The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1918-12-06

guished capacity that marked theil
toilsome labors, day after day
month after month, have made them
fit mates and comrades of the men in
| the trenches and on the sea. And not
the men here in Washington only
They have but directed the vast
achievements. Throughout innumera'
BILE factories, upon innumerable farms
in the depths of coal mines and iron
mines and copper mines, wherever the
stuffs Of industry were to be obtained
and prepared, in the shipyards, on the
railways, at the docks, on the sea, in
every labor that was needed to sus-
tain the battle lines, men have WED
with each other to do their part and
do it well. They can look any man.
alarms in the face and say, we also
strove to win and gave the best that
was in us to make our fleets and arm
les sure of their triumph.
And what shall we say of the wo-
men-of their instant intelligence
quickening every task that they
touched; their capacity for organiza-
ton and cooperation, which gave
their action discipline and enhanced
the effectiveness of everything they
attempted; their aptitude at tasks to
which they had never before set their
hands, their utter self-sacrifice alike
in what they did and in what they
gave? Their contribution to the great
result is beyond appraisal. They have
added a new luster to the annals of
A narican xuOpn nhood
The least tribute we can pay them
is to make them the equals of men in
political rights as they have proved
themselves their equals in every field
of practical work they have entered,
whether for themselves or for their
country. These great days of COM
pleted achievement would be sadly
marred were we to omit that act Of
justice. Besides the immense practi-
cal services they have rendered, the
women of the country have been the
moving spirits in the systematic
economies by which our people have
voluntarily assisted to supply the suf-
fering peoples of the world and the
armies upon every front with food and
everything else that we had that
might serve the common cause. The
details of such a story can never be
fully written, but we carry them at our
hearts and thank God that we can say
that we are the kinsmen of such.
And now we are sure of the great
triumph for which every sacrifice was
made. 1t has come, come in its COM
pleteness, and with the pride and in
spiration of these days of achievement
quick within us we turn to the tasks
of peace again-a peace secure against
the violence of irresponsible monarchs
and ambitious military coteries and
made ready for a new order, for new
foundations of justice and fair deal
ing.
We are about to give order and or
ganization to this peace, not only for
ourselves, but for the other peoples of
the world as well, so far as they will
suffer US to serve them. 1t is inter
national justice that we seek, not do
nestle safety merely Our thoughts
have dwelt of late upon Europe, up
on Asia, upon the near and far East,
very little upon the acts of peace and
accommodation that wait to be per-
formed at our own doors. While we
are adjusting our relations with the
rest of the world is it not of capital
Importance that we should clear away
all grounds of Misunderstanding with
our immediate neighbors and give
proof Of the friendship we really feel?
| hope that the members of the
Senate shall permit me to speak once
more of the unratificd treaty of
friendship with the Republic of Col
ombia. / yer" earnestly urge upon
them an early and favorable action
upon flat vital matter. l believe that
they will feel with me, that the stage
Of affairs is now set for such action
as will be not only lust, but generous
and in the shirt of the new age upon
which we have so happily entered.
So far as our domestic affairs are
the problem of our return
to peace is -"oblcm Of economic and
industrial rcadjustment. That prob
lem is less serious for us than it may
turn out to be for the nations which
have suffered the disarrangements and
the losses of war longer than we. Our
people, moreover, do not wait to be
coached and led. They know their
own business, are quick and resource
full at every readjustment, definite in
purpose and self-reliant in action.
Any leading strings we might seek
to put them in would speedily become
tangled because they would
pay no attention to them and go their
own way. All that we can do as their
legislative and executive servants is
to mediate the process of change here.
there and elsewhere as we may. l
have heard much counsel as to the
plans that should be formed and per-
sonally conducted to happy consum-
nation, but from no quarter have /
seen any general scheme of "Fecon-
struction" emerge which / thought it
likely we could force our spirited bus
mess men and self-reliant laborers to
accept with due pliancy and obedience.
While the war lasted we set up
many agencies by which to direct the
industries of the country in the SER
vices it was necessary for them to
render, by which to make sure of an
abundant supply of the materials
needed, by which to check undertake
ings that for the time could be dis
pensed with and stimulate those that