Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1919-02-26
LEAGUE Or REVOLT,
EUROPE'S PLIGHT,
DECLARES WILSON
President Says People Want Cow
enant and Must Have 1t.
LOOK TO TIE U. S. FOR HELP
Pictures the Tense Emotions of Dele.
gates Who, He Asserts, Are Alto
oether Without Untoward Pas
sons in Their Action To-
ward World Society.

ward World Society. ..
Mechanics Hall, Boston, Feb. 20
| President Wilson in his first speech
here on landing from France invited
| the critics of the league of nations
plan TO test the sentiment of Ameri
ca He spoke as follows:
Governor Coolidge, Mr.. Mayor
Fellow Citizens wonder if you are
half as glad to see me as | am to see
you. 1t warns my heart to see a great
body of my fellow citizens again, be
cause in some respects during the re-
cont months ! have been very lonely
indeed without your cOmradeship and
counsel, and l tried at every step OF
the work which fell to me to recall
what / was sure would he your coun
sci with regard to the great matters
which were under consideration.
Gives Credit to People.
81 do not want you to think that
have not been appreciative of the ex-
traordinary generous reception which
was given to me on the other side in
saying that it makes me very happy
to get home again.
Il have not come to report the pro-
cceuings or the results of the proceed
irgS of the peace conference; that
would be premature.
"Very Happy Impressions"
ann COW that boUa racoiyad vary
happy impressions from this confer
cnce; the impression that while there
gre many differences of judgment.
while there are some divergences of
object, there Is nevertheless common
spirit and common realization of the
necessity of setting up new standards
of right in the world. 'J5&-
THE conference seems to you to go
slowly; from day to day in Paris it
seems to go slowly; but L wonder If
you realize the cOmplexity of the task
which it has undertaken. 1t seems as
If the settlements of this war affect,
and affect directly, every great, and j
sometimes think every small nation in
the wCrld, and no one decision can
prudcntly be made which Is not prop
crly linked in with the great series
of other decisions which must accom-
pany it. And it must be reckoned in
iry and character of that result is to
be properly judged. ...
what we are doing is to hear the
whole case; hear it from the mouths
of the men most interested; hear it
from those who are officially commits
stoned to state it; hear the rival
claims hear the claims that affect new
nationalities, that affect new areas of
the world, that affect new commercial
and economic connections that have
been established by the great world
war through which we have gone.
PASSIONS CLEAN Absent.
sand have been struck by the mod
erateness of those who have represent
ed national claims. / can testify that
i have nowhere seen the CLEAN of pas
sion. / have seen earnestness. | have
seen tears come to the eyes Of men
who plead for dOwntrOdden people
whom they were privileged to speak
for, but they were not the tears Of an
guish; they were the tears of ardent
hope. ...
And ] don't see how any man can
fail to have been subdued by these
pleas, subdued to this feeling that he
was not there to assert an individual
judgment of his own, but to try to as
sist the cause of humanity.
And in the midst of it all every in
'terest seeks out first of all, when it
reaches Paris, the representatives of
the United States. Why? Because-and
/ think I am stating the most wonder
full fact in hiStory-because there is no
nation in Europe that suspects the mo-
ttves of the United States.
"Was there ever 30 wonderful a
thing seen before? Was there ever so
moving a thing? Was there ever any
fact that so bound the nation that had
won that esteem forever to deserve it?
ut is impossible for men to believe
that all ambitions have all of a sud-
den been fOregone. They remember
territory that was coveted; they re-
member rights that ii was attempted
to eXtort; they remember political am
billions which it was attempted to re.
alize-and, while they believe that
men have come into different tenn
per, they cannot forget these things.
And so they do not resort to one an
other for Il dispassionate view OF the
matters in controversy.
Come to Markings Friend.
"They resort to that nation which
won the enviable distinction of being
regarded as the friend Of mankind.
whenever IL Is desired to send .
small force of soldiers to occupy a
piece Of territory where 1t is thought
nobody else will be welcome, they ash,
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.
II have had SO many grounds for