The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1919-05-16
WILSON DENIES u.s.
WORSHIP ING DOLLAR
Tells French Americans Have
High Sense of Justice.
SAYS HUN IDEA ALL WRONG
President Declares Freedom of Speech
Is Greatest Safety Valve, Because
When Man Is Fool, Best to
Let Him Advertise 1t.

in his address to the French Academy
of Moral and Political Sciences, Wig
orously denied that the American
people were largely materialists or
dollar worshipers.
Il have had in recent months one
very deep sense of privilege" the
president said. II have been keenly
aware that there have been times when
the peoples of Europe have not under
stood the people of the United States.
We have been too often supposed to
have been devoted chiefly Ii not en-
tirely to material enterprises. We have
been supposed, in the common phrase,
to worship the almighty dollar.
1--WE have accumulated wealth, we
have devoted ourselves tomaterial en-
terprises with extraordinary success
but there has underlain all of that
all the time, a common sense of hui
mainly and common sympathy with
the high principles of justice which
has never grown dim in the field even
of enterprise, and it has been my
very great joy in these recent months
to interpret the people of the United
States to the people of the world
Il have not done more, / have not
uttered in my public capacity my own
private thoughts. I have uttered what
| have known to be the thoughts of
the great people whom | represent
L have uttered the things that have
been stored up in their hearts and
purpose from the time of our birth
as nation"
German Ideas Fundamentally Wrong.
President Wilson alluded to his
studies in the field of political science
and the attempts he had made ''to
put into the words of learning the
thought of a nation, the attitude of
people toward public affairs" He con-
tinued:
"A great many of my colleagues in
American university life got their
training, even in political science, as
so many men in civil circles did, i'm
German universities. / have been
obliged at various times to read a
great deal of bad German, difficult
German, awkward German, and II
have been aware that the thought was
as awkward as the phrases that the
misconceptiOn of the state and of the
political life of peoples. And it has
been portion, of my effort to dis
engage the thought of American uni
versity teachers from the misguided
instruction which they had received
on this side of the sea. Their Ameri-
can spirit anticipated most of them,
as a matter of course but the form
of thought sometimes misled them.
They speak too often of state as a |
thing which would ignore the individ-
ual, as thing which was privileged
to dominate the fortune of men by a
sort of inherent and sacred author
ity.
Now as an utter democrat, I have
never been able to accept that view of
the state My view of the state is
that it must stop and listen, to what |
I have to say, no matter how humble |
/ am, and that each man has the |
right to have his voice heard and his |
counsel needed in so far as it is |
worthy of him.
"Safety in Freedom of Speech"
81 have always been among those |
who believe that the greatest freedom
of speech is the greatest safety, be- |
cause if a man is fool, the best
thing to do is to encourage him to
advertise the fact by speaking. 1t |
cannot be so easily discovered il you
allow him to remain silent and look
wise, but if you let him speak the
secret is out and the world knows |
that he is a fool.
$50 it is by exposure of folly that
it is defeated; not by the seclusion
of folly, and in this free air of free
speech men get into that sort of com
munication with one another, which
constitutes the basis of all common
achievement. France, through many
yicissitudes, and through many bitter
experiences, found the way to this
sort of freedom, and now she stands
ot the front of the world as the rep |
an~ct;4,,t;oooJ I;harfu 1