Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1919-03-06

other in competitive interest. It is
impossible for men to forget those
sharp issues that were drawn between
them in times past. 1t is impossible
for men to believe that all ambitions
have all Of a sudden been foregone.
They remember territory that was
coveted; they remember rights that
it was attempted to extort; they re-
member political ambitions, which it
attempted to realize-and, while they
believe that men have come into a
different temper, they cannot forget
these things and SO they do not resort
to one another for a dispassionate
view OF the matters in controversy.
They resort to that nation which has
won the enviable distinction of being
regarded as the friend of mankind.
Occasion for Pride.
whenever it is desired to send a
small force Of soldiers to occupy a
piece Of territory where it is thought
nobody else will be welcome they ask
for American soldiers. And where
other soldiers would be looked upon
with suspicion and perhaps met with
resistance, the American soldier is
welcomed with acclaim.
Il have had so many grounds for
pride on the other side Of the water
that am very thankful that they are
not grounds for personal pride. I'd
be the. most stuck-up man in the
world. And it has been an infinite
pleasure to me to see those gallant
soldiers of ours, of whom the consti-
tuition of the United States made me
the proud commander. You may be
proud of the Twenty-sixth division,
but commanded the Twenty.sixth
division and see what they did under
my direction! And everybody praises
the American soldier with the feel
ing that in praising him he is sub
tracing from the credit of no one
else.
Verdict Quickly Reversed.
have been searching for the fun
damental fact that converted Europe
to believe in us. Before this war
Europe did not believe in us as she
does now. She did not believe in us
through the first three years of the
war. She seems really to have be-
lieved that we we're holding off be-
cause we thought we could make
more by staying out than by going
in. And all Of a sudden, in short
eighteen months, the whole verdict
is reversed. There can be but one
explanation for it. They saw what
we did-that without making a single
claim we put all our means at the
disposal OF those who were fighting
for their homes, in the first instance,
but for cause, the cause Of human
rights and justice, and that we went
in, not to support their national
claims, but to support the great cause
which they held in common.
"And when they saw that America
not only held ideals, but acted ideals,
they were converted to America and
became firm partisans of those ideals.
An Inning for the ldealist.
u met group Of scholars when
was in Paris some gentlemen from
one of the Greek universities who
had come to see me and In whose
presence, or rather in the presence Of
those traditions Of learning, / felt
very young indeed. told them that
/ had one Of the delightful revenges
that sometimes comes to man. All
my life I had heard men speak with
a sort OF condescension Of ideals and
of idealists, and particularly those
separated, enclostered persons whom
they choose to term academic, who
were in the habit of uttering ideals
in the tree atmosphere when they
clash with nobody in particular.
"And / said have had this sweet
revenge. Speaking with perfect
frankness in the name Of the people
Of the United States Z have uttered
as the objects of this great war ideals,
and nothing but ideals and the war
has been won by that inspiration.
Men were fighting with tense mus
Gle and lowered head until they came
to realize those things, feeling they
we're fighting for their lives and their
country, and when these accents Of
what it was all about reached them
from America they lifted their heads,
they raised their eyes to heaven,
when they saw men in khaki coming
across the sea in the spirit Of crusad-
ers, and they found that these men
were strange men, reckless of danger
not only, but reckless because they
seemed to see something that made
that danger worth while. Men have
testified to me in Europe that our men
were possessed Of something that
they could only call religious fer.
vor. They were not like any Of the
other soldiers. They had vision,
they had dream, and they were
fighting in the dream, and fighting in
the dream they turned the whole tide
of the battle, and it never came back.
Puts New Burden on Us.
"And now do you realize that this
confidence we have established
throughout the world imposes bur
den upon us-if you choose to call it
a burden. It is one of those burdens
which any nation ought to be proud
to carry. Any man who resists the
present tides that run in the world
will find himself thrown upon shore
so high and barren that 1t will seem
as il he had been separated from his
human kind forever.
America is the Hope Of the World.
"And now these ideals have
wrought this new magic, that all the
a L 3,