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413 24 Europe Awakening to the Realities. First Admission by the President of the Heaviness of His Burden. Dangerous Crisis of Events. I Celebrate. Good News from Home. JUNE 5 The governments of Europe are recovering from the “shell shock” of war and are beginning to awaken to new realities. The chief of these is the fact that no one can or will pay for the losses. It is beginning to be perceived that Germany cannot meet the bill, and the Americans will not. This disillusionment is one of the chief causes of the present crisis. Colonel House rebounded today to his usual optimism; said that he thought the answer could be handed to the Germans on Monday. When I went up to the President, I said I heard that the news was good—that both from Colonel House and from the French, the reports were favorable. The President said, “I think if I could have a really good piece of news I should fall dead.” It is one of the few admissions of his heavy personal burden I have heard him make. He is having a fearful struggle and is now under attack the world over, but especially at home. Lloyd George’s constant changes of position annoy him more than anything else. The President is much irritated by what he believes to be the unwarranted attack in our Senate. He says that treaties are never presented to the Senate in advance of their signing, and he will not be forced by the demand. Bad news from home in a letter from Alice.139 Jessie is not well and did not let me know. I have been away too long and must hurry home. Poor woman! The burden has been heavy for her. I am cabling for further information and will make a quick departure—ahead of the President—if necessary. 139. Alice was Baker’s daughter. 414 | The Paris Peace Conference JUNE 6 We hear direct reports that the Germans will not sign the treaty. This with the growing industrial unrest in France—and there have also been military mutinies at Toulouse—make the situation critical. The French are bringing troops into Paris to be prepared for any eventualities. Worse and more of it. In the meantime the Four are toiling heavily with their task, and with no very good results. The President told me this evening that the Three had worked all the morning on the Adriatic situation and got nowhere. He thinks the Italians far more unreasonable than the Slavs, though I argued that from what I had seen there was not much to choose between them. I took a long drive with the Colonel in the Bois, and we stopped to see the swimming contests in the bright little pond—he continues the incomparable optimism. Nothing daunts him. He is predicting that the Allies’ reply will go to the Germans next Tuesday. We talked of the President’s curious love of the number thirteen—and how in the Scotch religious type there was often a strand of superstition. I told the President this evening that the Colonel and I agreed that he should set the signing of the treaty for Friday the 13th of June. He smiled, but made no response. On our drive today the Colonel told me of his early days in Texas and of the wild, rough men of the frontier. The Colonel, who is a crack shot with either rifle or revolver, said that in his youth it was no credit to a man to have education or to know his books, that the achievements crowned with highest recognition by the society of that time and place were riding and shooting. A strange beginning for diplomacy! The Colonel is a real democrat and has to an unusual degree the true spirit of unselfish service. He dislikes all kinds of public functions—leaves sessions of the conference as soon as he can (did not attend the ceremony at St. Germain the other day because he said it interfered with his luncheon!). Doesn’t care to be present at the signing of the German treaty. He hates speech-making and cannot make a speech, though he is an excellent talker in a small group. Dreads being pointed out in a crowd or at a public meeting. He has remarkably retained his simple point of view. He is an indefatigable conciliator. When I told him of the sharp disagreement which the President...

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