The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1919-01-31
PRESIDENTS TRIBUTE
TO ALL WOMEN
He Told a Delegation of French Wof"
ina Women That He Hoped Fran
caise Might in Some Way Be
Presented to Conference.


of the peace conference" were volcee
by President Wilson in a speech to a
delegation of French working women
at the Murat mansion yesterday. The
text was made public today, the cables
yesterday being clogged with news OF
the league of nations.
Rut in no circumstances can the
peace conference be expected to dictate
to the several nations in this matter,
the president explained, since it was
a purely domestic issue.
Again the president reiterated the
principle which he has unsweryingly
expounded since he came to Europe:
That sthis must be peoples peace
because this was a peoples war" The
people, not the governments, won the
war. Mr.. Wilson declared.
Addressing delegation of working
women of France at the Murat Man
sion, President Wilson said:
aMlle Thomson and Ladies: You
have not only done me a great honor
but YOU have touched me very much
nv this unexpected tribute and may l
add that you have frightened me be-
cause. realizing the great confidence
you place in me, am led to question
my own ability to justify that con-
fidence.
.eYou have not placed your coma
dence wrongly in my hopes and pur-
poses, but perhaps not all OF those
hopes and purposes can be realized IN
the great matter that you have so
much at heart-the right OF women 10
take their full share in the political
life of the nations to which they be-
long
.That is necessarily domestic
question for the several nations. A
conference of peace settling the rela-
tions of nations with each other would
be regarded as going very much out
side it's province if it undertook to
dictate to the several states what
their internal policy should be. At the
same time, those considerations apply
also to conditions of labor, and it does
seem to be likely that the conference
will take some action by way OF ex-
pressing it's sentiments, at any rate,
with regard to the international as
poets, at least, Of labor and I should
hope that some occasion might be
offered for the case not only OF the
women of France, but of their sisters
all over the world, to be presented to
the consideration of the conference.
tsThe conference is turning out to
be a rather unwieldy body, very
large body, representing a great many
nations, large and small, old and new,
and the methods of organizing g It's
work successfully, am afraid, will
have to be worked out stage by stage
Therefore, I have no confident pre-
diction to make as to the way in
which it can take up questions OF this
sort. But what 1 have most at heart
today is to avail myself of this op-
portunity to express my admiration
for the women of France, and my ad-
miration for the women of all the ma
tions that have been engaged in this
war.
.eBy the fortunes Of this war, the
chief burden has fallen upon the wo-
men of France, and they have borne
it with a spirit and devotion which
has commanded the admiration OF the
world. 1 do not think that the peo-
ple of France fully realize, perhaps,
the intensity of sympathy that other
nations have felt for them.
"They think of us, in America for
example, as long way Off, and we
are in space, but we are not IN
thought, You must remember that
the United States is made up of the
nations of Europe; that French SYM
pathies run straight across the seas,
not merely. by historic association, but
by blood connection, and that these
nerves of sympathy are quick to trans
NIT the impulses of the one nation
to the other.
1--WE have followed your sufferings
with a feeling that we are witness
ing one of the most heroic and, may
add, at the same time, satisfactory
things in the world-satisfactory be-
cause it showed the strength of the
human spirit, the indomitable power
of women and women alike to sus-
tain any burden if the cause was great
enough.
I'm an ordinary war, there might
have been some shrinking, some sink
ing of effort, but this was not an or
dinary war.
--,o. . ,ror not oply n radonrn