The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-03-05
TEXT OF THE PRESIDENTS SPEECH

be soon.
 The first thing that I am going to tell the peo- pie on the other side of whelmng majority of the American people is in fla true; I have had unmistakable inti1nations of it from all parts of the country, and the voice rings true in every case. I myself fortunate to speak here under the unusual circumstances of this evening I am happy to associate myself with MT Taft in this great cause. He has displayed an ele- walton of view and a devotion to public duty which beyond praise.
 And I the more happy because this means that this is not party issue. No party has the right to appropriate this issue, and no party will
 We have listened to clear admirable exposition many the main features of the posed covenant of the League of Nations that it IS perhaps necessary for to discuss in par ticuIar way the contents of the document. will seek rather to give you it's setting I do not know when I been more impressed than by the con ferences of the commission set up by the Confer ence of Peace to up q covenant for the League of Nations. The representatives of fourteen nations sata around that board-not young men, in experienced in the affairs of countries, not men inexperienced in the politics world the inspiring influence of every meeting was the concurrence of purpose on the part Of all those working agreement with regard to this League of the civilized world.
 There was a conviction n whole impulse; there was conviction o than there the conviction that this thing ought to be done, and there also the conviction that not a man there would venture to go home and say that he
 Need to Watch Intrigue
 MT Taft has set the picture for you of what a failure of this great purpose would mean. We have been hearing for all these weary months that this agony of has lasted of the sinister pur-
 
 maps of the course that they meant thelr con quests take. Where did the lines of that map lie of that central line that we used to call from Bremen Bagdad? They lay through these regions which MT Taft has called attention, Austro- Hungarian Empire, whose integrity Ger many bound to respect, as her ally lay in the path of that line of conquest, the Turkish Empire, whose interests she professed to. make her own, lay in the direct path that she intended to tread. And what has happened? The Austro-Hun- FnDire has 6fsapDeared and the nations that eff a eration-are responsible the trustees of the assets of those great nations, You not only would have weak nations lying n path, but you would have nations in which that old poisonous seed of intrigue could be planted with the certainty that the crop would be abundant; and one of the things that the League of Nations is intended to watch is the course of intrigue. Intrigue cannot stand publicity and if the League of Nations nothing but a great debating society it would kill
 It is one of the agEeenents of this covenant Der of the League to call attention to anything that it thinks will disturb the peace of the world, subject that may touch the peace of the world which Is exempt from inquiry and discussion, and that Germany would never have gone to war if she had permitted the world discuss the aggres- Foreign Office suggested, it pleaded that there might be day two delay that the represen- tatves of the nations of Europe could get together and discuss the possibilities of settlement many did not dare permit a days discussion You what happened. So soon as the world realiz- ed that outlaw at large, the nations began by to draw together against her. know for a certainty that if Germany had thought moment that Great Britain would in with France and with Russia she never would have undertaken the enterprise and the League Nations is meant as notice to all outlaw nations that not only Great Britain but the United States and the rest of the world will in to stop enterprises of sort And so the League of Nations is nothing more nor less than the covenant that the world will always maintain the standards which 1t has vindicated by some of the most precious blood spilled.
 The liberated peoples of the Hun garian Empire and of the Turkish Empire call out to us for this thing. It has not arisen council of statesmen Europe Is q bit sick at heart at this moment, because it sees that statesmen have had vision, and that the only vision has been the vision or the people. Ihose Who suffer see Those against whom wrong is wrought know how desirable is the right and the righteous The nations that have long been under the heel of the Austrian. long covered before the German. that have long qeneratia1 f t3s4fce sor ,f,ee+, f ron - ah,e and Cabinet in the world has heard them. men and women have poured out their traasnre in order relieve these sufferings; but nation said to the nations responsible, You must stop; thing intoIerabIe and we will not permit it." And the vision been with the people My friend, wish you would reflect upon proposI- ton The vision to what Is necessary for forms has seldom from the top of the world. the need and the aspiration and the se-assertion of great bodies of men who meant to be free. And can explain of the criticisms which Ieveled against this great enterprise only by the supposton that the men who utter the criticisms have never felt the great pulse of the heart of the world.
 Amazed at Ignorance of Opponents
 And am amazed-not alarmed, but amazed prehensive ignorance of the state of the world These gentlemen do not know what the mind of men is just Everybody else does. I do not know where they have been closeted know by what influences they have been blinded; I 10 know that they have been separated eral currents of the thought of mankind
 And I want utter this solemn warning, not in the way of threat; the forces world do not threaten, they operate The great tides world do not give notice that they going to rise and they rise in their majesty and overwhelmng might and those who stand in the way whelned. Now the world is awake and the heart of the world be Do not let yourselves suppose for a the uneasiness in the populations of Europe is due en- trely 10 economic causes economic motives; something very much deeper underlies all than that. They that their governments have never been able defend against intrigue aggres-