New-York tribune., 1919-05-28
America Must Be Proved a
Worthy Sponsor for New
World Liberty, He Urges
at Dinner to DR.. Pessoa
Monroe Doctrine Cited
Assurance of Latin Amer.
lea Against Aggression
Is Declared Inadequate

was the principal speaker last NIGHT
at dinner given to DR.. Epitacio
Pessoa, President-elect of Brazil, by
the Pan-American peace delegation.
"The honor has been accorded me. ,,
Mr.. Wilson said in beginning his
speech, "of making the first speech to-
night, and | am very glad to avail
myself of that privilege want to saw
that | feel very much at home in this
company, though, after all, [ suppose
no one of us feels thoroughly at home
except on the other side of. the water
We all feel in very real sense that
we have a common home, because we
live IN the atmosphere of the same
conceptions and, think, with the same
political ambitions and principles.
End of Service rntimated
Il am particularly glad to have the
opportunity of paying my respects to
Mr.. Pessoa. 1t is very delightful. for
one thing, if | may say so, to know
/ that my presidency is not ahead of
me and that his presidency is ahead
of him. | wish him every happiness
and every success with the greatest
elnestness, and yet | cannot. if | NAV
Judge by my own experience, expect
Tor him a very great exhlaraton in
the performance of the duties of his
office, because, after all, to be the head
OF an American state is task of un-
relieved responsibility. American con-
stltutlons as a rule put so many duties
of the highest sort upon the president,
and so much of the responsibility of
affairs of state is centerod upon him
that his years of office are apt TO be
years little weighted with anxiety, a
little burdened with the sense of the
obligation of speaking for his people,
speaking what they really think and
endeaVoring to accomplish what they
really desire.
81 suppose no more delicate task is
given any man than to interpret the
feelings and the purposes of great
people. know that, if | may speak
for myself, the chief anxiety have
had has been to be the true interpreter
OF national spirit, expressing no pri-
vate and peculiar views, but trying to
express the general spirit of a nation.
And a nation looks TO its President to
do that; and the comradeship of an
evening like this does not consist
merely of the sense of neighborhood.
We are neighbors. We have always
been friends. But that is all old
Something new has haooened
American IDEAS Advanced
II am not sure that I can put it
into words, but there has been added
to the common principles which have
united the Americas time out of mind
a feeling that the world at large has
accepted those principles, that there
has gone a thrill of hope and of ex-
pectation throughout the nations of the
world which somehow seems to have
its source and foundation in the things
we always believed in. 1t is as if the
pure waters of the fountains we had
always drunk from had now been put
to the lips of all peoples, and they
have drunk and were refreshed
and it is a delightful thought to be-
lieve that these are fountains which
sprang up out Of the soif of the Amer
lcas. | am not, of course, suggesting
or believing that political liberty had
its birth in the American hemisphere,
because, of course, it had not, but the
peculiar expression of its characteris-
tic of the modern time, that broad re
pubhcanism, that genuine feeling and
practice of democracy that is becom-
ing characteristic of the modern world,
did have it's origin in America; and
the response of the peoples of the
world to this new expression is, we
may perhaps pride ourselves, a re-
sponse to an American suggestion.
New Duty Suggested
"If that is true we owe to the world
a peculiar service. If we originated
great practices we must ourselves be
worthy of them. | remember not long
ago attending very interesting meet
ing which was held in the interest of
Christian missionary effort |
throughout the world. | mean elimin-
ating the rivalry between churches |
and agreeing that Christian mission
aries should not represent this, that |
or the other church, but represent the
general Christian impulse and principle
Of the world I said | was thoroughly
in sympathy with the principle, but
that ! hoped if it was adopted
.nc lHudDlJdHtS OIL tNc nCdlncn COul-
tries would not come to look at us,
because we were not ourselves united,
out divided; that while we were asking
them to unite, we ourselves did not set
he example.
MY moral from that recollection is
his: We, among other friends of lib
,rty, are asking the world to unite in
he interest of brotherhood and mutual
service and the genuine advancement
If individual aad corporate liberty
throughout the world therefore, we
must set the example.
II will recall here to some of you an
Effort that | myself made some years
lgo, soon after | assumed the Presi-
lency of the United States, to do that
cry thing. l was urging the other
states of America to unite with the
United States in doing something
'hich very closely resembled the form
tlon of the present league of nations.
was ambitious to have the Americas
10 the thing first and set the example
o the world Of what we are now about
o realize.
Monroe Idea Hcrcrrcd To
81 had double ooject in it, not only
ny pride that the Americas should set
he example and show the gcnuncness
f their principles, but that the United
tatcs should have n new relation to
ne other Americas The United