Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-05-27
AMERICAS AM|TY
WORLD UNITY GERM
SAYS PRESIDENT
Pays Tribute at Dinner in
Paris to Dr.. Pessoa, Brazil
President-EIect.
RECALLS LEAGUE-LIKE
ATTEMPT MADE HERE
South American Will Strive for
Continued Accord on This
Hemisphere.
BY the Associated Press.

PARIS, May Zi.-1t IS very de-
lightful, for one thing. if I may say
so. to know that my presidency is not
ahead of me and that his presidency
is ahead of him. said President Will
son in referring to DIR. Epitacio Pes
soa, President elect of Brazil. at the
dinner given DR. Pessoa by the pam
American peace delegation last night
The honor has been accorded me-"
President Wilson said in beginning
his speech. "of making the first speech
tonight, and I am very glad to avail
myself of that privilege. I want to
say that 1 feel very much at home in
this country, though. after all, 1 sup
pose no one of us feels thoroughly at
home except on the other side Of the
water. We all feel in a very real
sense that we have common home
because we live in the atmosphere of
the same conceptions, and I think
with the same political ambitions and
principles.
Task of Responsibility.
II am particularly glad to have the
opportunity of paying my respects to
Mr.. Pessoa- 1t is very delightful, for
one thing. IL l may say SO. to know
and that his presidency is ahead of
him. / wish him every happiness and
every success with the greatest ear
nestness. and yet / cannot, If / may
for him very great exhilaration in
the performance of the duties of his
office, because. after all, to be the
head of an American state is a task Of
unrelieved responsibility.
American constitutions as a rule
put 30 many duties Of the h1ghests
sort upon the president. and 30 much
Of the responsibility ef s1.sirs 81 g
years. of ONCE are apt to be years "a
little weighted with anxiety. q little
burdened with the sense OF obligation
Of speaking for his people, speaking
ing to accomplish what they really
desire
Interpretation a Delicate Task.
II suppose no more delicate task is
given any man than to interpret the
feelings and the purposes OF a great
people. / know that if may speak
had has been to be the true inter-
prefer Of a national spirit. expressing
no private and peculiar views. but
trying to express the general spirit OF
. nation.
dent to do that: and the comradeship
of an evening like this does not con-
sist merely Of the sense of neighbor-
hood. We are neighbors. We have
always been friends. But that is all
old. Something new has happened. I
am not sure that / can put 1t into
words, but there has been added to
the common principles which have
united the Americans time out of
mind feeling that the world at large
has accepted those principles. that
there has gone q thrill Of hope and
of expectation throughout the nations
Of the world which somehow seems
st
the things we always believed in. 1t
is as IL the pure waters of the foun-
taiAs we had always drunk from had
now been put to the lips of all peo-
Piles. and they have drunk and were
refreshed.
sprang From Soil of Americas.
"And it is a delightful thought to
believe that these are fountains
which sprang up out of the soil of
the Americas. / am not, Of course,
suggesting or believing that political
liberty had it's birth in the American
hemisphere. because. of course. 1t had
not. but the peculiar expression of it
characteristic of the modern time,
that broad republicanism, that genu-
Inc feeling and practice Of democracy
that is becoming Characteristic Of the
modern world, did have its origin in
America; and the response Of the peo-
pies Of the world to this new express
sion Is. We may perhaps pride our
selves. a response to an American sug-
gestion.
III that is true we owe the world
peculiar service. II We originated great
practices we must ourselves be worthy
OF them. l remember not long ago at
tending very interesting meeting
which was held in the interest of COM
bining Christian missionary effort
throughout the world: I mean eliminat-
i"g the rivalry between churches and
;ereeing that Christian missionaries
,hould not represent this. that or the
other church. but represent the general
Christian impulse and principle Of the
world.
~ said I was thoroughly in sympathy
v.;a the principle. but that ! hoped II
1t was adopted that the inhabitants of
the heather countries would not come to
look at us. because we were not our
selves united. but divided; that while
We were asking them to unite. we our
selves did not set the example.
my moral from that recollection is
this: We, among other friends of lib
erty. are asking the world to unite in
TIE interest of brotherhood and mutual
:ervice and the genuine advancement of
throughout the world, therefore, we
must set the example
Urged Americas to Unity.
II will recall here to some of you an
effort that j myself made some years
%. soon after ] assumed the presi-
g. ,cy of the United States, to do that
very thing, l was urging the other
states of America to unite with the
I-nit"a States in doing something
vi'''h very closely resembled the
f,r 'iation of the present league of ma
tioa.. ! was ambitious to have the
.'mericas do the thing first and set
= example to the world of what we