Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965, 1919-02-27

dress here Ia as follows:
Governor Coolidge, Mr.. Mayor,
Fellow Citizens: l wonder il you are
half as glad to see me as l am to see
you. It warns my heart to see
great body Of my fellow citizens
again. because in some respects dur
ing the recent months l have been
very lonely indeed without your COM
radeship and counsel. and I tried at
every step Of the work which fell to
me to recall what was sure would
be your counsel with regard to the
great matters which were under con-
sideration.
/ do not want you to think that
have not been appreciative of the ex-
traordinary reception which was CIV
en- to me on the other side, in saying
that it makes me very happy to get
home again. l do not mean to say
that l was not very deeply touched
by the cries that came from the great
crowds on the other side. But want
to say to you in all honesty that
felt them to be a call of greeting to
you rather than to me.
l did not feel that the greeting was
overcoming pride of being your
representative and Of receiving the
plaudits of men everywhere who felt
that your hearts beat with theirs in
those great crowds. 1t was not tone
of mere greeting; 1t was not tone Of
mere generous welcome; it was the
calling of comrade to comrade, the
cries that come from men who say,
I'VE have waited for this day when
the friends of liberty should come
across the sea and shake hands with
| us, to see that new world was con-
structed upon a new basis and 4
foundation of justice and right"
Inspired by Crowds Voices.
| can't tell you the Inspiration that
came from the sentiments that come
out Of those simple voices of the
crowd. And the proudest thing I have
to report to you is that this great
country of ours is trusted throughout
the world.
have not come to report the pro-
ceedings or the results of the pro-
ceedings Of the peace conference;
that would be premature. l can say
that have received very happy inn
| pressions from this conference 1.-The
impression that while there are many
differences Of judgment, while there
are some divergences Of object, there
is nevertheless a common spirit Ind
q 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, and that the spirit of their
people has awakened to new pur-
pose and a new conception of their
| power to realize that purpose, and
that no man dare 60 home from that
conference and report anything less
noble than was expected Of it.
Why Conference "Goes Slowly"
The conference seems to you to go
slowly; from day to day in Paris it
seems to go slowly; but wonder II
you realize the completely Of the task
which it has undertaken. 1t seems
as il the settlements of this war af-
feet, and affect directly, every great,
and I sometimes think every small,
nation in the world, and no one de-
cision can prudently be made which
is not properly linked with the great
series of other decisions which must
accompany it. And it must be reck-
oned in with the final result if the
real quality and character Of that re-
suit 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
claims; hear the claims that affect
new nationalities, that affect new
areas of the world, that affect new
commercial and economic connections
that have been established by the
| great world war through which we
have gone. And l have been struck
by the moderateness of those who
have represented rational claims. l
can testify that have nowhere seen
the CLEAN Of passion. I have seen
earnestness, have seen tears come
to the eyes Of men who pleaded for
down-trodden people whom they were
privileged to speak for; but they were
not the tears Of anguish; they were
the tears Of ardent hope.
| And I don't see how any man can
fail to have been subdued by these
pleas, subdued to the feeling that
he was not there to assert an indi-
vidual Judgment Of his own, but to
try to assist the cause Of humanity. Il
All Look to America.
i And N the midst of It all every
interest seeks oAt. frst Of all. when
LIZ reaches Paris. the representatives
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