Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-02-28
PRESIDENT REPORTS TO PEOPLE
League of Nations Is an Accurate Summary of Amer
lean Ideals
lean Ideals
MIR. WILSON CONFIDENT OF PUBLIC APPROVAL
What the Great Charter Is and What It Means for HUI
manity-Is Willing to Submit the Plan OF Adopuon
to the Source That Made Its Creation Possible

l.
wonderful fact in history-because
there is no nation in Europe that sus-
poets the motives Of the United States
Was there ever so wonderful thing
seen before? Was there ever so NOV
ing a thing? Was there ever any fact
that so bound the nation to deserve 1t!
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 an
other in competitive interest. 1t is i'm
possible for men to forget those sharp
issues that were drawn between them
in times past. It Is impossible for men
to believe that all ambitions have all
of a sudden been foregone. They re-
member territory that was coveted;
they remember rights that 1t was at
tempted to extort; they remember po-
litical ambitions which it was attempt
ed to realize-and while they believe
that men have come into a differen,
temper they cannot forget these things
and so they do not resort to one anoth-
! er for a dispassionate view Of the mat
ters in controversy. They resort to
nation which has won the enviable dis
tinction of being regarded as the friend
of mankind.
Whenever it Is desired to send q
small force Of soldiers to occupy a
piece of territory where 1t is thought
nobody else will be welcome, they ask
for American soldiers. And where
other soldiers would be looked upon
with suspicion, and perhaps meet with
resistance, the American soldier is well
coined with acclaim.
Many Grounds for Pride.
have had so many grounds for
pride on the other side Of the water
that am very thankful that they are
not grounds for personal pride. I'd
be the most stuck-up man in the
world. And it has been an infinite
pleasure to me to see those gallant SOL
diers of ours, Of whom the constitution
Of the United States made me the
proud commando. You may be proud
Of the Twenty-sixth division, but
commanded the Twenty sixth division
and you see what they did under my
dire ction, and everybody praises the
American soldier with the feeling that
in praising him he is subtracting from
the credit of no one else.
have been searching for the funda-
mental fact that converted Europe to
believe In us. Before the war Europe
did not believe In us as she does now.
She did not believe in us throughout
the first three years of the war. She
seems really to have believed that we
were holding off because we thought
we could make more by staying out
than by going in. And all of sudden,
in a short eighteen months, the whole
verdict is reversed. There can be but
one explanation for 1t. They saw what
we did-that without making single
claim we put all our men and all our
means at the disposal Of those who
were fighting for tneir 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 ma
tional claims, but to support the great
cause which they held in common.
And when they saw that America not
only held ideals, ut acted ideals they
were converted to America and became
partisans Of those ideals.
/ Met Creek Scholars.
met a group Of scholars when
was in Paris-some gentlemen from
one Of the Greek universities who had
come to see, and in whose presence, OF
rather in the preSence Of whose tradi-
tions of learning, felt very young in
deed.
I told them that had one Of the de-
lightful revenges that sometimes comes
to a man. All my life I had hearc
men speak with a sort Of -condescen'
sion of ideals and of idealists, and par
ticularly of those separated, encloister'
ed horizons whom they choose to tern
academic, who were in the habit of ut
tering ideals in the free atmosphere
when they clash with nobody in par
ticular.
And I said have had this sweet re
venge. Speaking with perfect frank
ness, in the name of the people OF I'M
United States, have uttered as tn
objects Of this great war ideals, ant
, nothing but ideals, and the war ma
, been won by that inspiration. Mel
we're fighting with tense muscle AM
lowered head until they came to realiz
those things, feeling they were fightinl
for their lives and their country, AM
, when these aces rvs Of what it was al
> about reached LIEN from Americ'
they lifted their heads, they raise'
: their eyes to heaven. when they say
men in khaki coming across the sea il
, the spirit Of crusaders, and they foun'
{ that these were strange men, rockies
| of danger not only. but reckless be
e cause they seemed to see somethin
I that made that danger worth while
! Men have testified to me In Europ
: that our men were possessed by some
! thing that they could only call re
I Hgious fervor. They were not like an
: of the other soldiers. They had Wis
e ion, they had a dream, and they wer
nI ighting in the dream, they turned Tn
e whole tide of battle and it never cam
( back.
Tribute Of a Humorist.
One of our American humorist
meeting the criticism that America
soldiers were not trained long enough
said:
1T takes only half as long to tral
i an American soldier as any other, be
: cause you only have to train him on
way and he did only go one way, an
he never came back until he could d
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