Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965, 1919-07-10
WILSON'S Home TALK
After Months Of Earnest and Arduous
Endeavor Overseas the President
Sets Foot on Native Soil.

II am not going to try this after
noon to make you real speech. am
bit alarmed to find how many
speeches l have in my system undeliv-
cred, but they are all speeches that
come from the mind, and want to
say to you this Afternoon only few
words from the heart.
"You have made me deeply happy
by the generous welcome you have
extended to me, but do not believe
that the welcome you extend to me
Is half as great as that which extend
to you. Why, ersey man though
am, this is the first time l ever
thought Hoboken was beautiful.
Most Homesiek Of All.
II have really, though l have tried
on the other side of the water to con-
ceal it, been the most homesick man
in the American expeditionary force
and it is with a feeling that it would
be In vain for me to try to express that
l find myself in this beloved country
again. l do not say that because
lack in admiration of other countries
There have been many things that
softened my inconsistencies. One of the
chief things that softened 1t was me
very generals welcome that they ex
tended to me as your representative
on the other side Of the water.
Il was welcome because they Kaf
seen with their own eyes what Amer
lea had done for the world. They had
deemed her selfish They had deemed
her devoted to material interests and
they had seen her boys come across
the water with a vision even moro
beautiful than that which they con
ceived when they had entertained
dreams of liberty and peace.
"And then l had the pride Of find
ing out by personal observation Of
the kind of men we had sent over.
had crossed the seas with the kind OF
men who had taken them over, with
out whom they could not have got tC
Europe, and then when I got there
I saw the army of men, that army Of
clean men, that army Of men devot
ed to the high interests of humanity
that army that one was glad to point
out and say-'There are my fellow
countrymen.'
But while these things in some
degree softened my inconsistencies
they made nTe all the more eager tt
get home, where the rest Of the folks
live; to get home where the great
dynamo Of national energy was stu
lated; to get home where the grea
purposes Of national action, wert
formed, and to be allowed to take par
! IN the counse1s and in the actions
which were formed, and to be taker
by this great nation which from frs
TO last has followed the vision of thu
men who set It up and created 1t: W.
have had our eyes very close upor
our tasks at times, but whenever we
lifted them, to distant horizon, We
were aware that all the peoples O
the earth had turned their faces to
ward us as those who were the friends
of freedom and Of right, and whenevel
we thought Of national policy and it
relation upon the affairs of the world
we knew we were under bonds to d.
the large thing and the right thing.
| "I wonder If at this distance yol
can have got any conception of thu
tragic intensity Of the feeling o
those peoples in Europe who hav'
just had yokes thrown off them.
"These Jokes have been thrown off
These peoples breathe the air ant
look around to see new day dawl
about them, and whenever they thin
OF what is going to fri that day wit
action, they think first OF us. The
think first of the friends who through
out the long years have spoken 70
them, who were privileged to declar
that they came into the war to re
lease them, who said that they woul
not make peace upon any other term
than their liberty, and they hav
known that Americas presence in tn
war and in the conference was tn
guarantee of the result.
/ 1.-THE governor has spoken of
great task ended. Yes, the formal;
ton Of the peace is ended, but it CT,
ated only new task just begun.
believe that if you will study tn
peace, you will see that It is a jus
peace and peace which, if it can b
preserved, will save the world frol
unnecessary bloodsned.
"And now the great task is to pr
serve it. have come back with N
heart full OF enthusiasm for throv
ing everything that can. by way
1 influence or action, in with you to Sc
that the peace is preserved, that whe
the long reckoning comes, men ms
look back upon this generation
America and say, They were trae
the vision which they saw at the
birth.