The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1919-02-28
WILSON'S SPEECH
DEFENDS LEAGUE
PEOPLE OF EUROPE LOOK ON
UNITED STATES AS "FRlENo
OF MANKIND" PREsl.
DENT WILSON SAYS

GOYefnof Coolidge, Mr.. mayor, Eel
low Citizens: | wonder II you are half
as glad TO see me as / am to see you.
II warns my heart to see a great body
OF my fellow citizens again. because In
some respects during the recent
months / have been very lonely. in.
deed, without your cOmradeship and
counsel, and tried at every step OF
the work which fell to me to recall
what / was sure would be your coun-
sci with regard to the great matters
which are under consideration.
II do not want you to think that
have not been appreciatiye of the ex-
taroTdinary generous reception which
was given TO me on the other side,
In saying that Ii makes me very hap
py TO get home again. do not mean
TO say that ! was not very deeply
touched by the cries that came from
the great crowds on the other side.
But / want 10 say to you, in all hon.
greeting to you rather than to me.
Il did not feel that the greeting was
personal had in my heart the over
browning pride of being your repre-
sentative and OF receiving the plaudlts
of men everywhere who felt that your
hearts beat with theirs in the cause
of liberty. There were no mistaking
the tone of voices OF those great
crowds. IL was not a tone of mere
GREETING Il was not a tone OF mere
generous welcome: IL was the calling
OF ceinrade to cOmrade, the cries that
come 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 constructed upon a
new basis and foundation of Justice
and right
II can't tell you the inspiration that
came from the sentiments that come
out of those simple voices OF the
crowd. And the proudest things
have to report to you is that TINS
great country of ours is trusted
throughout the world,
II have not come to report the pro-
'ceedings of the peace conference be-
cause that would be premature. |
can say that have received very hap
DIV impressions from this conference;
the impression that while there are
many differences of judgment, while
there are some Emergencies OF OBJ
ject, there Is nevertheless a common
spirit and common realization OF the
necessity of setting up new standards
of right in the world.
ence in Paris realize as keenly as
any American can realize that they
are not the masters of their people;
that they are the servants OF their
peoples, and that the spirit of their
people has awakened to a new purpose
and new conception of their power
to realize that purpose, and that no
man dare go home from that confer
ence and report anything less noble
than was expected of it.
1.-THE conference seems to you to go
slowly: from day TO day in Paris i
seems to go slowly, but | wonder II
you realize the completely OF the task
which 1t has undertaken. 1t seems as
IL the settlements of this war affect.
and affect directly. every great, and
sometimes think every small, ma
ton in the world, and no one decision
can pIudently be made which is not
properly linked in with the great Sc
ries of other decisions which must
accompany II. And il must be reck-
oned in with the final result il the
real quality and character OF that re-
suit is to be properly judged.
what we are doing is to hear the
whole case; hear 1t from the mouths
of the men most interested; hear 1t
from those who are officially commits
stoned to state 1t; hear the rival
claims that affect new nationalities,
that affect new commercial and eco
nomic connections that have been es-
tablished by the great world war
through which we have gone And
have been struck by the moderateness
OF those who have represented ma,
tional claims. | can testify that
have nowhere seen the CLEAN of pas
sion. have seen earnestness, have
seen tears come to the eyes of men
who plead for down-trodden people
whom they were privileged to speak
for; but they were not the tears OF
anguish. they We're the tears OF ar
dent hope.
"And | do not see how any man
can fail to have been subdued by
these pleas, subdued to this feeling,
that he was not there TO assert an in
dividual Judgment OF his own, but to
try to assist the case of humanity.
And in the midst of IL all every
interest seeks out first OF ALL when
il reaches Paris. the representatives
OF the United States. Why? Because,
and think am stating the most won
derful fact in histoIy--because there
is no nation in history+-because there
Is no nation in Europe that suspects
the motives of the United States.
WAS there ever so wonderful
thing seen before? Was there ever so
moving a thing? Was there ever any
fact that so bound the nation that
lad won that esteem forever to de-
serve it?
Il would not have YOU understand
that the great men who represent the
ether nations there in conference are
diSesteemed by those who know them.
Quite the contrary. But you under
stand that the naions OF Europe have
again and again olashed with one an
other in competitive interest. Ii is
in. possible for men to forget those
sharp issues that were drawn by
them in times past. It is impossible
for men to believe that all ambitions
have all of a sudden been foregone.
They remember territory that was
coveted. they remember rights that
it was attempted TO extort; they. re
member political ambitions which 1t
WAS attempted to realize-and, while
they believe that men have come into
a different temper, they cannot forget
these things, and so they do not re-
sort to one another for a dispassion'
ate view of the matters in contro-
Versy.' They resort TO that nation
which has won the enviable distinction
of being regarded as the friend OF
mankind.
ssWheneyer 1t is desired to send a
small force of soldiers to occupy a
piece of territory where il is thought
nobody else will be welcome, they ask
for American soldiers. And where
other soldiers would be looked upon
with suspicion and perhaps met with
resistance, the American soldier is
welcomed with acclaim.
hauA had Gn MANY grounds for