, 1919-03-06
MUST LET The
PEOPLE DECIDE
OPINION OF ALL AMERICA WILL
BE HEARD IN DECISION
ON PEACE LEAGUE.
ALL FRIENDLY TO U. S.
WILSON DELIVERS SPEECH AT
MECHANICS HALL IN BOSTON
TO BIG CROWD.
western Newspaper Union News Service

Western Newspaper Union News Service
Boston, Feb. 24.-President Wilson
made the following speech at Mechan-
les Hall in Boston, after landing from
his trip back from Europe.
Governor Coolidge. Mr.. Mayor. Fell
low Citizens:
81 wonder If you are half as glad to
see me as l am to see you. 1t warns
my heart to see a great body OF my rel
low citizens again, because in some re-
spects during the recent months L have
been lonely indeed without your com
radeship and counsel and 1 tried at ev-
cry step of the work which fell to me
\ to recall what l was sure would be
your counsel with regard to the great
matters which were under considera-
tion.
IT do not want you to to think that
I have not been appreciatYSe of the ex-
t~raordinary generous reception which
was given to me on the other side. in
aying that 1t makes me very happy to
get home again. 1 do not mean to say
the cries that came from the great
crowds on the other side. But l want
to say to you in all honesty that l felt
them to be a call of greeting to you.
rather than to me.
st did not feel hat the greeting was
personal. 1 had in my heart the over
browning pride of being your repre-
sentative, and Of receiving the plaudits
OF men everywhere who felt that your
hearts beat with theirs in the cause of
liberty.
There was no installing the tone in
h voices of those great crowds. 1t
was not a tone of mere greeting, 1t was
not n tone of mere generous welcome,
It was the calling OF comrade to COM
rade, the cry that comes from men who
say. We have waited for this day when
the friends of liberty. should come
across the sea and shake hands with
US. to see that a new world was con-
tructed upon q new basis and founda-
ton of Justice and right
II can't tell you the inspiration that
out of those simple voices in the
crowds. And the proudest thing 1 have
to report to on you Is tIus that tS snis great
the world.
II have not come to report the pro-
ceedings or the results of the proceed
would be premature. I can say that
have received very happy Impression
from this conference.-the impression
that, while there are many differences
of judgment, while there are some d.
vergencies of object, there is. never
theless. a common spirit and a common
realization of the necessity of setting
UP new standards Of right in the world
Because the men who are in con
lean can realize that they are not tn
masters Of their people. thai they ar
the servants of their people. and tina
to a new purpose and q new conception
of their power to realize that purpose
and that no man dare go home from
hat conference and report anything
less noble than was expected of 1t.
The conference seems to you to e.
s ssems to from S9 s day to S aay in wd paIis |
you realize the complexity of the tasl
which it has undertaken. 1t seems a.
If the settlements of this war affect
and affect directly. every great-and
I sometimes think. every small-natioI
in h world. and no one decision car
no Nnn1A rHNoh a.. ~Nf IL
in with the great series of other deci'
sions which must 1t. and 4
must be reckoned on with the final re-
suit; If the real quality and character
of that result is to be properly Judged
What we are doing is to hear thu
of the men most Interested: hear il
stoned to state it: hear the riva
nationalities, that affect new area.
of the world. that affect new com.
mercial and economic connections thai
have been established by the great
world war through which we have
And I have been struck by the mod.
erateness of those who ave presented
national claims. I can testify that
believe I have nowhere seen the CLEAN
/ have seen tears come to the eyes q
men who pied for down-trodden PEG.
pies whom they were privileged tc
OF anger. they were the tears of ar.
II don't see how any man can fai
to have been by these pleas
subdued to this feeling, that he wa.
ment of his own. but to try to assist
the cause of humanity.
And in the midst of It all every in.
terest seeks out. first of all. when II
reaches, Paris. the representatives OF
and / think I am stating the most won.
derful fact in history-because there
a. No nnftnr t- T,trNnA that un.
the motives of the United States.
was there ever so wonderful @
so moving a thinga Was there ever
had won that esteem forever to de-
II would not have you understand
that the great men who represent the
other nations there in conference are
disesteemed by those who know them.
stand the countries of Europe have
again and again clashed with one an
other in competitive interests. It is
impossible for men to forget the sharp
issues that were drawn betwee them
in past times.
at is impossible for men to believe
that all ambitions have all OF a sud
den been foregone. They remember
territory that was coveted; they re-
member rights that IL was attempted
to extort; they remember political am
billions which II was attempted to real
ize. and while they believe that men
nave come into a different temper. the
cannot forget these things and so they
do not resort to one another for a dis
passionate view of the matters in con-
troversy. They resort to that nation
which has won the enviable distinction