f the claim that
Germany pay the entire cost of the war; Italians were convinced that he
would sanction their "just" demand for the annexation of Fiume. So long
as Justice remained something abstract his popularity remained secure.
Could he retain it when concrete issues arose? As early as the beginning
of January ebullitions of approval became less frequent. Discordant
voices were audible suggesting that Wilson was too prone to sacrifice the
material necessities of the war-burdened nations to his idealistic
notions. People asked why he failed to visit Belgium and the devastated
regions of France, so as to see for himself what sufferings had been
endured. And the historian may well inquire if it were because he had not
gauged the depth of feeling aroused by German war practices, or because
he had determined to show the Germans that he would not let his judgment
be clouded by emotion. Whatever the explanation, his popularity suffered.

Without question the original strength of President Wilson's position,
resting in part upon the warmth of popular feeling, which is ever
uncertain, was undermined by the delays that marked the opening of the
Peace Conference. Such delays may have resulted in part from the purpose
of the Allied leaders, who wished to permit public enthusiasm for Wilson
to cool; they may also have been caused in part by the differences that
developed over the incorporation of the League of Nations in the Treaty.
But a prime cause of delay is to be found in the fact that a Peace
Conference of this character was a new experience and the statesmen
assembled were not quite sure how to conduct it. Too little thought had
been given to the problem of organization, and the plans which had been
drawn up by the French and Americans were apparently forgotten. The host
of diplomatic attaches and technical advisers, who crowded the Quai
d'Orsay and the hotels of Paris, had only a vague notion as to their
duties and waited uneasily, wondering why their chiefs did not set them
to work. In truth the making of peace was to be characterized by a
looseness of organization, a failure to cooerdinate, and a waste of time
and energy resulting from slipshod methods. In the deliberations of the
Conference there was a curious mixture of efficiency and ineffectiveness;
a wealth of information upon the topics under discussion and an inability
to concentrate that information. Important decisions were made and
forgotten in the welter of c