Williston graphic., 1919-02-27

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midst OF 1t all every Interest seeks
out first of all, when 1t reaches Paris,
the representatives Of the United
States. Why? Because, and think I
am stating the most wonderful fact in
history-because there is no nation In
Europe that suspects the motives Of
the United States. ~. ..t
have had SO many grounds for
pride on the other side Of the water
that I am very thankful that they are
not grounds for personal pride. I'd
be the most stuckup man in the world.
And 1t has been an infinite pleasure
to me to see those gallant soldiers of
ours, of whom the Constitution Of tho
United States made me proud COM
mander. You may be proud Of tho
Twenty-sixth division, but command.
ed the Twenty-sixth division, and see
what they did under my direction!
And everybody praises the American
soldier with the feeling that in prais.
ing him he Is substracting from the
credit of no one else
Looks for Fundamental Fact.
have been searching for the funda-
believe in US. Before this 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 short 18
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 home, 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
support the great cause which they
held in common.
And when they saw that America not
only held her ideals, but acted ideals,
they were converted to America and
became firm partisans of those ideals.
And l said l have had this sweet
revenge. Speaking with perfect frank
ness in the name of the people of the
United States l 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 real.
ize those things, feeling they were
fighting for their lives and their coun-
try, and when these accents Of what
it was all about reached them from
America they lifted their heads, they
raised their eyes to Heaven, when they
saw men in khaki coming across the
sea in the spirit of crusaders, and they
found that these were strange men,
reckless of danger not only, but reck-
less because they seemed to see some
thing that made that danger worth
while. Men have testified to me in
Europe that our men were possessed
by something that they could only
call religious fervor. They were not
like any of the other soldiers. They
had vision. They had dream, and
they were fighting in the dream, and,
fighting in the dream, they turned the
whole tide Of battle and it never came
back.
Confidence In America.
And now do you realize that this
confidence we have esta blished
throughout the world imposes burden
upon us|if you choose to call it
burden? It is one Of those burdens
which any nation ought to be proud
to carry. Any man who resists the
present tides that run in the world will
find himself thrown upon a shore so
high and barren that it will seem az
If he had been separated from his
human kind forever.
And now these ideals have wrought
this new magic, that all the peoples
of Europe are buoyed up and confident
in the spirit of hope, because they be-
lieve that we are at the eve of a new
age in the world when nations will
understand one another, when nations
will support one another in every just
cause, when nations will unite every
moral and every physical strength to
see that the right shall prevail.
America Hope Of World.
II America were at this junction to
fail the world, what would come of It?
I do not mean any disrespect to any
other great people when l say that
America is the hope of the world; and
If she does not justify that hope the
results are unthinkable. Men will be
thrown back upon the bitterness Of
disappointment not only, but the Bit
terness Of despair. All nations will be
set up as hostile camps again; the
men at the Peace conference will go
home with their heads upon their
breasts, knowing that they have failed
for they were hidden not to come
home from there until they did some
thing more than sign treaty Of peace.
Suppose We sign the treaty of peace
and that it is the most satisfactory
treaty of peace that the confusing ele.
ments of the modern world will afford
and go home and think about our la.
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