Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1919-02-25

hearts beat with theirs in the cause of
liberty. There was no mistaking the
tone in the voices of those great
crowds. 1t was not tone of mere
greeting, it was not a tone of mere
generous welcome; it was the calling
of comrade to comrade, the cries that
come from men who 'ay, We have
waited for this day when the friends
of liberty should come across the sea
and shake hands with us, to see that
a new world was constructed upon a
new basis and foundation of justice
and right
Il can't tell you the inspiration that
came from the sentiments that come
out of those simple voices of the
crowd. and the proudest thing 1 have
to report to you is that this great
country of ours is trusted throughout
the world.
Il have not come to report the pro-
ceedings or the results of the proceed
| ings of the peace conference; that
would be premature. | can say that
l have received very happy impress
sions from this conference; the i'm
| preston that while there are many
differences of judgment, while there
are some divergences of object, there
| is nevertheless a common spirit and
common realization of the necessity of
| setting up new standards of right in
| the world; because the men who are
in conference in Paris realize as keen
| ly as any American can realize that
| they are not the masters of then. peo-
pie: that they are the servants of their
people, and that the spirit of their
people has awakened to a new purpose
and new conception of their power
to realize that purpose, and that no
man dare so home from that confer
ence and report anything less noble
than was expected of it.
| THE conference seems to you to 20
slowly; from day to day in Paris it
seems to go slowly; but l wonder if
you realize the complexity of the task
which it has undertaken. 1t seems as
if the settlements of this war affect
and affect directly. every great, and !
sometimes think, every small, nation
in the world, and no one decision can
prudently be made which is not prop
erly linked in with the great series OF
other decisions which must accompany
it, and it must be reckoned in with the
final result if the real quality and
character of that result is to be prop
erly judged.
What we are doing is to hear the
whole case; hear it from the mouths
of the men most interested; hear il
from those who are officially commits
stoned to state it; hear the rival
claims; hear the claims that affect
new nationalities, that affect new
areas of the world, that affect new
commercial and economic connections
that have been established by the
great world war through which we
have gone. And | have been struck
by the moderateness of those who
have represented national claims.
can testify that l have nowhere seer
the Sleam of passion. | have seer
earnestneSs, | have seen tears come
TO the eyes of men who plead fol
downtrodden people whom they Were
privileged to speak for; but they wert
not the tears of anguish, they We're tn,
tears of ardent hope.
And | don't see how any man car
fail to have been subdued by thes,
pleas, subdued to this feeling, that h,
was not there TO assert an individual
Judgment, Of his own, but to try to as
sist the case of humanity.
And in the midst of it all every in
terest seeks out first of all when i
reaches Paris the representatives o
the United States Why? Because
? and / think | am stating the mos
wonderful fact in history-becaus
T there is no nation in Europe that sus
. poets the motives of the United States
r Was there ever so wonderful
D thing before? Was there ever SO NOV
p ing a thing? Was there ever any fac
o that so bound the nation that had Wo
o that esteem forever to deserve it?
4 Il would not have you understan
= that the great men who represent tn
o other nations there in conference ar
Q dis esteemed by those who know then
. Quite the contrary. But you under
- stand that the nations of Europe hav
20 lagain and again clashed with one an
other in competitive interest 1t is i'm
8 possible for men to forget those shar
issues that were drawn between ther
d IN times past. 1t is impossible for me
.s to believe that all ambitions have a
: OF sudden been foregone. They re
d member territory that was coveted
IS they remember rights that it was al
% tempted to extort; they remembt
n political ambitions which it was al
tempted to realize-and, while the
p believe that men have come into a di1
w ferent temper. they cannot forg,
Of these things, and SO they do not reso
ly Continued on Page Six, Column Fou,