The Sentinel=record., 1915-04-20
FRENCH AMBASSADOR SPEAKS
Extends the Thanks of France to the United States for Her Generosity and Neutrality During the War Be tween European Nations.

 self-pOssession, calmness and judi cial temperament ou the part of the l United States in the present world l crisis was urged today by President | Wilson in a speech before the open | ing session of the twenty-fourth conti- mental congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
 The president said self-possession was the supreme test of a nations mettle and urged the congress to rally to the cause of righteousness, as 1 ministered by those who hold their minds quiet and judge upon principle. Following the presidents speech, | Ambassador Jusserand of France told 1 the congress that the United States 1 had behaved in the European crisis in such 6 way as to command the i gratitude and thankfuness of the | world.
 q am glad that l may affirm the thanks of France for the generosity of America-the neutral United States" he said.
 The president in his speech de-
 clared that he could speak only in general terms and that it was "indis- 1 erect for him to speak even in that
 way.
 Mrs John Hays Hammond, R. C. B.
 Thurston, president general of the
 Sons of the Revolution, and John Bar
 rett, director general of the Pan | American Union, also addressed the 1 congress.
 The routine organization of the | congress was completed and the rival
 followers of the two candidates for
 president general of the society were | busy preparing for the election Wed.
 nesday. Mrs. William Cumming Story,
 who presided at today's session, will be a candidate for reelection and shs is opposed by Mrs. George Thacler Guernsey of Kansas.
 | The presidents address follows:
 "ln these times when unusual things are happening and there are many queries as to the future, l sup. | pose that these associations whose | business it is to commemorate the past must be asking themselves what l part they have in the future Our business, of course, is not merely one l of recollection, not merely the busi- ness of remembering and reverencing 1 tle traditions of the country we love. There is no dignity in a tradition which has lost its practical energy | and our interest in traditions is that pbn fr tt, bf, p ent and still richer trutage in the future
 Your society is particularly in- tended to commemorate the circum- stances of the birth of this nation, but I take for for granted that it is not your thought to create an exclu sive company of those whose recollec tions by heredity run back to that great day, but that your thought Is also of the constant re-birth of the na ton. In a peculiar degree the United States seems to be reborn from gen. eratioA to generation, because re- newed out of all the sources of human energy in the world. There is here a great melting pot in which we must compound a precious metal That metal is the metal of nationality and if you will not think l am merely playing upon words, l would like to| spell the word metal in two ways For it is just the mettle of this nation that We are now most interested in.
 There are many tests lby which a nation makes proof of it's greatness, but it seems to me the supreme test IS self possession, the power to resist eXcitement to think calmly, to think in moments of difficulty as clearly as it would think in moments of ease to be absolutely master of itself and of it's fortunes.
 Therefore it seems to me that the object of the traditions such as this 1 society clerishes and means to assist | in perpetuating is to show us the | bases of principle upon which we shall keep our poise We are inter- ested in the United States politically speaking, in nothing but human lib- erty. We are not interested in poli- ties of government for their own sake. I venture to say that if there should ever be discovered a better form of | government than the democratic, we