hat they might be justified in adopting a stronger
tone. Each of them could point to the tangible evidence of victorious
elections and votes of confidence. President Wilson could not. The party
in the Senate which, after the 4th of March, would hold the majority,
expressly repudiated Wilson's policy. When the President returned to
Paris, on the 14th of March, he found a different atmosphere. The League
was no longer the central topic of discussion. Concrete questions were
uppermost. How much should Germany pay? What territory should be taken
from her? How was the Kaiser to be punished? Wilson had been given the
satisfaction of securing approval for the principle of the League. Now he
must permit the Conference to satisfy the practical aspirations of
France, England, and Italy.

It is a tribute to the personality of Wilson that by his presence at this
critical juncture, when the attitude of the Allies differed but slightly,
if at all, from that of the powers at the Congress of Vienna, he was able
to bring back something of the spirit of justice which had been so
frequently and loudly declaimed before the armistice, and to repress at
least in some degree the excessive claims which demanded satisfaction in
the treaties. The plans which, during his absence, had been evolved for
the separation of the Covenant from the Treaty and for its postponement,
and which had received the hearty support of several French and British
diplomats, were quickly dropped. Wilson was able to announce without
contradiction, that the Covenant would be an integral part of the Treaty,
as decided on the 25th of January. Far more difficult was the situation
that resulted from French and British plans for indemnities from Germany,
and from the French territorial claims on the Rhine. In each of these
matters Wilson could secure nothing better than a compromise.

From the day when peace dawned upon Europe, the question that had touched
Allied peoples most closely was, How much will Germany pay? It was not so
much the shout of the brutal victor greedy for loot, as the involuntary
cry of nations which had seen their homes and factories pulverized, their
ships sunk, the flower of their youth killed and maimed, and which now
faced years of crushing taxation. They had carried the load of war
gallantly and they would enter the struggle for recuperation courageously.
But they would not endure that the enemy, which had forced these miseries
upon them, should no