New-York tribune., 1918-01-09
Beyond Praise

Mr.. Wilson's address to Congress YES
| terday will live as one of the great docu
ments in American history and one OF
tho permanent contributions Of America
! to world liberty. In form as in substance
the Presidents statement is beyond praise;
he has spoken what his country felt; he
has translated from vague aspiration to
clear and definite fact the war aims of
| his fellow countrymen.
a In a very deep sense Mr.. Wilson's words
constitute second Emancipation Procla-
nation. AS Lincoln freed the slaves of
the South half a century ago. Mr.. Wilson
now pledges his country to fight for the
liberation of the Belgian and the Pole,
TIE Serb and the Rumanian. For the long
suffering populations of Alsacc-Lorraine
and the Italian Irrcdenta the words of the
President of the United States are a
promise of freedom after slavery worse
4 thousand times than that of the negro.
1t is not to the comment upon the de-
tails of the Presidents proposal that at
tention will be first directed. There is
something far greater, far more appeal
| ing than the details, however admirable.
In a sense the President has created. has
vlsuallzcd to whole world, the role OF
America III the time of supreme tragedy.
Without a selfish ambition, without hope
or covert thought Of selfish advantage, the
United States has entered a world war to
restore justice, honor, liberty in a world
assailcd By German barbarism and Ger
man ambition.
And 1t is not in pursuit of any abstract
ideal of justice or liberty that the Presi-
dent leads his fellow countrymen. He has
defined the frontiers and written the con-
stitution of that new world for which we
fight. He has heard the cry of subject
races and he has listened to the appeal
of the weak and the enslavcd. He has
turned his own eyes and the vision of his
nation upon wrongs that must be righted
before there can be peace or thought of
peace.
President Wilson has done nothing finer:
there is nothing more admirable in Amer
lean history than his address of yesterday.
In single speech he has transformed the
whole character and broken with all the
tradition of American policy. He has
carried the United States back to Europe ::
he has established an American world
policy and ideal of international policy
throughout the civilized world.
y Somehow, when one has read the Presl-
dents speech there must come to him. if
he be an American, a certain sense of
satisfaction unknown to present genera
tons. If a nation is anything beyond a
mere association of human beings herded
IN restricted area of territory, it is an
Idea and an ideal. There is a certain
| picture OF ones country, almost uniformed,
which every loyal citizen carries in his
mind and heart, a picture that contains
Eoble lines and splendid features, and the
President has translat ted what was fancy
and dream into a fact. He has made
us prouder of being Americans, because
ne has made America mean something
more than it ever did before for us and
| for the world.
In very real sense Mr.. Wilson is lead
ing his people on what may prove the last
crusade. We are going to rescue Belgium
and France, Poland and Serbia from q
slavery worse than death. But, more even
y than this, we are going to rescue human
liberty from the peril of the most ignoble
servitude mankind has known.
| NJ MIR. Wilson has not merely indicated
American war aims and peace terms. He
has illuminated them; he has established
them. and they will remain established in
the American mind and heart until this
great struggle has that settlement which
alone can bring real peace. No one can
now ask for what we fight or on what
terms we will make peace.
Leadership, after all, consists in arous
| ing in the millions not sense Of obedience
but desire to i'd dlow The greatest single
merit of Mr.. Wilson's latest address is
that it will consolidate a nation behind its