The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1919-02-28

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 Anefi-
Ca" He spoke as follows:
Governor Coolidge, Mr.. Mayor.
Fellow Citizens wonder ii you are
half as glad to see me as | am TO see
you. 1t warns my heart to see great
body of my fellow citizens again, be-
cause i'm some respects during the re-
cent months | have been very lonely
indeed without your cQmradeship ana
COUNSEL, and | tried ut every step or
the work which fell TO me TO recali
what | was sure would be your coun-
sci with regard to the great matters
which were under consideration.
Gives Credit to People.
Il do not want you to think that /
have not been appreciative of the ex-
traOrdinary generous reception when
was given to me on the other side I'D
saying that it makes me very happy
to get home again.
81 do not mean to say that | was not
very deeply touched by the cries that
came from the great crowds on the
other side But l want TO say to you
in oil honesty that / felt them to be
a call of greeting to you rather than
TO me-
81 have not come to report the pro-
ceedings or the results of the proceed
- for
would be premature.
avery Happy Impressions"
81 can say that l have received very
happy impressions from this confer
ence; the impression that while there
ave 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.
Because the men who are in con-
ference In Paris realize as keenly as
any American can realize that they are
not the masters of their people; that
they are the servants of their people
awakened to a new purpose and new
conception 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
"The conference seems to you to 60
slowly; from day to day in Paris it
seems to go slowly; but / wonder If
you realize the complexity of the task
which it has undertaken. 1t seems as
II the settlements of this war affect,
and affect directly, every great, and
sometimes think every small nation In.
the world, and no one decision can
prudently be made which is not prop
erly linked in with the great series
OF other decisions which must accom-
pany 1t. And 1t must be reckOned in
with the final result if the real quail
ity 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
GAINS; hear the claims that affect new
natiOnalitieS, that affect new areas of
the orld, that affect new commercial
and economic connections that have
been established by the great world
war through which we have gone.
PASSIONS Clean Absent.
"And / have been struck by the mod
erateness of those who have represent
ed national claims. l can testify that
I have nowhere seen the CLEAN of pas
sion. / have seen earnestness. l 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.
land l 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 if
reaches Paris, the representatives of
the United States. Why? Because-and
I think / am stating the most wonder
full fact in histOry-because there is no
nation in Europe that suspects the mo-
tives of the United States.
"Was there ever so 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?
81 would not have you understand
that the great men who represent the
other nations there in conference are
disesteemed by those who know Them
Quite the contrary. But you under
stand that the nations of Europe have
again and again clashed with one ali
other in competitive interest It is i'm