The Washington herald., 1918-12-30

acclamations. il is not only bv rea-
son OF their gratitude for what he
mas done for them in the war IaI-
though that does not faiD nor yer
out OF the majesty of his speech. nor
the nobility OF his private character
and integrity of his public policy.
IL Is also, and above all, as tri-
oute to the great people he repre-
sents' whose highest ideals he per
sonlhes. whose loftiest aspirations
ne fulflls and whose soul he has
interpreted to the world-tha
mighty American people who enter
ed into the war at its darkest hOur
with no lower aim than that of helm
ing TO right wrongs and to estab-
Iish justice and freedom on earth
and to put an end to war and MAX
ers of war and the bIoodsuckine
leeches that live on war and whu
have now sent across the ocean las
Is their righD their greatest son
and greatest servants to make sure
that the ends they fought for are to
ne attained, that they are to be COW
cred by the covenant of the peace
that voiceless millions are no long
er to be mere shards in the hands
- AAAAAANoAg lHdl war as
agent in human progress is to cease.
that the future safety of the worIG
is to be made secure against the
reign of brute force. and, there
fore, that their dead have not died
in vain.
That is. think. the unspoknn
sentiment, which beyond all ma
tional interest, lies behind this Iar
greater welcome, which our people
with one consent. from King 70
humbIest commOner. are now giving
to plain citizen who is the first
executive of the American repubIic
than they have ever give to anv
of the bedecked and beieweIsd
monarChs who have come to them
in the pride and panopIy of mill
tary circumstance.
Kaiser Dark Contrast.
And hence. it is impossible to
think of the joyous scenes in the
streets of London this Christmas
week without thinking Of the un-
crowned malefactor VINO was chief
among the malign forces which
plunged the world into war.
Alone he sits today or almost
alone, in house in Holland, d
world Outcast and a world criminal
guarded from pursuing assassins bv
two or three soldiers at a gate. suf-
,fering physical agonies from the
fresh outbreak of a humorous ear
trouble, which has tormented half
his days; nervous, fretful and de-
pressed; cut off from his people
among whom he played for thirty
years the double part of divinity
and tyrant; buried in the deep dis
honor of solitude that is only pene-
trated by piercing cries for his pun-
lshment; trembling for his own mis-
cradle life after driving millions of
ms subjects to death on foreign
battienelds; writing with feverish
hand the frantic story of his de-
tense; falling to his knees in al
ternate outbursts of prayer and ex-
postulation and on to his face in
the commissions of epileptic fits.
Hardly has history another picture
so pitiful and mean. for. conpare red
with this downfall, Napoleon had a
gloomy grandeur as of a demon actor
who quilted the worlds stage with
his forehead bloody and unboyed"
and the thunder clouds he had brewed
about him.
And if the contrasted spectacIes Of
President 'tlson's gladsome welcome
ana the Naiser's abject state have
any message for the world I'm this
nigh hour, it is surely this: that when
war is waged for its own sake or for
the sake OF its power and glory. it de-
grades man to the condition and often
dooms him to the fate of the brute.
while the only solemnizing and sane
trying effects of war are scan in
those VINO have waged war to destroy
war and the only virtue in being
stdong Is to be able to defend the
weak
And is not that the essence of the
world vision of a league of nations.
which above all else. perhaps, has
brought America. in the person of its
President, across thS4sea?