The daily morning oasis., 1919-04-09
Of being regarded as the friend of

mankind.
small force of soldiers to occupy a
piece of territory. where it is thought
nobody else will be welcome, they ask
other soldiers would be looked upon
with suspicion and perhaps met with
resistance, the American soldiers are
welcomed with acclaim.
"I have had many grounds for
pride on the other side of the water
that 1 am very thankful that they
are not grounds for personal pride, but
for national pride; If they were
most stuckup man in the world. And
it has been an infinite pleasure to me
to see those gallant soldiers of ours,
of whom the constitution of the United
States made me the proud commander.
You may be proud of the Twenty
six division, but commanded the
Twenty-sixth division daughter and
applause), and see what they did un-
praises the American soldier with the
feeling that in praising him he is sub
tracing from the credit of no one else.
Il have been searching for the fun
damental fact that converted Europe
to believe in US. Before this war Eu-
rope did not believe in us as she does
now. She did not believe in us
throughout the first three years of the
lieved that we were holding off be-
cause we thought we could make more
by staying out than by going in. And
all of sudden, in q short eighteen
months, the whole verdict is reversed
There can be but one explanation for
it. They saw what we did-that with
out making a single claim we put all
our men and all our means at the dis
posal of those who were fighting for
their homes in the first instance. but
for a cause, the cause of human rights
and Justice, and that we went in, not
to support their national claims, but to
RTRaf which thew
held in common.
"And when they saw that America
not only held ideals. but acted ideals.
they were converted to America and
became firm partisans of those ideals.
II met a group of scholars when 1
was in Paris. Some gentlemen from
one Of the Greek universities who had
come to see me, and in whose pres
ence or rather in the presence o2
whose traditions of learning, | fe,3
very young indeed. And 1 told them
that I had had one of the delightful
revenges that sometimes come to a
man. All my life I have heard men
speak with a sort of condescension of
idealists and particularly of those sep
arate. incloistered persons whom they
chose to term academic, who were in
the habit of uttering ideals in the free
satmosphere when they clash with no.
body in particular.
And 1 have said have this sweet
revenge. Speaking with perfect frank
ness in the name of the United States
1 have uttered as the objects of this
great war, ideals and nothing but
ideals. and the war has been won by
that inspiration. Men were fighting
with tense muscle, and lowered head.
until they came to realize those things,
feeling they were fighting for their
lives and their country, and when
these accounts of what it was all about
reached them from America they lift
ed their heads. they raised their eyes
to heaven. then they saw men in
spirit of crusaders and they found that
those were strange men, reckless of
danger not only, but reckless because
they seemed to see something that
made danger worth while. Men have
testified to me in Europe that men
were possessed by something they
could only cali religious fervor They
were not like any of the other soldiers.
and they were fighting in the dream
and fighting in the dream they turned
the whole tide Of battle and it never
came back.
dence we have established throughout
the world imposes a burden upon us ?
If your choose to call 1t burden. 1t
is one of those burdens which any ma
tion ought to be proud to carry. Any
man who resists the present tides that
run in the world will find himself
thrown upon shore so high and bar
| rem that 1t will seem aseif he had been
| ever.
Il invite him to test the sentiments
of the nation. We set this nation up
! to make men free and we did not con-
| America.
Now" said the President, "this con-
| ference I'VE have established calls fo1
something. The Europe left was full
| of hope. The Europe of the third year
| of the war was sinking to stubborn
desperation. They thought the end OF
the war would eventually be resump-
| ton of the old order. They never
dreamed it would be a Europe of set
| tied peace.
Now all the peoples of Europe are
buoyed up in the hope that all the ma
moral and physical forces that right
| shall prevail. If America should fail
| the world of its hope, the nations will
be set UP as hostile camps again, and
the men at the peace conference will
! 80 home with their heads upon their
| breasts because they will have failed
We would leave on the peace table
| nothing but q modern scrap of paper
| Men, he declared, who would have
America fail the world in its hopes saw
only beyond the nearest horizon.
They do not know the sentiment OF
| America" he said.
| Speaking of hopes of the people OF
Europe for a lasting peace which he
| said were pinned to the United States
as the friend Of mankind" the Pres
|
'the verdict Of America in this matter
| than 1 have of the doubt of the blood
| that is in me-"
"The nations Of the world have set
their heads now to do a great thing
and they are not going to stop short
of their purpose" he said.
II do not speak of the governments
but of the peoples who will see that if
their present governments do not do
their will some others will. And the
secret is out and the present govern
ment knows it.
Il have come back for an attempt to
transact business for a little while in
America, but l say in all soberness
that / have been trying to speak your
| thoughts. Probing deep in my heart
and trying to see the things that are
| right rather than the things that are
| expedient, l am finding the heart OF
| America.
II find that in loving America 7 have
| Joined the majority of my fellow men
| throughout the world"
| U. S. Tonnage Big.
Washington.-Discussing the Amer
| ican merchant marine problem in the