The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-07-11
The Presidents Address To The
 Senate esterday Afternoon
disinterested

were welcomed as disinterested friends. We were resorted to as ar
 It was recognized that our mater ial aid would be indispensable in the, days to come when industry andi credit would have to be brought back to their normal operation again and communities beaten to the ground assisted to their feet once more, and it was taken for granted, I am proud to say, that we would play the help full friend in these things as in all others without prejudice or favor. We were generously accepted as the un- affected champions of what was right
 It was a very responsible role to play; but I am happy to report that the fine group of Americans, who helped with their expert advice in each part of the varied settlements sought in every transaction to justify the high confidence reposed in them. And that confidence, it seems to me, is the measure of our opportun- ity and of our duty in the days to | come, in which the new hope of the peoples of the world is to be fulfill ed or disappointed. The fact that America is the friend of the nations, | whether they be rivals or associates, l is no new fact; it is only the discov- l cry of it by the rest of the world that | is new.
 | America may be said to have just | reached her majority as a world | power It was almost exactly 21 years ago that the results of the war l with Spain put us unexpectedly in | possession of rich islands on the other l side of the world and brought us into | association with other governments in the control of the West Indies.
 It was regarded as a sinister and ominous thing by the statesmen of more than one European Chancel1ery
 that we should have extended our l power beyond the confines of our
 continental domintons. They were accustomed to think of new neigh l bors as a new menace, of rivals as | watchful enemies.
 | There were persons amongst us at | home who looked with deep disap- proval and avowed anxiety on such l extensions of our national authority | over distant islands and over peoples whom they feared we might exploit, not serve and assist. But we have not | exploited them. We have been their | friends and have sought to serve them. And our dominion has been a. menace to no other nation. We re- deemed our honor to the utmost in our dealings with Cuba. She is weak but absolutely free, and it is her trust in us that makes her free.
 ] Can We Refuse Moral Leadership? Weak peoples everywhere stand ready to give us any authority among
 them that will assure them a like friendly oversight and direction. They know that there is no ground for in receiving us as their mentors and guides.
 Our isolation was ended 20 years
 also, our counsel and association
 sought after and desired. There can
 be no question of our ceasing to be
 a world power. The only question is } whether we can refuse the moral
 leadership that is offered us, whether
 we shall accept or reject the confi-
 dence of the world.
 The war and the conference of
 peace. now sitting in Paris, seem to
 me to have answered that question.
 Our participation in the war estab-
 lished our position among the na-
 tions, and nothing but our own mis- | taken action can alter it. It was not
 an accident or a matter of sudden
 choice that we are no longer isolated
 and devoted to a policy which has
 only our own interest and advantage | TOT its object. It was our duty to go
 in, if we were, indeed, the cham | pions of liberty and of right.
 | We answered to the call of duty
 in way so spirited, so utterly with | out thought of what we spent of | blood or treasure, so effective so l worthy of the admiration of true | men everywhere, so wrought out of
 the stuff of all that was heroic that
 the whole world saw at last, in the 1 flesh, in noble action, a great ideal
 asserted and vindicated by a nation
 they had deemed material and now | found to be compact of the spiritual 1 forces that must free men of every na- | tion from every unworthy bondage.
 It is thus that new role and a new
 responsibility have come to this great
 nation that we honor and which we
 would all wish to lift to yet higher
 levels of service and achievement. The stage is set, the destiny, dis
 closed. It has come about by no plan
 of our conceiving. but by the hand
 of God. who led us into this way. We
 cannot turn back. We can only go l forward. with lifted eyes and fresh l ened spirit, to follow the vision. It
 was of this that we dreamed at our
 birth. America shall in truth show
 the way. The light streams upon tba. ! path ahead, and nowhere else.