Evening star., 1919-05-11
ON UNCHARTED SEA,
SAYS Mr.. WILSON
President Speaks of League
Task; Lauds Spirit
of America.
RECEIVES A GOLD MEDAL

PARIS. May 10.-President Wilson,
speaking at the session today of the
Academy of Moral and Political Sciences,
of which he was elected foreign asso-
ciate last years said that the United
States came into the war in the cause
Of liberty.
whenever we see the cause of liberty
imperiled.'' the President added, I'VE
are ready to cast our lot in common with
ened. That is the spirit of sthe people
of the United States"
The occasion of the Presidents s
speech was the presentation to him Of a
specially struck gold medal
President Wilson's Address.
President Wilson's address was as fol-
lows:
I've have illustrated in the spirit
of America something which per-
haps may serve as a partial guide
for the future. May I say that one
of the things that have disturbed me
in recent months is the unqualified
hope that men have entertained
everywhere of immediate emancipa-
ton from the things that have ham
pered them and oppressed them. You
cannot in human experience rush
the twilight into the broadening day
before the noon comes and the full
sun is on the landscape; and we must
see to it that those who hope are
not disappointed. by showing them
the processes by which hope must be
realized-processes Of law, processes
of slow disentanglement from the
many things that have bound us in
the past.
"Must Be Slowly Altered"
You cannot throw off the habits of
society Immediately any more than
you can throw off the habits of the
individual Immediately. They must
be slowly got rid of, or, rather, they
must be slowly altered They must
be slowly adapted; they must be
slowly shaped to the new ends for
which we would use them. That is
the process of law if law is inteIli-
gently conceived.
Il thought 1T privilege to come
here tonight, because your studies
were devoted to one of the things
which will be of most consequence
to men in the future-the intelligent
development of International law. In
one sense this great unprecedented
war was fought to give validity to
international law, to prove that II
had a reality which no nation could
afford to disregard: that while It did
not have the ordinary sanctions.
while there was no international au-
thority as yet to enforce it. it never
theless had something behind it
which was greater than that, the
moral rectitude of mankind.
IF we can now give to interna-
tional law the kind of vitality which
it can have only If 1t is a real ex-
preston Of our moral judgment, we
shall have completed in some sense
the work which this war was intended
to emphasize
international law has perhaps
sometimes been a little too much
thought out in the closet. Interna-
tional law has (may say It without
offense) been handled too exclusive
ly by lawyers. Lawyers like definite
lines. They like systematic arrange
| ments. They are uneasy II they de-
part fr2m what was done yesterday.
They dread experiments. They liked
charted seas. and II they have no
charts. hardly venture to undertake
the voyage.
Venture on Uncharted Seas.
Now We must venture upon un-
charted seas to some extent in the
future. In the new league of ma
| tions we are starting out on unchart-
ed seas. and therefore we must have
Will not say the audacity-the
| steadiness Of purpose which is neces.
| sary in such novel circumstances
And we must not be afraid of new
| things at the same time that we must
not be intolerant of old things We
must weave out of the old materials
the new garments which it is neces-
| sary that men should wear.
1T is a great privilege II We can
do that kind of thinking for man.
kind. Human thinking. thinking that
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