The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1919-02-28

small force of soldiers to occupy
piece OF territory where it is thought
nobody else will be welcome. they ASH
for American soldiers. And "hefe
other soldiers would be looked upon
with suspicion, and perhaps met Wlth
resistance, the American soidler
welcomed with acclaim.
"And everybody praises the Amer
can soldier with the feeling that n
pI'aising him he is subtracting from
the credit of no one else.
'T have been searching for, fne
fundamental fact that converted E'i-
rope to believe in US. Before tnis
war Europe did not believe in us IS
she does now. She did not Relieve
in us throughout the first three
years Of the war she seems
really to have believed that we were
holding off because we Thought we
could make more by staying out than
by going in.
And al Of sudden, ip Sh2rt
eighteen months, the whole verdict IS
reversed. There can be but one tx
PLANTATION for it. They saw what we
did-that without making d single
claim we put all our men and all Or
means at the disposal Of those VINO
were fighting for their homes, in me
first instance, but for cause. the
cause of human rights and Justice'
and that we went in, not to suppo"t
their national claims, but to support
the great cause which they held in
common.
"Converted to America"
"And when they saw that America
not only held ideals, but acted Ideals.
they we're converted to America and
became confirmed partisans OF those
ideals.
ST met a group of scholars when L
was in Paris-SOme gentlemen from
one of the Greek universities who nad
come to see me, and in whose pres
ence, or rather in the presence or
those traditions of learning, felt
very young indeed. [ told them thar
| had one of the delightful reyengeS
that sometimes comes to man. All
my life | had heard men speak Wifn
sort of cOndescensiOn of ideals ana
of idealists, and particularly those
separated, encloisuered persons whom
they choose to term academic, VINO
were in the habit of uttering ideals 'f
the free atmosphere when they CLASH
with nobody in particular.
Sand I said | have had this sweet
revenge. Speaking with perfect frank
ness in the name of the people of ire
United States, I have uttered as the
objects of this great war ideals anu
nothing but ideals. and the war has
been won by that inspiration.
Men were fighting with tense mas
Gle and lowered head until they came
TO realize those things, feeling they
were fighting for their lives and their
country, and when these accents Or
what it was all about reached them
from America they lifted their heals,
they raised their eyes to heaven, when
they saw men in khaki coming across
the sea in the spirit of crusaders ana
thew found that these were STRANGE
men, reckless of danger not only, out
reckless because they seemed to SEE
something that made that danger
worth while.
"Men have testified to me In Europe
that our men were possessed by some
thing that they could only call a re-
ligious fervor They were not like any
of the other soldiers. They had WIS.,
ion. they had a dream, and they were
fighting in the dream, and fighting Ia
the dream they turned the whole tide
of battle and 1t never came back.
"One of our American humorists
meeting the criticism that American
soldiers were not trained long enough,
said: Ut takes only half as long to
train an American soldier as any otn-
err because you only have to train him
TO go one way, and he did only go one
way. and he never came back until he
could do it when he pleased
Imposes Burden Upon U.s."
sand now do you realize that this
confidence we have established
throughout the world imposes a bur-
den upon us-if you choose to call 1t
burden. 1t is one of those burdens
which any nation ought to be proud to
carry. Any man who resists the pres
emf tides that run in the world will
find himself thrown upon a shore so
high and barren that it will seem as If
he had been separated from his hu-
man kind forever.
1.-The Europe that left the other
day was full of something that it had
never felt fill it's heart so full before.
1t was full of hope. The Europe of
the second year of the war, the Europe
of the third year of the war, was sink
ing to a sort of stubborn desperation.
They did not see any great thing to be
achieved even when the war should
be won. They hoped there would be
some salvage; they hoped that they
could clear their territories of invading
armies; they hoped they could set up