The Elbert County tribune., 1918-12-20
PARIS MILLIONS
GREET WILSON
AL FRANCE PAYS PRESIDENT
HOMAGE AS HE GOES TO
PEACE CAPITAL.
lINES WITH POINCARE
TROOPS JOIN PEOPLE IN CHEER
ING PARTY ALONG FLOWER
sTREWN PATH.
western Newspaper Union New. service.

Western Newspaper Union News servic..
Paris, Dec. 16.-President and Mrs
Wilson made their entry into Paris
Saturday morning, greeted by 2.000.-
600 OF the population not only of the
city but OF the surrounding districts.
They were attended by President
P6ncare. Premier CIemenceau and
others among the most eminent fig
ures of France. Flowers were dropped
around their Carriage; airplanes
winged overhead; guns sounded.
The city was ablaze with illumina-
tions; the boulevards were thronged
with crowds. dancing and singing and
throwing confetti.
But observers were impressed with
something more than the magnitude
and beauty of the reception; by some
quality of warmth that made it diff
ferent from the visits to Paris recent
ly made by the sovereigns OF the al
lied nations.
Thirty-sx thousand soldiers, the
flower of the French army, lined the
avenues from Dauphine gate to the
Murat mansion, which during their
stay in Paris will be the home of the
President and his wife. Alpine chas-
seurs and zouaves, fresh from the bat
tlefields of Champagne, and colonial
troops from whose uniforms the mud
of the Somme had only few days
ago been removed, occupied the post
of honor
In the eyes of the immense crowds
welcoming him." says the semi-offi-
cial Temps, President Wilson repre-
sents two invincible forces-the ma
terial force which permitted the wa
to be won, and also the force which
will sanctify peace"
The chief official event of the presi-
dents first day in Paris was lunch
con rendered to him and Mrs. Wilson
by President Poincaire. 1t was gor-
geous affair. But its outward magnif-
icence and brilliance were oyershad-
owed by something that went straight
to the heart of Paris and of France,
something touching upon the question
that has been foremost in the hearts
and minds of all French ever since the
signing of the armistice.
Somehow the impression had taken
root here that President Wilson was
opposed to the full payment by Ger
many Of the damages her armies did
In the ruthless campaigns in France
and Belgium. Somehow a great sec
tion of the French people had come to
fear that he would try to stay the
hand, not of vengeance but of just
and deserved punishment.
1t was therefore natural and in
keeping with Frances traditional pol
icy of utter frankness that President
Poincare in his speech at the official
luncheon dwelt tactfully but candidly
upon this question of questions. He
spoke of the deliberate savagery" and
staff in its systematic procedure of
wanton destruction. He touched upon
the absolute necessity that such
crimes must not go unpunished-- that
their just punishment is part and par
Gel Of the justice upon which the
worlds peace must be based here
after.
In his reply President Wilson, with
equal candor and an explicit direct
hSoo 'hne ihout uoubtS Ndulbu lutO
thin air, spoke his own heart and
mind on this subject.
Il am sure" said he, that / shall
look upon the ruin wrought by the
central empires with the same revul-
sion and deep indignation that they
stir in the hearts of France and Bel
gium, and l appreciate. as you do. the
necessity of such action in the final
settlement of the issues of the war as
will not only rebuke such acts of ter
ror and spoliation but make men ev-
erywhere aware that they cannot be
ventured upon without the certainty
of just punishment"
President Wilson spent his first
Sunday in Paris by going twice to
church. laying a wreath on the tomb
of Lafayette and having brief con
ference with Premier Clemenceau and
another with Col Il. NJ House. In the
evening he rested in preparation for
the coming strenuous week of prelim-
mary conferences. During the after
noon the President made short call
on President and Nine. Poincare at
the palace of the Elysee.