Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-09-19
Bulgarian Treaty Formally Presented
TAMES
DISTURBERS IN
FRISCO SPEECH
Johnson Still Idol of
People But are for
Presidents Policy.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
Especial to The Argus J

alyze, their applause is not always
| conclusive. Their demonstrations
are not always spontaneous and
| the element of cOntagion and sug
! gestion enters into the psychology
of the moment But more distinC-
/ tive than any other audiences on
| the whole journey have been the
| three which President Wilson adj
dressed at San Francisco. Their
/ respective responses were differ
/ ent, their demeanor so different.
First Mr.. Wilson addressed an
audience of several hundred
women. There were no male
guests except newspaper CORES
! pondents The noise Of their
] combined voices when cheering
was naturally a feeble contrast to
/ the lusty outbursts of the mixed
| audiences to which we have
/ grown accustomed. But their pune
| tuations of applause seemed to in
dicate that the idealism of the
president as expressed in his ad
vocacy of a league of nations made
a deep impression as contrasted
with the alternative policy of po-
! litical isolation defended by Hiram
! JOnuoOuy Lu6 JuulOl oChdCOA AlOlA
this state.
Women Solid in Support
! No more attentive audience ever
| listened to a Wilson speech. And
! the presidents tracing of the his
| torical background of the Shan
| tung settlement was so effective
that l heard favorable comment on
every side as the women left the
banquet hall. Did the women of
California want their sons to go to
war/to take Shantung from Japan
and to fight Great Britain and
France who pledged themselves
to support Japan on the Shantung
question before America entered
the war? That was Mr.. Wilson's
query and the women answered
with a chorus of Nos" that was
unmiStakable But if audience at
the luncheon given by the women
on the first day of the presidents
visit to San Francisco was friendly
and sympathetic, it did not begin To
compare with the demonstration OF
enthusiasm which interrupted his
speech again and again at the sec
ond days luncheon attended by the
Advertising club at the Common
wealth club, the downtown asso-
citation, the Rotary club, the Home
Industry league and the League to
Enforce Peace. Business men, they
were. to whom the president said
frankly he believed he could ad-
dress a business argument. With
telling effect he read the figures
telling the horrible cost of the late
war in men and money and vital
ity.
Clasps At Figures.
The hundreds of men present
literally gasped as the president
reminded them that the direct
coost of the conflict, irrespective
of the sum loaned to one or an
other of the belligerents was $780,
900 900 900. And he said. |
more than seven and a !
half million men had died on the |
field of battle which was one mil
lion more than had been killed in |
all the preceding wars since the !
year 1888. Add to that, remarked |
Mr. Wilson, the enormous number /
of manned and wounded, add to |
that the vitality of future genera
tions which had been subtracted !
from the world by the recent war /
and it staggers the imagination. /
And all of it, insisted the president. |
could have been avoided if the /
process of arbitration or nine /
months discussion, now provided |
for in the covenant, had been COM /
pulsory in 1914.
Shout Their Approval.
The men present shouted their
and rose from their seats .
in an outburst of applause that /
was the climax of the whole re-
ception Interruptions of cheering
were frequent but none more effec-
tive than that which followed Mr..
Wilson's description of the war
cost unless it was his flat statement
that America would be a member of
the League of Nations regardless
of the counseIs of the opposition
for the crowd took to that with
zest and cheered and demonstrated
and happily.
Trouble Makers on Hand.
But if these two luncheon ad-
dresses were plainly an evidence Of
the sympathetic and the friendly
of men and women voters,
it cannot be said that the big mass
meeting in the auditorium at night
was the same. Rarely have the cir
cumstances been so difficult for
speaking and rarely has a crowd
been so perplexing in it's makeup.
Fully 10000 people were packed in
every conceivable space, aisles,
rafters, stairways and balconies. A
more uncomfortable mass of hu-
manity 1 have never seen. People
could neither get in or out They :
we're fastened as if in wise. They
gave Mr.. Wilson a thunderous well
come. And the demonstration lasted
fully Is minutes during which time
he president seemed to enjoy the I
of flags and the express
sions of enthusiasm, but as the
great majority who had come to lis !
.en, needed the upraised hand of
he mayor, minority who had ,
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