The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-02-25
PRESIDENT WILSON'S
 BOSTON ADDRESS
(Continued From Page One)

whole case, to hear it from the mouths of men most interested; hear It rom those who are officially commissioned to state it. hear the rival claims; hear the claims that affect new nationan- ties that affect new ares of the world; that effect new commercial and eco homie connections that have been es- ta blished by the great world war through which we have gone. And l have been struck by the moderateness of those who have represented na- tional claims I can testify that I have nowhere seen the gleam of passion. l have seen earnestness; l have seen tears come to the eyes of men who plead for downtrodden people whom they were privileged to speak for, but they were not tears of anguish, they were the tears of ardent hope.
 And I don't see how any man can fail to have been subdued by these pleadings, subdued to this feeling. that he was not there to assert an individ- ual judgment of his own. but to try to assist the cause of humanity.
 ALL TURN TO AMERICA
 And in the midst of it all every interest seeks out first of all when it reaches Paris the representatives of the United States. Why? Because. and | think am stating the most wonderful fact in hstory-because there is no nation in Europe that suspects the mo- tive of the United States.
 "Was there ever so wonderful a thing seen before? Was there ever so moving a thing? Was there ever any factor that so bound the nation that had won that esteem forever to deserve it?
 q would not have you understand that the great men which represent the other nations there in conference are disesteem ed by those who know them Quite the contrary. But you under stand that the nations of Europe have again and again clashed with one an- other in competitive interest. It is impossible for men to forget those sharp issues that were drawn between them in times past. It is impossible for men to believe that all ambitious have all of a sudden been foregone. They remember territory that was cov- eted they remember rights that it was attempted to extort; they remember political and earthly ambitions which it was attempted to realize-and while they believe that men have come into a different temper, they cannot forget these things and so they do not re- sort to one another for dispa assionate view of the matter in controversy. They resort to that nation which has won the enviable distinction of being TeRdTQeu at Ine ITltDQ oI Ilduhi illu.
 "Whenever it is desired to send q small force of soldiers to occupy a piece of territory where it is thought 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 soldier is welcomed with acclaim.
 PROUD OF SOLDIERS
 hoy had or fnr pride on the other side of the water that I am very thankful that they are not grounds for personal pride. I'd be the most stuck-up 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 con- mander. You may be proud of the Twenty sixth division. but I command ed the Twenty-sixth division and see what they did under my direction. And everybody praises the American soldier with the feeling in praising him he is subtracting from the credit of no one else.
 q 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 now does. She did not believe in Us throughout the first three years of the war. She seemed really to believe that we were holding off because We thought we could make more by stay ing out than by going in. And all of sudden. in a short IS months, the whole verdict is reversed. There can be but one explanation for it. They saw what we did-that without making a single claim we put all our men and all our means at the disposal of those who were fighting for their homes, ill the first instance, but for a 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 upon ideals. they were converted to America and be- came firm partisans of those ideals.
 'I met group of scholars when l was