The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1919-03-06


ever
The Europe that I left the other
day was full Of something that never
! before filled its heart so full 1t was
full Of hope. The Europe Of the sec
ond year of the war, the Europe Of
the third year of the war, was sink
! ing to q sort of stubborn desperation
They did not see any great thing to
be achieved even when the war should
be won. They hoped there would be
some salvage; they hoped that they
could clear their territories of invad-
ing armies; they hoped they could set
up their homes and start their indus
tries afresh. But they thought it
would simply be the resumption Of the
old life that Europe had led-led in
fear, led in anxiety, led in constant
suspicious Hatchfulness. They never
dreamed that it would be Europe of
settled peace and of justified hope.
And now these ideals have wrought
this new magic, that all the people Of
Europe are buoyed up and confident
in the spirit of hope, because they be-
lieve that we are at the eve of a new
age in the world, when nations will
understand one another, when nations
will support one another in every just
cause, when nations will unite every
moral and every physical strength to
see that the right shall prevail.
Must Not Fail.
eff America were at this juncture to
fail the world, what would come of it =?
I do
other great people when 1 say that
America is the hope of the world, and
if she does not justify that hope the
results are unthinkable Men will be
thrown back upon the bitterness of
disappointment not only, but the bit
terness of despair All nations will
be set up as hostile camps again; the
men at the peace conference will go
home with their heads upon their
breasts, knowing that they have failed
for they were hidden not to come
home from there until they did some
thing more than sign a treaty of peace.
Suppose we sign the treaty of
peace, and that it is the most satisfac-
tory treaty of peace that the confus-
ing elements of the modern world will
afford, and go home and think about
our labors. We will know that we
have left written upon the historic
table at Versailles, upon which Yer
gennes and Benjamin Franklin wrote
their names, nothing but a modern
scrap of paper; no nations united to
defend it, no great forces combined to
make ii good, no assurance given to
the downtrOdden and fearful people of
the world that they shall be safe. Amy
man who thinks that America viii
take part in giving the world any such
rebuff and disappointment as that
does not know America.
q invite him to test the sentiments
Of the Nation. We set this up to make
men free and we did not conffne our
conception and purpose to America,
and now we will make men free. If we
did not do that the fame of America
would be gone and all her powers
would be dissipated. She then would
have to keep her power for those
narrow, selfish, provincial purposes
which seem so dear to some minds
that have no sweep beyond the nearest
horizon. l should welcome no sWeeter
challenge than that. 1 have fighting
blood in me and it is sometimes a de-
light to let it have scope, but if it is
challenge on this occasion it will be
an indulgence.
Must Protect Small Nations.
do you believe in the Polish cause.
as 1 do? Are you going to set I'D
Poland, immature inexperienced, as
yet unOrganized, and leave her with
a circle of armies around her? Do
you believe in the aspiration Of the
Czecho-SIoyaks and the Jugo-Slavs as
1 do? Do you know how many powers
would be quick to pounce upon, them
if there were not the guarantees OF
the world behind their liberty?
Have you thought OF the suffering
Of Armenia? You poured out your
money to help succor the Armenians
after they suffered; now set your
strength so that they shall never suf-
fer again.
"And so, my fellow citizens, I have
come back to report progress, and 1
do not believe that the progress is go
ing to stop short of the goal. The
nations of the world have set their
heads now to Go great thing, and
they are not going to slacken their
purposes. And when l speak of the
nations of the world do not speak Of
the governments of the world.
speak of the peoples who constitute
the nations of the world. They are in
the saddle and they are going to see
to it that if their present governments
do not do their will, some other gov
ernments shall. And the secret is out
and the present governments know it.
'T have come back from a strenuous
attempt to transact business for a
little while in America, but I have
really come back to say to you, in all
soberness and honesty, that l have
been trying my best to speak your
thoughts.
when I sample myself, think 1
find that am typical American. and
if 1 sample deep enough, and get down
to what is probably the true stuff of
a man, then I have hope that it is
part of the stuff that is like the other
fellows at home.
'And, therefore. probing deep in my