The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1919-06-12

President EulOgizes American
Soldier Dead; Says League
Fruit of Sacrifice.
MUST PREVENT ANOTHER War
Views Foes of Society of Nations in
Same Light as Those Who op-
posed Union of North
and South.

and South.
Paris, May 31.-The text of the
memorial address of President Wilson
at Suresnes cemetery, is as follows:
Mr. Ambassador, Ladies and Gen
ltiemen, Fellow COuntrymen:
mo one with a heart in his, breast.
mo American, no lover of humanity,
can stand in the presence of these
graves without the most profound emo
ton. These men who lie here are
men of unique breed. Their like
mas not been seen since the days of
crusades.
Never before have men crossed the
seas to foreign land to fight for a
cause of humanity which they did not
pretend was particularly their own,
but knew was the cause of humanity
and OF mankind. And when they came
they found comrades for their courage
and their devotion. They found arm
les of liberty already in the field
men who, though they had gone
Through three years of fiery trial,
seemed only to be just discovering, not
for moment losing, the high temper
lof the great affair; men seasoned in
the bloody service of liberty. Joining
hands with these, the men of America
gave the greatest of all gifts-the gift
Iof life and the gift of spirit.
Praises Unflinchinq Courage.
1T will always be q treasured mem
lory on the part of those who knew and
loved these men that the testimony of
Everybody who saw them in the field
Iof action was their unfiinching cour-
ldacity, their full consciousness of the
hlgh cause they had come to serve and
their constant vision of the issue.
1T is delightful to learn from those
who saw these men fight and saw them
waiting in the trenches for a sum-
mons to the fight that they had a touch
of the high spirit of religion, that
they knew they were exhibiting a spir-
pit as well as a physical might, and
those of US who know and love Amer
hca know that they were discovering
ito the whole world the true spirit and
devOtiOn of their motherland. It was
America who came in the person of
these men and who will forever be
represented.
"And it is the more delightful to en-
ltertain these thoughts because we
know that these men, though buried in
Ia foreign land, are not buried in an
;alien soil. They are at home, sleep
ing with the spirits of those who
thought the same thoughts and enter
lfained the same aspirations. The no
tble women of Suresnes have given evil
.dence of the loving sense with which
they received these dead as their own,
for they have cared for their graves,
they have made it their interest. their
flowing interest, to see that there was
mo hour of neglect and that constant
lily through all the months that have
gone by the mothers at home should
know that there were mothers here
who remembered and honOred their
dead.
! you have just heard in the beauti-
full letter from III. CIemenceau what
II believe to be the real message of |
France to US on day like this, d mes
sage of genuine cOmradeship mes |
sage of genuine sympathy, and I have |
no doubt that if our British comrades |
were here they would speak in the !
same spirit and in the same language |
For the beauty of this war is that it
has brought new partnership and a |
NEW comradeship and a new under
standing into the field of the effort of
the nation.
Lesson Taught by Sacrifices.
F, "'But it would be no profit to rs to |
eulogize these illustriOus dead if we
did not take to heart the lesson which |
they have taught US. They are dead;
they have done their utmost to show |
their devotion to a great cause, and |
they have left US to see to it that |
that cause shall not be betrayed. |
whether in war or peace. 1t is our priv. |
flege and our high duty to consecrate |
ourselves afresh on a day like this to |
the objects for which they fought.
cit is not necessary that 1 should re-
hearse to you what these objects were. |
These men did not come across the sea
merely to defeat Germany and her as
ISOLATED powers in the war. They |
came to defeat forever the things for
which the central powers stood, the /
sort of power they meant to assert in
the world.
$50 It is our duty to take and main
tain the safeguards which will see to
It that the mothers of America and !
--~-e----.~~e-~-~--~S~-~