Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-09-10
President Speaks In St Paul
On Issues of True AmeriCanism

There can be only one ineligible
reason for America staying out of this,
and that is that she does not want
peace, h a she wants war some time
and the advantage which var will
bring to her, and 1 want to say now
and here that the men who think that
by hat thought they are interpreting
America, are making the sort of mis-
take upon which it would be useful
for them to reflect in obscurity for the
rest of their lives.
Heart Back Of U. S. Prestige.
1T isn't our intellectual capacity,
my fellow citizens, hat has given us
our place in the world, though l ate
that as high as the intellectual capac-
ity of any other people that ever lived,
but it is the heart that lies back of
the mind that makes America zap
plause). Ask this question to your
selves: l have no doubt this room is
full of mothers and fathers and wives
young men to France. what did you
send them there for? What made
you proud that they were going?
What made you willing that they
should go? Did you think they were
seeking to ~aggrandize America some
way? Did you think they were going
to take something for America that
belonged to somebody else? Did you
think they were going into a quarrel
which they had provoked and must
maintain? The question answer it.
self.
You were proud that they should
go because they were going on an err
rand of se~lf-sacrifice in the interests
of mankind; when these youngsters
grow old who have come back from
the fields of France, what a halo there
will be around their brows! Thy saw
ed the world. They are of the same
stuff as those old veterans of the Civil
a Now, mind you, I was born and
bred in the South, but I a pay that
tribute with all my heart to the men
who v the Union. 1t ought to have
been saved. 1t was the greatest that
men had conceived up to that time.
Pulse Beat When Dougnboys Marched.
II saw many fine sights in Paris,
many gallant sights, many sights that
quickened the pulse, but my pulse
never beat SO fast as when I saw
groups of q boys swinging along the
street. They looked as il they owned
something. and they did. They owned
thing that we are going to bring to
the others, They owned the ideals and
conceptions that will govern the world.
Il hear opponents of the League of
Nations say that this does not guar
antee peace. No, nothing guarantees
against human passion and error. But
l like to put this business proposition
to you-if it increases the prospect OF
peace by, let us say, ten per cent, don't
you think it worth while? (Yes! from
the audience; cheers). And, in my.
judgment, it increases it about 80 per
cent.
Nothing can be disturbed there,
in the League of Nations, that concerns
our domestic affairs, the domestic at
fairs of any people, unless something
Is occurring in some nation whic his
likely to disturb the peace Of the
world. And any time that any ques-
ton arises which is likely to disturb
the peace of the world, then the COW
enant makes it the right of any mem
Der. strong or weak, big or little, Of
that universal council Of nations, to
bring that matter up for Qualification
and discussion. Can you imagine any,
thing more calculated to put off war
and make it violently impossible?
Il suppose there Is intellectual ex-
citement In debate. but l do not exper-
fence any when great issues like this
are pending and / would be very sad
indeed II l did not have an absolutely
~unclothed confidence Of the result" 4