Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-02-25

10 see you. 1t warns my heart to
see a great body of my fellow cit
liens again, because in some re-
spects during the recent months l
have been very lonely indeed with
out your comradeship and coun-
sci, and l tried at every step of the
work which fell to me to recall
what l was sure would be your
counsel with regard to the great
matters which were under con-
sideration
q do not want you to think that
I have not been appreciatlve of the
extraordinarily generous reception
which was given to me on the
other side in saying that it makes
me happy to get home again.
do not mean to say that l was not
deeply touched by the cries that
came from the great crowds on the
~other side But 1 want to say to
you in all honesty that l felt them
to be a call Of greeting to you
rather than to me.
Greeting Not Personal.
81 did not feel that the greeting
was personal 1 had in my heart
the overgrowing pride of being
your representative and of receiv-
ing the plaudits of men everywhere
who felt that your hearts beat with
theirs in the cause of liberty.
There was no mistaking the
tone in the voices of those great
crowds. 1t was not a tone of mere
greeting, it was not a tone of mere
generous welcome; it was the call
ing of cOmrade to comrade-the
cries that come from men who
say: We have waited for this day
when the friends of liberty should
come across the sea and shake
hands with US, to see that a new
world was constructed upon a new
basis and foundation of justice and
right
Il can't tell you the inspiration
that came from the sentiments
: Of those simple voices of
The crowd. And the proudest thing
/ have to report to you is that this
great country of ours Is trusted
throughout the world.
New Standards of Right.
7 have not come to report the
proceedings or the results of the
proceedings of the peace confer
/
can say that 1 have received very
happy impressions that while
there are many differences of judg-
ment, while there are some diverg-
ences Of object, there is neVerthe-
less a common spirit and a com
mon realization of the necessity of
setting up new standards of right
in the world.
Because the men who are in
conference in Paris realize as
keenly as any American can real
ize that they are not the masters
of their people; that they are the
servants of the people and that the
spirit of their people has awakened
to a new purpose and a new con-
ception of their power to realize
that purpose, and that no man
dare go home from that conference
and report anything less noble
than was expected of it
Conference Goes Slowly,
"The conference seems to you to
go slowly; from day to day in
Paris it seems to go slowly: but 1
wonder if you realize the complex
.<fty of the task which it has under
taken.
1T seems as II the settlements of
this war affect, and affect directly.
every great, and 1 sometimes think
every small, nation in the world.
and no one decision can prudentlv
ne made which is not properly
linked in with the great series OF
other decisions which must accom-
pany it And it must be reckOned
in with the final result if the real
quality and character Of that re-
suit is to be properly judged.
What we are doing is to hear
the whole case; hear it from the
mouths Of the men most inter
ested: hear it from those who are
othc1ally commissioned to state it:
hear the rival claims; hear the
claims that affect new national
tiles, 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.
No Display of Passion.
And l have been struck by the
indebtedness of those who have
represented national claims. / can
testify that l have nowhere seen the
CLEAN of passion. / have seen car
nestness, L have seen tears come to
the eyes of men who pleaded for
doWntTodden people whom they
we're privileged to speak for; but
they were not the tears of anguish:
they were the tears of ardent hope.
And I 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 assist the case of humanity.
Come to e. S. First
And in the midst of it all every
interest seeks out first of all, when
it reaches Paris, the representa-
tfves of the United States. Why.
bec>use-and l think l am stating
the most wonderful fact in history
because there is no nation in Eu-
rope that suspects the motives Of
the United States.
was there ever so wonderful a
thing seen before? Was there ever
so moving thing? Was there ever
any fact that so bound the nation
that had won that esteem forever
to deserve it?
Il would not have you under
stand that the great men who rep
resent the other nations there in |
conference are dis-esteemed bv
those who know them. Quite the /
contrary. But you understand that |
the nations of Europe have again |