The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1919-03-08

that so bound the nation that had won
that esteem forever to deserve it?
What Men Think.
II would not have you understand the
great men who represent the other ma
tons there in conference are disesteemed
| by those who know them Quite the
contrary. But you understand that the
nations of Europe have again and again
clashed with one another in competitive
| inter st. 1t is Impossible for men to for
get these sharp issues that were drawn
| between them in times past. 1t is i'm
| possible for men to believe that all ambi-
| tons have all of a sudden been foregone
| They remember territory that was COW
| eted; they remember rights that 1t was
| attempted to extort; they remember po-
| litical ambitions which it was attempted
| to realiZe-and while they believe that
| men have come into different temper
they. can not forget these things, and so
| they do not resort to one another for
| a dispasSionate view of sSe matters IN
| controversy. They resort to that nation
| which has won the env>2Sle distinction
Of being regarded as the friend OF man
! kind
| Whenever it is desired to send a small
force of soldiers to occupy piece of ter
| ritory where it is thought nobody else
will be welcome they ask for American
| soldiers. And where other soldiers would
be looked upon with suspicion and per-
haps met with resistance, the American
soldier is welcomed with acclaim.
II have had so many grounds for pride
| on the other side of the water that l am
| very thankful that they are not grounds
| for personal pride. I'd be the most stuck
| up man in the world. And it has been
| an infinite pleasure to me to see those
gallant soldiers of ours, of whom the
constitution of the United States made
me the proud commander. You may be
proud of the Twenty sixth Division, but
1 commanded the Twenty-sixth DIVISION
and see what they did under my direc-
| ton. And everybody praises the Amerl-
can soldiers with the feeling that in
praising him he is subtracting from the
credit of none else. 1 have been search
| ing for the fundamental fact that con-
verted Europe to believe in us. Before
this war Europe did not believe in us
| as she does now. She did not believe
of the war. She seems really to have
believed that we were holding off be-
cause we could make more by staying
out than by going in. And all of a sud
whole verdict is reversed. There can be
but one explanation for it. They saw
what we did-that without making sin
gle claim we put all our men and all our
means at the disposal of those who were
fighting for their homes. 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.
Converted to America.
And when they saw that America not
only held ideals but acted ideals, they
were converted to America and became
firm partisans of those ideals
II met group of scholars when was
in Paris-some gentlemen from one of
the Greek universities who had come TO
see me, and in whose presence, or rather
in the presence of those traditions OF
learning, / felt very young indeed. /
told them that l had one of the delight
full revenges that some times comes to a
man. All my life l had heard men speak
with sort of condescension of ideals
and of idealists, and particularly those
separated, encloiStered persons whom
they choose to term academic, who were
in the habit of uttering ideals in the free
atmosphere when they clash with no
body in particular
And ] said I have had this sweet re-
venge. Speaking with perfect frankness
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 We're fighting with
tense muscle and lowered head until they
came to realize those things feeling they
were fighting for their lives and their
country, 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 reckless because
they seemed to see something that made
that danger worth while. Men have tes-
titled 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 a 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
Only Train One Way.
"One Of our American humorists. meet |
ing the criticism that American soldiers |
were not trained long enough. said:
'' 1T takes only half as long to train |
an American soldier as any other. be- |
way and he did only go one way and he |
never came back until he could do it |
when he pleased
'And now do you realize that this con- |
fidence we have established throughout |
the world imposes a burden upon us
if you choose to call it a burden? 1t is |
one of those burdens which any nation |
ought to be proud to carry. Any man |
the world will find himself thrown upon
a shore so high and barren that it will |
seem as if he had been separated from
his human kind forever
1.-The Europe that I left the other day.
was full of something that it had never
felt fill it's heart so full before. It was
full of hope. The Europe of the second |
year of the war, the Europe of the third
year of the war, was sinking to sort
of stubborn desperation. They did not |
see any great thing to be achieved even
when the war should be won. They
hoped there would be some salvage; they
hoped that they could clear their terri |
tories of invading armies; they hoped
they could set up their homes and start
their industries afresh But they |
thought it would be simply the resump-
ton of the old life that Europe had led
ed in fear. led in anxiety, led in con-
slant, suspicious watchfulness. They |
never dreamed that it would be a Eu-
'ope of settled peace and of justified
nope.
"And now these ideals have wrought |
his new magic, that all the peoples of
Europe are buoyed up and confident in
he spirit of hope, because they believe