Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1919-03-12
PRESIDENTS BOSTON ADDRESS,

Ing the recent months | have been
very lonely indeed without your COM
radeship and counsel and | 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 con-
slderation. l do not want you to
| think that | have not been appreciat-
i've 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 crys 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
| did not feel that the greeting was
personal. had in my heart the ov-
ercrowning pride of being your rep
| resentative and of receiving the
plaudits of men everywhere who felt
that your hearts beat with theirs in
the cause of liberty. There was no
mistaking 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; it
was the calling of comrade to com
rade; the cries that some from men
who say, Eve have waited for this
day when the friends of liberty should
come across the sea and shake hands
with us, to see that new world was
| constructed upon a new basis and
foundation of justice and right"
| can't tell you the inspiration that
came from the sentiments that come
OF those simple voices of the crowd.
And the proudest thing l have to re-
port to you ours is trusted through
out the world
Greatly Impressed With Conference.
| have not come to report the pro-
ceed1ngs or the results of the pro-
ceedlngs of the peace conference:
that would be premature. | can say
that l have received very happy i'm
presslons from this conference; the
impression that, while there are
many differences of judgment, while
there are some EMERGENCIES of OBJ
Ject, there is nevertheless common
spirit and common realization of
the necessity of setting up new stand
ards of right in the world.
Because the men who are in the
conference in Paris realize as keen
ly as any American can realize that
they are not the masters of their peo-
pie; that they are the servants of
their people and that the spirit of
their people has awakened to a new
purpose, and that no man dare go
home from that conference and re-
port any thing less noble than was
expected of it.
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 affects directly every
great and l sometimes think, every
small nation in the world, and no one
decision can prudently be made which
is not properly linked with the great
accompany it and it must be reckon
ed in with the final result and the
real quality and character of that re-
suit is to be properly judged.
Entire Case Being Heard.
What we are doing is to hear the
whole case; hear it from the mouths
OL IllG Iu6Il u1OSL 1LIGIGSI6u, near IL
from those who are officially COM
missioned to state it; hear the rival
claims; hear the claims that affect
new nationalities, that affect new
areas of the world, that affect new
commercial and economic connections
that have been established by the
great world war through which we
have gone And I have been struck
by the moderateness of those who
have represented national claim. I can
testify that | have nowhere seen the
CLEAN of passion. | have seen earn
estness. | have seen tears come to
the eyes of men who plead for down.
trodden people whom they were priv
LEGGED to speak for, but they were not
the tears of anguish but they were
the tears of ardent hope.
And / don't see how any man can
fail to have been subdued by these
pleas, subdued to this feeling, that
he was not there to assert an indi-
vidual Judgment of his own, but to
try to assist the cause of humanity.
And in the midst of it all every in
terest seeks out first of all, when it
reaches Paris, the representatives of
the United States. Why? Because,
and 7 think 1 am stating the most
wonderful fact in history-because
there is no nation in Europe that sus
poets the motives of the United
States.
Was there ever so wonderful a
thing seen before? Was there ever
so moving a thing? Was there ever
amy fact that so bound the nation
that had won that esteem forever to
deserve it?
| would not have you understand
that the great men who represent the
other nations there in conference are
dis-esteemed by those who know
them. Quite to the contrary. But you
understand that the nations of Europe
have again and again clashed with
one another in competitive interest.
1t is impossible for men to forget
those sharp issues that were drawn
between them ia times past 1t is
impossible for men to believe that
all ambitions have all of a sudden
been foregone. They remember ter
ritory that was coveted; they remem
Der rights that it was attempted to