Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-07-12
WILSON MAN of HOUR
ASQU|TH DECLARES
u. S. Had Right Man for Great
Crises, Briton Says at Dinner
to American Officers.

ondOn. July L. Sincere praise Ot
President Wilson's leadership IN the war
and his advocacy &c a league of nations
after tho war was gwen 10y Herbert II
AsQuith. former Premier, in an address at
the National Liberal Club, The occasion
was hospitality dinner 70 American
officers. at which 500 prominent English
men we're hosts. The dinner resolved
itself into meeting of ovation for the
President.
Vice Admiral Sims. commander of the
American naval forces in the war zone,
paid tribute to the cooperation Of the
British and American navies. and said !,
The submarines menace IS now at an
end. for we are destroying them faster
than the Germans can build them
Major Gen Biddle. commander Of the
American forces in England, evoked
long cheers when he announced that
american troops were stationed ut from
seventy to eighty different places in
England and Scotland
WASHINGTON, LINCOLN AND WILSON.
MIR. Asquith, in speech urging the
Importance Of President Wilson's idea
of league Of nations as the most urgent
of all peace problems said.
''The United States as nation has had
IiAit kVNtA lti (AAit AtsAA III tAlt
crises of her national history the men whom
she most needed for inspiration and g,lid-
ance have always appeared. Thus came
Washington and Lincoln Washington
and Lincoln arc ilhstrous names which
have passed into history We must not
attempt To anticipate historys Judgment
upon men still living, but will venture to
say that President Wilson has been the
head of The American government in
| times no less trying than any IN It's annals.
fAKEN GREATEST DECISION OF THE AGE.
! president Wilson has taken the
greatest decision of our age and has
carried his people with him in it More
over, he had laid before the world the
grounds for his decision, the reasons
which justified and compelled ii, and the
spirit in which it was adopted He has
done this IN State papers which are worthy
to live side by side with the most inspiring
uttcranccs Of his most famous predecessors.
1T IS one thing TO embrace a good
cause. It is another To push II 10 a
victorious issue. If a nation is 10 hold
its own on the battlefield these davs it
must he equipped on the sea and land
with the strongest battalons, the best
and fastest ships, adequate organization
of transport and supply, and even with
8 superiority in all the manifold me
chanical devices for aggression and defense
which the hellish ingenuity OF modern
warfare has devised.
DRIVING WILL N WAR
,"America has had her difficulties
They have not stifled but have stimulated
her energy, and we grasp the opportunity
tonight Of acknowledging our unbounded
admiration OF the magnificent contri-
button America has made. is making.
and will continue TO make In ever-in-
creasing measure Here again we CRATE
fully trace the guiding hand and driving
Will Of the President
Probably the world owes its greatest
debt to President Wilson for helping
men whose vision has been blurred and
blinded by the smoke of the battlefield
to lift up their eyes and to look through
ii and beyond it. It is very difficult in
time Of war to keep . steady head and u
clean tongue President Wilson doe
both
I'VE cannot ask ourselves too often
what we are fighting for. President
Wilson has done more than any other
statesman to concentrate the minds Of
his own people, of the Allies. and even Of
enemy peoples upon a league of nations
as our dominating world aim
There can be no clean peace which
does not clear away the causes of war.
1t seems 10 me all important that both
here and in America we should realize
and act as if we realized it. that league
Of nations is neither vague political
abstraction nor an empty rhetorical
formula, but a concrete and definite
ideal This is large step in advance on
the road Of human progress. but it can
and must be taken, and when the goal
i reached due honor will be paid to
President Wilson as the greatest Of its
pioneers"