Although World War I had ended, Edward Wirt’s unit remained in France for several months doing relief work and waiting for a peace treaty to be signed. Wirt refers to the Versailles Conference then underway. As he was writing this letter in mid-March, the conference’s unwieldy structure had caused all decision-making to grind to a standstill. Eventually, a smaller group of leading powers within the conference would work out a deal to create a final treaty. Wirt’s concerns about the League of Nations – that America would “always be drawn into these scrapes over here” – were widespread among Americans. The U.S. Senate shared them: when it came time to ratify the various treaties signed at Versailles they would vote most of them down.
There are ninety letters from Mr. Wirt to Miss Bartlett in the PVMA collection; some of which are included on this site.
