The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1919-02-28
PRESIDENT CHALLENGES CRITICS /.
TO TEST AMERICAN SENTIMENT

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member rights that 1t was attempted
to eXtort they remember political am
billions, which 1t was attempted to real
ize-and, while they believe that men
have come into different temper
they cannot forget these things, and
so they do not resort to one another
for Il dispassionate view of the mat
tcrs in controversy. They resort to
thar nation which has won the envi
able distinction of being regarded as
the friend of mankind.
Whenever it was desired to send a
small force of soldiers to occupy a
piece of territory where it is though.
nobody else will be welcome, they ask
for American soldiers. And where
other soldiers would be looked upon
with suspicion and perhaps meet with
resistance, the American soldier is
welcomed with acclaim. l have SO
many grounds for pride on the other
side of the water that am very thank
full that they are not grounds for per-
sonai pride.
And it has been an infinite pleasure
to me to see those gallant soldiers Of
ours, of whom the constitution of the
United States made me the proud COM
mander. You may be proud of the
Twenty-sixth division, but / command
the Twenty-sixth division, and see
what they did under my direction And
everybody praises the American SOL
der with the feeling that in praising
him, he is subtracting from the credit
of no one eles. -
America Acted Her Ideals.
Il have been searching for the fun
damental fact that converted Europe
to believe in us. Before the war Eu-
rope did not believe in us as she does
now. She did not believe in rs
throughout the first three years of the
war. She seems really to have be-
lieved that we were holding off be-
cause we thought we could make more
by staying out than by going in. And,
all of sudden. in a short eighteen
months, the whole verdict is reversed.
There can be but one explanation for
1t. They saw what we did-that with
out making a single claim, we put ali
our men and all our means at the dis
pOsal 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.
Fighting for Lives and Country.
Men were fighting with tense muscle
and lowered head until they came to
realize those things, feeling they were
fighting for their lives and their coun-
try, 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 crusaders, and they
found that these were strange men,
reckless of danger not only, but recx-
less because they seemed to see some
thing that made that danger worth
while.
Men have testified to me in Europe
that our men were possessed by some
thing that they could only call reli-
gious ferver. They were not like any
of the other soldiers. They had a |
visj0n, they had dream, and they |
were lighting in the dream, and, fight
Ing in the dream, they turned the |
whole tide Of battle and it never came |
BACK.
And now do you realize that this
confidence we have established |
throughout the world imposes bur-
len upon us-if you choose to call it
4 burden? 1t is one of those burdens
which any nation ought to be proud
70 carry. Any man who resists the
present tides that run in the world
will find himself thrown upon a shore
70 high and barren that it will seem as
f he had been separated from his hu-
nan kind forever.
Europe Continent Of Hope.
The Europe that left the other day
vas full of something that it had never
elt fill its heart SO full before, 1t
vas full Of hope. The Europe Of the
econd year of the war, the Europe Of
he third year of the war was sinking
0 sort of stubborn desperation. They
lid not see any great thing to be
chieved even when the war should De
Won. They hoped there would be some
alvage; they hoped that they could
lear their territories Of invading ar
MES; they hoped they could set up
heir homes and start their industries
fresh. But they thought 1t would {
imply be the resumption of the old 9
fe that Europe had led-led in fear, =
I'd in anxiety, led in constant suspr
ious watchfulness They never /
reamed' that 1t would be a Europe Of q
ettled peace and of justified hope. &
And now these ideals have wrought
his new magic, that all the peoples or
europe are buoyed up and confident in I
ne spirit Of hope, because they be- Il
eve that we are at the eve of a new \
&c In the world, when nations will {
nderstand one another, when nations q
ill support one another in every JUST
luse, when nations will unite every q
oral and every physical strength 10 t