The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-09
GOVERNOR KLLBY RECOMMENDS IMPORTANT LEGISLATION
 PEACE OF VERSAILLES TO SAFEGUARD WORLD-WILSON
COMPLETE TEXT OF PRESIDENTS SPEECH
 AT CARNEGIE HALL

NO'N 0%
 President Wilson's speech at Carnegie
 Hall follows:
 Fellow Countrymen:
 T am not going to try this afternoon to make you a real speech. I am a bit alarmed to find how many speeches l have in my system undelivered but they
 are all speeches that come from the mind and l want to say to you this afternoon
 only few words from the heart You have made me deeply happy by the generous welcome you have extended
 to me. but do not believe that the vel come you extend to me is half as great as that which I extend to you. Why. Jerseyman though l am, this is the first
 time I even thought that Hoboken was beautiful.
 q have really, though I have tried on the other side of the water to con- cea1 it, been the most homesick man in the American expeditionary force, and 1t is with feelings that it would be vain
 for me to try to express that I find myself in this beloved country again. I do not say that because I lack in ad- miration of other countries.
 There have been many things that softened my homesckness. One of the chief things that softened it was the very generous welcome that they extend ed to me as your representative on the other side of the water, And 1t was still more softened by the pride that I had in discovering that America (had at last convinced the world of her true character.
 KNOW TRUTH ABROAD 'I was welcome because they had seem with their own eyes what America had done for the world. They had deemed her
 selfish They had deemed her devoted
 to material interests. And they had seen her boys come across the water with a
 vision even more beautiful than that
 which they conceived when they had en-
 tertained dreams of liberty and peace. And then I had the pride of finding out by personal observation of the kind of men we had sent over I had crossed
 the seas with the kind of men who had
 taken them over. without whom they
 could not have got to Europe, and then
 when I got there I saw the army Of
 men, that army of clean men, that army
 of men devoted to the higS interests Of
 humanity, that army that one was glad
 to point out and say, These are my fell
 low countrymen,
 Tt softens the homesickness good
 deal to have so much of home along
 with you, and these boys were constantly
 reminding me of home. They did not
 walk the streets like anybody else. I do
 not mean that they walked the streets
 self -assuredly. They did not They
 walked the streets as if they knew that
 they belonged wherever free men lived, that they were welcome in the great re- public of France and were comrades with the other armies that had helpeu to win the great battle and to show the great sacrifice Because it is wonder full thing for this nation, hitherto isolated from the large affairs of the world, 10 win not only the universal confidence or the people of the world, but their uni versal affections
 And that and nothing less than that, is what has happened Wherever IL was
 suggested that troops should be sent and it was desired that troops of occtpation should excite no prejudice, no uncasiness on the part of those to whom they were sent. the men who represented the other ma lions came to me and asked me to
 send American soldiers. They not only
 implied, but they said that the presence
 of American soldiers would be known
 not to mean anything except friendly
 nrotection and assistance Do you won
 der that it made our hearts swell with
 pride to realize these things?
 EAGER TO GET HOME
 "But while these things in some de-
 eree softened my homesickness they made me all the more eager to get home where
 the rest of the folks live; to get home
 where the great dynamo of national en-
 ergy was situated; to get home where the
 great purposes of national action were
 formed. and to be allowed to take part
 in the counsels aAd in the actions which
 were formed, and to be taken by this great nation which from first to last has followed the vision of the men won set 1t up and created it. We have had our eyes very close upon our tasks at times,
 but whenever we lifted them, as we were
 accustomed to lift them. to distant | |. ro
 peoples of the earth had turned their faces toward us as those who were the friends of freedom and of right, and whenever we thought of national policy and of it's relation upon the affairs Of the world, we knew we were under bonds to do the large thing and the right thing. Tt is a privilege, therefore, beyond all computation for a man, whether In a great capacity or a small, to take part in the counseis and in the resolutions of a people like this. I am afraid some peo- ple, some persons, do not understand that vision They do not see it They have looked too much upon the ground,
 They have thought too much of the in terests that were near them, and they
 have not listened to the voices of their reighbors.
 T have never had moments doubt as to where the heart and purpose of
 this people lay. When any one on the other side of the water has raised the question, Will America come in and help I have said, Of course, America will come in and help She cannot do anything else. She will not disappont any high hope that has been formed of her. Least of all will she in this day of new born liberty all over the world fail to extend her hand of support and as
 sistance to those who have been made free. YOKES THROWN OFF q wonder if at this distance you can have got any conception of the tragic intensity of the feeling of these peoplea in Europe who have Just had yokei thrown off them. Have you reckoned up in your mind how many peoples how many nations, were held unwillingly under the yoke of the Austro-Hungarian empire, under the yoke of Turkey. under the yoke of Germany?
 These yokes have been thrown off.
 These peoples breathe the air and look around to see new day dawn about
 them, and whenever they think of what
 is going to fill that day with action, they think first of us. They think first
 of the friends who throughout the long
 years have spoken for them, who were
 privileged to declare that they came into
 the war to release them who said that they would not make upon terms and
 upon their liberty, and they have known
 that Americas presence in the war and
 in the conference was the guarantee of
 the result.
 '.The governor has spoken of great task ended. Yes, the formulation of the
 peace is ended, but it creates only a new