The Benson signal., 1919-03-01
g regarded as the friend of


piece of territory where it Is thought
I nobody else will be welcome, they ask
for American soldiers. And where
| other soldiers would be looked upon
with suspicion and perhaps met with
| resistance, the American soldiers are
| welcomed with acclaim.
Il have had so many grounds for
| pride on the other side of the water
that am very thankful that they
are not grounds for personal pride. but
| for national pride: If they We're
most stuckup man in the world. And
| it has been an infinite pleasure to me
to see those gallant soldiers of ours,
OF whom the constitution of the United
States made me the proud commander.
You may be proud of the Twenty
six division, but l commanded the
Twenty sixth division Daughter and
applause), and see what they did un-
der my direction! And everybody
praises the American soldier with the
feeling that in praising him he is sub
tracing from the credit of no one else.
Il have been searching for the fun
damental fact that converted Europe
to believe in us. Before this war Eu-
rope did not believe in us as she does
now. She did not believe in us
throughout the first three years of the
war. She seems really to have be-
lieved that we were holding off be-
cause we thought we could make more
by staying out than by going in. And
all of a sudden, in a short eighteen
| months, the whole verdict is reversed.
There can be but one explanation for
it. They saw what we did-that with
out making q single claim we put all
our men and all our means at the dis
posal of those who were fighting for
their homes in the first instance, but
for cause, the cause of human rights
and justice, and that we went in, not
to support their national claims, but to
support the great cause which they
held in common.
And when they saw that America
not only held ideals, but acted ideals
they were converted to America and
became firm partisans of those ideals.
Il met a group Of scholars when |
was in Paris Some gentlemen from
one of the Greek universities who had
come to see me, and in whose pres
ence or rather in the presence. Of
very young indeed. And L told them
that had had one of the delightful
revenges that sometimes come to a.
man. All my life I have heard men
speak with sort of condescension of
idealists and particularly of those sep
arate, incloistered persons whom they
chose to term academic, who. were in
the habit of uttering ideals in the free
atmosphere when they clash with no.
body in particular.
And l have said I have this sweet
revenge. Speaking with perfect frank
ness in the name of the United States,
l have uttered as the objects Of this
great war, ideals and nothing but
ideals, and the war has been won by
H.
with tense muscle and lowered head.
until they came to realize those things,
feeling they were fighting for their
lives and their country, and when
these accounts of what it was all about
reached them from America they lift
ed their heads, they raised their eyes
to heaven; then they saw men in
khaki coming across the sea in the
spirit of crusaders and they found that
those were strange men, reckless OF
danger not only, but reckless because
they seemed to see something that,
made danger worth while. Men have
testified to me in Europe that men
were possessed by something they
could only call religious fervor. They
They had a vision, they had a dream,
and they were fighting in the dream
and fighting in the dream they turned
the whole tide of battle and it never
came back.
And now do you realize this conf
dence we have established throughout
the world imposes a burden upon US?
If you choose to call it burden. 1t
is one of those burdens which any ma
tion ought too be proud to carry. Any
man who resists the present tides that
run in the world will find himself
| thrown upon a shore so high and bar
rem that it will seem as if he had been
separated from his human kind for
| ever
| of the nation. We set this nation up
| to make men free and we did not con-
! fine our conception and purpose to
America.
Now" said the President, this con-
| ference we have established calls for
something. The Europe I left was full
| of hope. The Europe Of the third year
of the war was sinking to a stubborn
desperation. They thought the end OF
| the war would eventually be a resump-
ton of the old order They never
| dreamed it would be Europe of set
Nov all the peoples of Europe are
buoyed up in the hope that all the ma
tions. of the. world shall unite their
shall prevail. If America should fail
| the world of it's hope, the nations will
| be set up as hostile camps again, and
| the men at the peace conference will
go home with their heads upon their
breasts because they will have failed.
| We would leave on the peace table
nothing but a modern scrap of paper"
| Men, he declared, who would have
! America fail the world in it's hopes saw
only beyond the nearest horizon.
| They do not know the sentiment Of
| America" he said.
! Speaking of hopes of the people of
| Europe for lasting peace which he
said were pinned to the United States
| as the friend of mankind" the Pres
| ident said he had no more doubt Of
'the verdict of America in this matter
than I have of the doubt of the blood
| that is in me-"
'The nations of the world have set
| their heads now to do a great thing
and they are not going to stop short
Of their purpose" he said.
Il do not speak Of the governments,
| but of the peoples who will see that If
their present governments do not do
| their will some others will. And the
secret is out and the present govern
ment knows it.
| ."I have come back for an attempt to
| transact business for a little while in
| America, but I say in all soberness
that L have been trying to speak your
thoughts. Probing deep in my heart
and trying to see the things that are
right rather than the things that are
expedient, I am finding the heart of
| America.
| II find that in loving America I have
| Joined the majority of my fellow men
| throughout the world"
v. S. Tonnage Big.
Washington. n.-Discussing the Amer