The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-02-25

4 wonder if you are half as glad TO see
me as | am to see you. (Applausel A
see a great body of my fellow citizens
again. because in some respects during
the recent months have been very lone
ly indeed without your comradeship and
counsel and / tiled at every step of the
work which fell to me to recall what |
was sure would be your counsel with re-
gard to the great matters which were under
Il do not want you to think that | have
not been appreciative of the eXtraordinar
lily generous reception which WIS given to
me the other side, in saying that it
/ do not mean to say that was not very
deeply touched by the cries that came
from the great crowds on the other side.
But l want to say to you in all honesty
to you. rather than to me-
Greeting Not Personal One.
81 did not feel that the greeting was per-
sOnal. l had IN my heart the Overcoming
pride of being your representative and of
receiving the plaudits of men everywhere
who felt that your hearts beat with theirs
taking the tone in the voices of those great
crowds. 1t was not a tone of mere greeting.
come; it was the calling Of comrade to
comrade, the cry that comes from men who
say We have waited for this day when the
friends of liberty should come across the
sea and shake hands with us, to see that
Il new world was constructed upon new
basis and foundation of justice and right.
1 can't tell you the inspiration that came
frem the sentiments that came out of
those simple voices in the crowd.
THE prOudest thing l think have to re-
port to you is that this great country of
ours is trusted thruout the world.
Il have not come to report the proceed
ings the results of the proceedings of
the peace conference: that would be prema-
ture. l say that l have received very
happy impressions from this conference;
the impression that while there many
differences of judgment, while there are
some Emergencies of object, there is never
Rt-fN
realization of the necessity of setting up
new standards of right in the world. Be
lie ms keeniy as any American can rea-
lie that they are not the masters of their
people; that they are the servants of their
people and that the spirit of their people
has awakened to a new purpose and a new
conception of their power to realize that
purpose and that no man dare go home
from that conference and report anything
less noble than was expected of it.
THE conference seems to you. to go
slowly: from day to day in Paris it seems
! to go slowly: but 1 wonder if you realize
the cOmplexity of the task which it has
undertaken. It seems as if the settlements
of this affect and affect directly every
great and | sometimes think. every small
nation in the world. and no one decision
| in with the great series of other decisions
| which must accompany it. and it must he
reckoned on with the final result, if the
| suit is to be properly judged.
Hear the Whole Case.
"what we are doing is to hear the whole
case: hear it from the mouths of the men
are officially commissioned to state it
| hear the rival claims: hear the claims that
affect nationalitieS, that affect new
areas of the world. that affect new com
mercial and economic connections that have
been established by the great world war
| thru which we have gone. And have been
struck by the moderateness of those who
| have represented national claims: 1 can
| testify that | believe have nowhere seen
/ Ulp1m passion.
| 81 have seen ea-nestness. 1 have seen
| tears come to che eyes of men who pleaded
| for downtrodden peoples whom they were
| privileged to speak for: but they were not
the tears of anger; they were the tears
| of ardent hope.
How Can Man Fail.
have been subdued by these pleas, sub
dued to this telling. that he was not there
to assert an individual Judgment of his
own, but to try to assist the cause of hu-
manity.
And in the midst of it all every in,
terest seeks out first of all. when il
! States. Why? Bccause--and / think l am
stating the most wonderful fact in his
that suspects the motives of the United
| States
WAS there ever So wonderful a thing
! seen beforeE Was there ever so moving a
thing: Was there ever any fact that SC
! bound the nation that had won that esteem
| for ever to deserve it?
! the great men who represent the other ma
tons there in conference are disesteemed
| by those who know them. Quite the con
trary. But you understand the countries
of Europe have again and again FLASHED
with one another in competitive interests
Impossible to Forget
| at is impossible for men to forget the
! sharp issues that were drawn between
them in times past. 1t Is impossible fol
men to believe that all ambitions have al
of sudden been foregone. They remem
Der territory that was coveted; they re
member rights that it was attempted t.
extort; they remember political ambitions
| which it attempted to reaIiZe-and
while they believe that men have come into
different temper. they cannot forget these
things and so they do not resort to one
another for dispassionate view of the
matters in controversy.
Ask for American Soldiers.
"They resort to that nation which has
won the enviable distinction of being re
garded as the friend of mankind.
| Whenever it is desired to send small
force of soldiers to occupy a piece of terri
tory where 1t is thought nobody else viii
be welcome, they ask for American soldiers
And where other soldiers would be looked
upon with suspicion, and perhaps met will