The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1919-03-06
WILSON SAYS i. 5.
WILL AID STATES
OPENING OF THE WHITE HOUSE
CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS
AND MAYORS.
REIMBURSEMENT PROBLEMS
President Hopes Conference Discus
sion Will Assume Wide Range,
including Means of Restoring
Conditions To Normal.

Washington. - Opening the white
house conference of governors and
mayors on peace-time business and la
Dor problems, President Wilson prom
ised that the federal governments
would consider itself the servant of
the states, municipalities and counties
in solving readjustment problems, and
would perform its duty guided by sug-
gestions of the conference
The president said he hoped the con-
| ference discussion would assume a
wide range, including means of restor-
ing labor conditions to normal basis
as soon as possible, "and to effecting
such fresh ALLEGATION of labor and in
dustry as the circumstances may make
necessary"
President Wilson said:
I wish that 1 could promise myself the
pleasure and the profit of taking part in
your deliberations. l find that nothing
deliberate is permitted me since my re-
turn. have been trying, under the guild
ance of my secretary, Mr. Tumulty, to do
months work in a week, and l am
hoping that not all of it has been done
| badly, but inaSmuch as there is a neces-
sary pressure upon my time. | know that
| you will excuse me from taking a part in
| your conference, much as 1 should be
profited by doing so.
My pleasant duty is to bid you a
| hearty welcome and to express my gratifi-
| cation that so many executives of cities
| and of states have found the time and
| the inclination to come together on the
| very important matter we have to discuss.
The primary duty of caring for our peo-
| pie in the intimate matters that we want
] to discuss here, of course, falls upon the
| states and upon the municipalities and the
| function of the federal government is to
do what it is trying to do in conference
| of this Sort-draw the executive minds
of the country together so that they may
| profit by each others suggestions and
| plans, and so that we may offer our serv-
| ices to coordinate their efforts in any
| way that they may deem it wise to CO.
ordinate. In other words, it is the privi-
lege of the federal government In matters
of this sort to be the servants of the eX-
ecutiVes of the states and municipalities
| and counties, and we shall perform that
duty with the greatest pleasure if you will
guide US with your suggestions
l hope that the discussions of this con-
| ference will take wide a scope as you
may think necessary. We are not met
| to discuss any single or narrow subject.
| We are not met to discuss the proper
method of restoring all the labor condi-
! tions of the country to a normal basis as
| soon as possible and to effect such fresh
ALLEGATIONS of labor and industry as the
| circumstances may make necessary /
| think / can testify from what | have seen
! on the other side of the water, that we
are more fortunate than other nations in
| respect to these great problems. Our in
| duStries have been disturbed and disor-
| ganzed-disOrganiZed as compared with
/ peace basis, very seriously, indeed, by
! the war, but not seriously as the in
dustries of other countries; and it seems
to me, therefore, that we should approach
| these problems that we are about to dis
| cuss with a great deal of confidence
with good deal of confidence that if we
! have a common purpose We can realize
that common purpose without serious or
| lnsurmountable difficulties.
| The thing that has impressed me most,
gentlemen, not only in the recent weeks
| when | have been in conference on the
other side of the water, but for many
| months before | went across the water
| was this: We are a last learning that the
business of government is to take coun-
/. sci for the average man. We are at last
| learning that the whole matter of pros
| perity of peoples runs down into the great
| body of the men and women who do the
| work of the world, and that the process
| of guidance is not completed by the mere
| success Of great enterprises-it is com
peted only by the standard OF the benefit
that it conferS upon those who in the
| obscure ranks of life contribute to the
| success of those enterprises.
The hearts of men and women and chill
dren of the world are stirred now in
way that has never been known before
| They are not only stirred by their indiVid-
| ual circumstances, but they are beginning
to get vision of what the general circum-
| stances of the world are and there is Tor
the first time in history an international
| sympathy which is quick and Vital-a
| sympathy which does not display itself
| merely in the contract of governments.
| but displays itself in the silent intercourse
| o. sympathy between great bodies that
constitute great nations, and the slgnlfl-
cause of a conference like this is that we
are expressing in 1t. and will, believe,
| express in the results of this conference,
| our consciousness that we are servants
! of this great silent mass of people VINO
constitute the United States, and that as
| their servants it is our business, as IT is
| our privilege, to find out how we can best
assist in making their lives what they
wish them to be. giving them the opportu-
| mites that they ought to have, assisting
| by public counsel in the private affairs
upon which the happiness OF men depends:
| And so l am the more distressed that l
can not take part ip these counsels De
cause my present business is to under
| stand what plain men everywhere want
| 1t is perfectly understood in Paris that
| we are not meeting there as the masters
| of anybody-that we are meeting there as
| the servants of, l believe 1t Is, about 10O,-
| 900 900 people, and that unless we show
| that we understand the business of serv-
ants, we will not satisfy them and we
| will not accomplish the peace OF the world,
| and that If we show that we want 10 serve
| any interests but theirs we Will nave pc
| come candidates for the most lasting dis
| cradit that will ever attach to men in
Ana so it is with this profound feeling
| NJ the Significance of the things you are
undertaking that | bid you welcome, os.
the spirit which have tried to indicate
"a that we will together concert meth
ods of cooperation and lndiViduai hotIon 'u.
witch will really accomplish what We
wish to see accomplished IN s.saoyl lns dap hoy,
| easing and facilitating the whoie ldDoi
| .~.ooaooao ~ the United SLdlSS.