The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-05-12
WILL SON DISCLAIMS IDEA THAT
 AMERICANS ARE MATERIALISTIC
Says He Has Not Uttered Own Thoughts But Those of People He Represents Liberty Is Spirit of
 United States, He Asserts.

Paris. Saturday. May 1O-President' Wilson. in his address today to the French Academy of Moral and Po- itical Sciences, strongly disclaimed the idea that the American people were largely materialists, or dollar worshippers.
 'I have had in recent months one very deep sense of privilege" the President said. T have been keenly aware that there have been times when the peoples of Europe haven't Understood the people of the United States. We have been too often sup posed to have been devoted chiefly, if not entirely, to material enter prlses We have been supposed, in the common phrase, to worship the Almighty dollar.
 eve have accumulated wealth, sir: we have devoted ourselves to material enterprises with extraordi- nary success, but there has underlain all of that, all the time, a common sense of humanity and a common sympathy with the high principles or justice, which has never grown dim in the field even. of enthusiasm; and it has been my very great privilege in these recent months to interpret the people of the United States to the people of the world
 ''T have not done more. sir, I have not uttered in my public capacity my own private thoughts. I have uttered what I have known be the thoughts of the great people whom l repre- sent. I have uttered the things that have been stored uD in their hearts and purpose from the time of our birth as a nation"
 It was at this point that the PTeSi- detn made his declaration that the American people who came into the world consecrated to liberty, were ready to cast in their lot in cmmon with the lot of those whose liberty is threatened whenever the cause of lio- erty was seen to he imperilled.
 This is the spirit of the people of the United States" he continued, and they have been privileged to send 100000 men over here to tell y7ou so. It has been their great privi- 1eee to tell you so fin words, but to tell you so in man and material---the pouring out of their wealth and The offering of their blood"
 President Wilson alluded to his studies in the field of political sci ences and the attempts he had made ito put in the words of learning the thought of nation, the attitude to- wards public affairs" He continued:
 "A great many of my colleagues in American university life got their training. even in political science. as so many men in civil circles did, in German universities. have been obliged at various times to read a great deal of bad German, difficult German, awkward German. and l have been aware that the thought was as awkward as the phrase, that the thought was rooted in a funda- mental misconception of the state and of the political life of peoples And it has been a portion of my effort to disengage the thought of American university teachers from this mis- guided instruction which they receiv- ed on this side of the sea. Their American spirit animated most of them, as a matter of course, but the form of the thought sometimes miss led them. They speak too often of the state as a thing which would ig- nore the individual, as a thing which was privileged to dominate the for tune of men by a sort of inherent and sacred authority.
 Now, as an utter Democrat, I have never been able to accept that view of the state. My view of the state is that 1t must stop and listen IO "ueLl l nave IO say no HldllSE nOW humble am, and that each man has the right to have his voice heard and his counsel needed, insofar as it is worthy of him.
 T have always been among those who believe that the greatest freed o1n of speech was the greatest safety, be- cause if a man is a fool the best thing to do is to encourage him to adver- tise the fact by speaking. It cannot be so easily discovered if you allow him to remain silent and look wise, but if you let him speak, the secret is out and the world knows that he is a fool
 50 it is by the exposure of folly that it is defeated; not by the secIu- sion of folly. and in this free air of