
is to be presumed that he was anxious to participate directly in the
drafting of the plan of organization of the League and to exert his
personal influence on the delegates in favor of its acceptance by
publicly addressing the Conference. This he could hardly have done
without becoming a delegate. It would seem, therefore, that the purpose
of creating a League of Nations and obtaining the incorporation of a
plan of organization in the treaty to be negotiated had much to do with
the President's presence at the peace table.

From the time that the United States entered the war in April, 1917, Mr.
Wilson held firmly to the idea that the salvation of the world from
imperialism would not be lasting unless provision was made in the peace
treaty for an international agency strong enough to prevent a future
attack upon the rights and liberties of the nations which were at so
great a cost holding in check the German armies and preventing them from
carrying out their evil designs of conquest. The object sought by the
United States in the war would not, in the views of many, be achieved
unless the world was organized to resist future aggression. The
essential thing, as the President saw it, in order to "make the world
safe for democracy" was to give permanency to the peace which would be
negotiated at the conclusion of th