Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-05-12
IDEALS Of j. 8.
ARE DEFENDED
BY PRESIDENT
Not Dollar WorshipperS or Ma
terialiStS, He Says in
Paris


PARIS, May 10.-President Wilson,
in his address today to the French
Academy of Moral and Political Sci
ences, entered in strong disclaimer or
the idea that the American people
were largely materialists, or dollar
worshippers.
II have had in recent months one
very deep sense of privilege" the
president said. "I have been keenly
aware that there have been times
when the peoples of Europe haven't
understood the people of the United
States. We have been too often sup
posed to have been devoted chiefly,
If not entirely. to material enterprises
We have been supposed. in the, COM
mon phrase, to worship the almighty
dollar.
1--WE have accumulated wealth. sir;
we have devoted ourselves to material
enterprises with extraordinary success,
but there has underlain all of that, all
the time, a common sense of humanity
and a common sympathy with the
| high principles of justice which ha:
never grown dim in the field even, OF
enterprise; and 1t has been my very
great Joy in these recent months to In
| terpret the people of the United
States to the people OF the world.
| II have not done more, sir. j have
not uttered in my public capacity my
own private thought. i have uttered
what have known to be the thoughts
of the great people whom l represent.
| / have uttered the things that have
been stored up in their hearts and
purpose from the time of our birth as
q nation"
! The President declared the Amer
lean people, who came into the world
consecrated to liberty are ready to
pass in their lots with those whose
liberty is threatened or wherever the
cause of liberty would seem to be i'm
perilled.
This is the spirit of the people of
tho United States" he continued,
"and they have been privileged to
send two million men over here TO
tell you so. 1t has been their great
privilege not merely to tell you so in
words. but to tell you so in men and
material--the pouring out of their
wealth and the Offering Of their
blood"
| President Wilson alluded to his
study in the field of political science
and of the attempts he has made TO
lput into the words of learning the
thoughts of a nation, the attitude Of
a people toward public affairs"
The President continued: "A great
many of my colleagues in American
university life got their training, even
in political science as so many men IN
civil circles did, in German unlVer-
stiles. / have been obliged at various
times to read a great deal of bad Ger
man, difficult German, awkward Ger
man, and i have been aware that the
thought was as awkward as the
phrase, that the thought was rooted
in a fundamental misconception OF the
state and of the political life of peo-
pies. And it has been portion OF
my efforts to disengage the thought OF
American university teacher from the
misguiding instruction which they
have received on this side of the sea.
Their American spirit anticipated
most of them, as a matter of course
but the form of the thought some
times misled them. They speak too
often of the state as q thing which
would ignore the individual, as a
thing which was privileged to DOM
mate the fortunes of men by sort
of inherent and sacred authority.
Nov, as an utter democrat. / have
never been able to accept that view of
the state. My view of the state is that
it must stop and listen TO what have
TO say no matter how humble I am,
and that each man has the right To
have his voice heard and IN council
needed, insofar as 1t is worthy of
him.
II have always been among those
who believe the greatest freedom of
speech was the greatest safety be-
cause If a man is a fool the best
thing to do is to encourage him TO
advertise the fact by speaking. IT
cannot be so easily discovered If you
allow him to remain silent and look
wise, but il you let him speak, the
secret is out and the world knows
that he Is a fool.
$50 it is by the exposure of folly
that it is defeated; not by the seclu-
sion OF folly. and in this air of free
speech men get into that sort of COM
munication with one another which
constitutes the basis OF all common
achievement. Then through many
vicissitudes and through many bitter
experiences he found the way to this
sort of freedom and now he stands at
the front of the world as the repre-
sentative of constitutional liberty"