Cleveland County herald., 1919-07-17

iopc aiu lne WoTiu- InereaIter the Germans were to be always forced back, back, were never to thrust sue cessfully forward again. And yet there was no confident hope.
 Anxious men and women leading spirits of France, attended the cele- bration of the Fourth of July last year in Paris out of generous courtesy with no heart for festivity, little Zest of hope, But they came away with something new at their hearts; they have themselves told us so.
 Tells pf Feeling Men Created.
 The mere sight of our men-of their vigor, of the confidence that showed itself in every movement of their stal- wart figures and every turn of their swinging march, in their steady com pretending eyes and easy discipline, in the indomitable air that added | spirit to everything they did-made everyone who saw them that memo rable day realize that something had happened that was much more than mere incident in the fighting, some thing very different from the mere ar- rival of fresh troops
 A great moral force had flung itself into the struggle. The fine physical force of those spirited men spoke of something more than bodily vigor
 They carried the great ideals of a free people at their hearts and with that vision were uneonquerable. Their very presence brought reinsurance; their fighting made victory certain.
 They were recognized as crusaders. and as their thousands swelled to mil lions their strength was seen to mean salvation. And they were fit men to carry such hope and make good the assurance it forecast Finer men never went into battle; and their officers were worthy of them.
 Comrades in Great Gauss.
 This is not the occasion upon which to utter eulogy of the armies Amer ica sent to France, but perhaps since I am speaking of their mission, I may speak also of the pride I shared with every American who saw or dealt with them there. They were the sort of men America would wish to be repre- sented by, the sort of men every Amer. iean would wish to claim as fellow countrymen and comrades in great cause.
 They were terrible in battle, and gentle and helpful out of it, remember ing the mothers and the sisters, the wives and the little children at home.
 
 forgetting their ideals of duty in the midst of tasks of violence I am proud to have had the privilege of being as sociated with them and of calling my self their leader.
 Duty to Quiet Fears of World.
 And the compulsion of what they steod for was upon us who represent ed America at the peace table. It was our duty to see to it that every de- cision we took part in contributed, so far as we were able to influence it. to quiet the fears and realize the hopes of the peoples who had been living in that shadow, the nations that had come by our assistance to their free dom. 1t was our duty to do every thing that it was within our power to do to make the triumph of freedom and of right lasting triumph in the assurance of which men might every where live without fear.
 Old entanglements of every kind stood in the way-promises which gov ernments had made to one another in wi oirh nd rio confused and the power of the victor was without restraint. Engagements which contemplated any dispositions | of territory any extensions of sov- ereignty that might seem to be to the | interest of those who had the power to insist upon them had been entered | into without thought of what the peo- ples concerned might wish or profit by; and these could not always be honorably brushed aside. It was not | easy to graft the new order of ideas | on the old, and some of the fruits of the grafting may, I fear, for time be bitter.
 Thrust Upon Conference
 These were not tasks which the conference looked about to find and went out of it's way to perform. They were inseparable from the settlements of peace. They were thrust upon it by circumstances which could not be overlooked. The war had created them. In all quarters of the world old established relationships had been disturbed or broken and affairs were at loose ends, needing to be mended or united again, but could not be made what they were before. They had to be set right by applying some uniform principle of justice or enlightened eN- pediency. And they could not be ad- iusted by merely prescribing in a treaty what should be done.
 New states were to be set up which could not hope to live through their first period of weakness without as sured support by the great nations that had consented to their creation T.