Woodrow Wilson 1919 Typed Letter Signed as President - Sent While in Paris - With Letter From Robert Lansing to Wilson

28th President.

Two typed letters signed - one “Woodrow Wilson” AS PRESIDENT and one “Robert Lansing” as Secretary of State

* Typed letter signed “Woodrow Wilson”, January 9, 1919, sent from Paris, France on special "The President of the United States" embossed stationery, to former Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission Edward N. Hurley who was serving as Chairman of the United States Shipping Board, in full:

Is there anything possible to be done about this? It is clearly a serious situation, and I should like to see it relieved.

* Two-page typed letter signed “Robert Lansing”, January 6, 1919, “The Secretary of State of the United States of America” stationery, sent from Hotel Crillon, Paris, to President Woodrow Wilson, in part:

…After our entrance into the war, as you know, American shipping was almost wholly withdrawn from the Pacific which left to the Japanese nearly a complete monopoly of the carrying trade between the United States and the Far East. The rates became exorbitant and American merchants complained of discrimination against themselves…The demand for tonnage in the Atlantic of course, is pressing. The starving people of Europe must be fed and the material needed for reconstruction work in Belgium and France must be supplied, but if the suffering nations of Europe can divert a part of their shipping to this effort to recapture control of Far Eastern commerce it may…protect in a measure our own commercial interests in the Orient…

Accompanied by telegram from Counselor of the United States Department of State Frank Polk to Robert Lansing, describing the problem summarized in Lansing's letter, Washington, January 3, 1919.

Wilson had arrived in Paris just a few weeks earlier.

The Paris Peace Conference, also known as Versailles Peace Conference, was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. This was the first great world war, one that had stretched across continents and left over 38 million casualties, with some 18 million killed. It took place in Paris during 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities. The Conference convened in January and Wilson was present from the start. After a brief return to the U.S. in February, he came back to France in March and stayed for over three more months.

This Conference was one of the most consequential events of the 20th century. Its major decisions were the creation of the League of Nations; the five peace treaties with defeated enemies, including the Treaty of Versailles with Germany; the awarding of German and Ottoman overseas possessions as mandates, chiefly to Britain and France; reparations imposed on Germany, and the drawing of new national boundaries to better reflect forces of nationalism. The treaty with Germany provided in section 231 that the guilt for the war be laid on the aggression of Germany and her allies. As to whether the terms were too harsh, history has judged that to be the case, and the treaty was one of the leading factors leading to World War II.