New-York tribune., 1919-05-11

myself in this distinguished company
and in this ompanionship of let
ters. Sir Thomas has been peculiarly
generous, as have the gentlemen at
the other end of the table, in what
he has said of me, but they have
given me too high role to play up
to. 1t is particularly difficult to be-
lieve ones self to be what has been
described in SO small a company as
this. When great body of people
is present one can assume pose
which is impossible when there is so
small number OF critical eyes
looking directly at you.
and yet there was one part of
Sir Thomas's generous interpreta-
tion which was true.
Says He Reflects Mind
OF American Republic
What / have tried 70 DO and what
l have said in speaking for America
was to speak the mind of America,
to speak the impulse and the princi-
pies of America. And the only proof
have of my success is that the spirit
of America responded, responded
without stint or limit, and proved
that it was ready to do that thing
which I was privileged to call upon
it to do
"And we have illustrated in this
spirit of America something which
perhaps may serve as partial guide
to the future.
MAY l say that one Of the things
that has disturbed me in recent
months is the unqualified hope that
men have entertained everywhere of
immediate emancipation from the
things that have hampered them and
oppressed them. You cannot in
human experience rush into the
light You have to go through the
twilight into the broadening day be-
fore the noon comes and the full sun
is on the landscape; and we must see
to it that those who hope are not
disappointed by showing them the
processes by which hope must be
realized, processes Of law, processes
of slow disentanglement from the
many things that have bound us
in the past.
Change Must Be Gradual;
Old Habits Hard to Doff
you cannot throw off the habits
of society Immediately any more than
you can throw off the habits of the
individual Immediately. They mus.
be slowly got rid of, or, rather, .hey
must be slowly altered They must
be slowly adapted, they must be
slowly shaped TO the new ends for
which we would use them. That is
the process of law if law is intelli-
gently conceived.
II thought it privilege to come
here tonight, because your studies
were devoted to one Of the things
which will be of most consequence
to men in the future, the intelligent
development of international law
In one sense this great, unprece-
dentcd war was fought to give val
idity to international law, to prove
that it has reality which no ma
tion could afford to disregard that,
while it did not have the ordinary
sanctions, while there 9 was no in
ternational authority as yet to en-
force it, it nevertheless had some
thing behind it which was greater
than that, the moral rectitude of
mankind.
"lf we can now give to international
law the kind of vitality which it can
have only if it is real expression of
our moral judgment. we shall have
completed in some sense the work
which this war was intended to en-
phasize.
international law has perhaps
sometimes been little too much
thought out in the closet. Interna-
tional law has may say it without
OHence - been hanuled 100 exclu-
sively by lawyers. Lawyers like def
mite lines. They like systematic ar
rangements. They are uneasy if they
depart from what was done yester-
day. They dread experiments. They
like charted seas, and IL they have
no charts hardly venture to under
take the voyage. q
"Now, we must venture upon un-
chartcd seas to some extent ia the
future. In the new league OF nations
we are starting out on uncharted