Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-02-25
REPORTS WOULD
BE PREMATURE,
SAYS PRESIDENT
Officials Of Peace Conference
Are Servants Of People,
Not Masters, President
Tells Crowd.

(COntlnued from Page One.l
counsel and l tried at every step of
the work which fell to me to recall
what was sure would be your
counsel with regard to the great
matters which were under consider
alton.
Appreciates Reception.
Il do not want you to think that l
have not been appreciative of the
extraordinarily generous reception
which was given to me on the other
side in saying that it makes me very
happy to get home again. / do not
mean to say that / was not very
deeply touched by the cries that
came from the great crowds on the
other side. But want to say to you
in all honesty that felt them to be
call of greeting to you rather than
to me.
II did not feel that the greeting
was personal. I had in my heart
the evercrowding pride of being your
representative and Of receiving the
plaudites of men everywhere who
felt that your hearts beat with
theirs in the cause of liberty. There
was no installing the tone in the
voices of those great crowds. 1t was
not a tone of mere greeting. it
was not a tone of mere generous
welcome; il was the calling of COM
rade to comrade, the cries that come
from men who say, We have waited
for this day when the friends of
liberty should come across the sea
and shake hands with us, to see that
a new world was constructed upon
a new basis and foundation of justice
and right
Il can't tell you the inspiration
that came from the sentiments that
come out Of those simple voices Of
the crowd And the proudest thing
have to report is that this great
country of ours is trusted through
out the world E.. .#...
HasiNo Report.
II have not come to report the
proceedings or the results of the
proceedings Of the peace conference;
that would be premature. | can say
that / received very happy inn
pressions from this conference; the
imression that while there are
many differences of judgment, while
there are some divergences of object,
there is nevertheless common spirit
and a common realization of the ne
cessity of setting up new standards
Of right in the world.
Because the men who are in con-
ference in Paris realize as keenly as
any American can realize that they
are not the masters of their people;
that they are the servants of their
people, and that the spirit of their
people has awakened to new pur-
pose and a new conception of their
power to realize that purpose, and
that no man dare go home from that
conference and report anything less
noble than was expected of it.
al THE conference seems to you to
go slowly; from day to day in Paris
it seems TO go slowly; but | wonder
if you realize the complexity of the
task which it has undertaken. 1t
seems as if the settlements of this
war affect, and affect directly, ev-
cry great. and I sometimes think
every small, nation in the world,
and no one decision can prudently
be made which is not properly
linked in with the great series OF
other decisions which must accom-
pany ii. And it must be reckoned
in with the final result if the real
quality and character of that result
is to be properly judged.
Hear Whole Case.
what we are doing is to hear
the whole case; hear it from the
mouths of the men most interested;
hear it from those who are officially
commissioned to state it; hear the
rival claims; hear the claims that
affect new natienalities. that affect
new areas Of the world, that affect
new commercial and economic con-
nections that have been established
by the great world war through
which we have gone And / have
been struck by the nloderateness OF
those who have represented nation
al claims. can testify that / have
nowhere seen the CLEAN Of passion
/ have seen earnestness, have
seen tears come to the eyes of men
who plead for downtrodden people
whom they are privileged to speak
for; but they were not the tears oil