, 1919-07-17

O@GS
back, back, were never to thrust sue
cessfullys forward again. And yet
there was no confident hope.
Anxious men and women, leading
spirits of France, attended the cele-
bration of the Fourth of July last year
in Paris out of generous courtesy
with no heart for festivity, little zest
of hope. But they came away with
something new at their hearts; they
have themselves told us so.
Tells Of Feeling Men Created.
The mere sight of our men-of their
vigor, of the confidence that showed
itself in every movement of their stall
a figures and every turn of their
swinging march, In their steady com
pretending eyes and easy discipline,
In the indomitable air that added
spirit to everything they did-made
everyone who saw them that memo
rable day realize that something had
happened that was much more than a
mere incident in the fighting, some
thing very different from the mere ar
rival of fresh troops.
A great moral force had flung itself
into the struggle. The fine physical
force Of those spirited men spoke of
something more than bodily vigor.
They carried the great ideals Of a
free people at their hearts and with
that vision were unconquerable. Their
very presence brought reinsurance;
their fighting made victory certain.
They were recognized as crusaders,
and as their thousands swelled to mil
lions their strength was seen to mean
salvation. And they were fit men to
carry such a hope and make good the
assurance 1t forecast. Finer men never
went into battle; and their officers
were worthy of them.
Comrades In Great Cause.
This is not the occasion upon which
to utter a eulogy of the armies Amer
lea sent to France, but perhaps, since I
am speaking of their mission, 1 may
speak also Of the pride I shared with
every American who saw or dealt with
them there. They were the sort of
men America would wish to be repre-
scented by, the sort Of men every Amer
lean would wish to claim as fellow
countrymen and comrades in a great
cause.
They were terrible in battle, and
gentle and helpful out of it, remember
ing the mothers and the sisters, the
wives and the little children at home.
They were free men under arms, not
forgetting their ideals of duty in the
midst of tasks of violence. l am proud
to have had the privilege of being as
ISOLATED with them and of calling my
self their leader.
Duty to Quiet Fears of World.
And the compulsion of what they
stood for was upon us who represent
ed America at the peace table. 1t was
our duty to see to 1t that every de-
cision we took part in contributed, so
far as we were able to influence 1t, to
quiet the fears and realize the hopes
Of the peoples who had been living in
that shadow, the nations that had
come by our assistance to their free
dom. 1t was our duty to do every
thing that it vas within our power to
do to make the triumph of fl eedom
and of right a lasting triumph in the
assurance of which men might every
where live without fear.
Old entanglements of every kind
stood in the way-promises which gov
ernments had made to one another in
the days when might and right were
confused and the power of the victor
was without restraint. Engagements
which contemplated any dispositions
Of territory, any extensions of SOW
e~reignty that might seem to be to the
interest of those who had the power
to insist upon them had been entered
into without thought of what the peo-
pies concerned might wish or profit
by; and these could not always be
honorably brushed aside. 1t was not
easy to graft the new order of ideas
on the old, and some of the fruits of
the grating may, 1 fear, for a time
be bitter.
Thrust Upon Conference.
These were not tasks which the
conference looked about to find and
went out of its way to perform. They
were inseparable from the settlements
Of peace. They were thrust upon it
by circumstances which could lot be
overlooked. The war had created
them. In all quarters of the world
old established relationships had been
disturbed or broken and affairs were
at loose ends, needing to be mended
or united again, but could not be made
what they were before. They had to
be set right by applying some uniform
principle Of Justice or enlightened ex-
pediency. And they could not be adj
justed by merely prescribing in a
treaty what should be done.
New states were to be set up which
could not hope to live through their
first period of weakness without as
sured support by the great nations
that had consented to their creation
and won for them their independence.