Old Missoula

Makes Plea For Nation’s League

Ida M. Tarbell, Who Attended Peace Conference, Talks to Chautauquans.

A plea for the entrance of the United States into the league of nations, because of the hope it offers of preventing future wars, was the point stressed by Miss Ida M. Tarbell, the noted publicist, in her talk on “The United States at the Peace Conference,” before an audience which crowded the Chautauqua tent last night.

Miss Tarbell does not think that the peace treaty or the league are perfect – she admitted that the 14 points in many places had been badly stretched – but she favors their ratification on the ground that they are far better than the old order.

She Tells No Secrets.

Those in the audience who came to hear about the human details of the peace conference, and to gain a partial knowledge of its organization, the problems which confronted it and the methods by which it endeavored to solve them, went away satisfied.

Those who had read all of that time and again in the press, and who came in the hope that the historian of the Standard Oil company, who had attended the conference as a correspondent, might tell them some of the many things which the carefully handled governmental press bureaus and the secret sessions of the councils of ten, five, four and three had prevented them from knowing, and which President Wilson still refuses to allow the senate to know – they went away unenlightened.

She told of how each government before the conference began had felt the need of experts and had provided itself with a corps of such men to aid the delegates in arriving at their decisions. She told of the misunderstanding which had arisen between France and the United States. This she said was due to the inability of the American commissioners to put themselves in France’s place in settling the question of reparations. The French had suffered terribly in the war and they wanted dollar for dollar paid back to them by Germany. The Americans held that bill for damages was so huge that it was physically impossible for Germany to pay it, that such payment would result in the complete crushing of Germany which would not make for future peace. And so the feeling grew up among the common people of France, said Miss Tarbell, that the Americans were preventing France from receiving her full due from Germany.

Nothing on Russian Question.

Miss Tarbell told the color of M. Clemenceaus’s gloves. She had time to verify by personal count the statement that there were 1,000 pieces of crystal hanging from the two chandeliers in the room in which the conference held its plenary sessions. She spoke of the strong desires of the newly created nations, Poland, Bohemia, etc., for each other’s territory. She alluded to the vexing problem of the Banat, wanted by both Rumania and Serbia.

But from all of Miss Tarbell’s talk of the peace conference and its problems one would never have guessed that there was such a thing as a Russian question, let alone the fact that it was the one which took up much of the time of the peace delegates and was so important that Lloyd George declared there could be no real peace until a Russian policy was agreed upon.

Miss Tarbell said that the second draft of the league of nations covenant was clearer and more logical than the first, and embodied recognitions of the Monroe doctrine. It provided for the getting of armament gradually down to a peace basis. It has good machinery for doing this. It begins with Germany, leaving her an army of 200,000. With Germany practically disarmed, the other nations can get rid of their expensive armaments.

Correspondents Not Wanted.

She pointed out that the league of nations established an international point of view, provided for the formulation of international law and the publication of all treaties.

“We weren’t wanted very much at the conference,” Miss Tarball said, referring to the newspaper correspondents. “It took almost a revolution among the American correspondents to get representation at the peace conference.”

There was much protest against the secret meetings of the delegates. It was argued that this was not carrying out the principle of “open covenants openly arrived at.”
But Miss Tarbell became convinced that the policy of the delegates was really for the best. “In a great many cases quiet was needed.” As examples she cited the problem of fixing the bill of damages against Germany and the formation of a league of nations.

Miss Tarbell’s statement that President Wilson was the most distinguished of the peace delegates in appearance, was applauded by the audience. So also was her affirmation that alliance or no alliance, if Germany should make an unprovoked attack on France, hundreds of thousands of Americans would go to her aid.

 

The above excerpt appeared in the Daily Missoulian on August 14, 1919. The Chautauqua event took place at the corner of 4^th Street and S. Higgins, probably at the site of what is now The Missoulian office building.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/349057076/?terms=tarbell

 

The above doesn’t begin to reveal the stature that Miss Tarball reached in the world of investigative journalism. Her name is synonymous with the term ‘muckraker’ which unfortunately has fallen out of use in today’s lexicon. Probably destined to live in the shadow of her male counterparts, her achievements were the subject of thousands of articles and many books; yet she sadly remains largely unknown in the dustbin of todays’ history.

For more information on Miss Ida Tarball, start with the following story:

https://connecticuthistory.org/ida-tarbell-the-woman-who-took-on-standard-oil/