The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1919-02-28

TIE HEHNy -HiAAH AANt1tNA 49,
zee what they did under my direction!
And everybody praises the American
soldier with the feeling that In prais'
Ing him he IL stlbtracting from the
credit OF no one else.
II have been searching for the fun
damental fact that converted Europe
20 believe In US. Before this war Eu'
rope did not believe In Us az she does
now. She did not believe in MS
throughout the first three years OF
the war. She seems really 10 have
believed that we were holding, of be-
cause we thOuhgt we could make more
by staying out than by going in, And
all OF a sudden, In a short eighteen
months. the whole verdict Is reversed.
There can be but one explanation for
H.. They saw what we did--that with
out making single claim we put all
our men and all our means al the dis
posal OF those who were fighting for
their homes, In the first instance, but
for O 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.
And when they saw that America
not only had ideals, but acted ideals,
they were converted to America and
became firm partisans OF these ideals.
IL 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 pres.
ence, or rather in the presence OF
those traditions of learning, ! felt very
young indeed | told them that
had one of the delightful reVenges
that sometimes comes to man. All
my life | had heard men speak with
sort of condescension of ideals and
OF idealists, enclOistered persons whom
they choose to term academic, who
were in the habit of uttering ideals
in the free atmosphere where they
clash with nobody in particular.
And | said | have had this sweet
revenge. Speaking with perfect frank
ness in the name of the people OF the
United States, | have uttered as the
objects OF this great war, ideals, and
nothing but ideals, and the war has
been won by that inspiration. Men
were fighting with tense muscle and
lowered head until they came to real
ize those things, feeling they were
fighting for their lives and their coun-
TRY, and when these accents OF what
il was all about reached them from
America, they lifted their heads, they
raised their eyes to heaven, when they
saw men in khokhi coming across the
sea in the spirit of the 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 testified to
me in Europe that our men were pos
sessed by something that they could
only call a religious feryor. They
were not like any OF the other sol
diers. They had a vision. they had a
dream, and were fig hitting in the dream,
and, fighting in the dream, they turned
the whole tide OF battle and 1t never
came back
"One of our American humorists,
meeting the criticism that American
soldiers were not trained long enough
said: 1T takes only half as long to
train an American soldier as any 9TH
er, because you only have to train him
to go one 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
confidence we have established
throughout the world imposes a bur
den upon us-if you choose to call It
burden It is one OF those burdens
which any nation ought to>be proud 10
Ally 1ildH " III kCoAolo' bhAS "a -
ent time that runs in the world will
find himself thrown upon shore so
high and barren that it will seem as
if ne had been separated from his hui
man kind forever.
1.-THE Europe that l left the other
day was full of something that it had
never felt fill its heart SO full before;
It was full of hope The Europe OF
the second year of the war, the Eu-
rope of the third year of the war, was
sinking to a sort of stubborn desper-
alton. 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 territories
of invading armies; they hoped they
could set up their homes and start
their industries afresh. But they
Thought II would simply be the resump-
ton of the old life that Europe had
led-led in fear, led in anxiety, led in
constant suspicious watchfulness. They
never dreamed that ii would be Eu-
rope Of settled peace and OF justified
hope.
aAnd now these ideals have wrought
this new magic, that all the peoples of
Europe are buoyed up and confident in
the spirit of hope. because they be-
lieye that we are at the eve of new
age in the world when nations will
understand one another, when ma
lions will support one another in ey-
cry Just cause, when nations viii unite
every moral and every physical
strength to see that the right shall
prevail
IF America were at this juncture
TO fail the world, what would come OF
itp I do not mean any disreSpect to
any other great people when | say
that America is the hope of the world,
and if she does not justify that hope
the results are unthinkable. Men will
he thrown back upon the bitterness OF
not only, but the bit
terness of despair. All nations will be
set IN as hostile camps against the
men at the peace conference Will go
home with their heads upon their
breasts. knowing that they have fail
ed ~ for they were hidden not to
come home from there until they did
something more than sign a treaty OF
peace.
Suppose we sign the treaty of peace
and that it is the most satisfactory
treaty of peace that the confusing ele-
ments of the modern world will afford
and go home and think about our Ia
bors: we will know that we have left
written upon the historic table at Yer
sailles, upon which Vergennes and
Reniamin Franklin wrote their names,
nothing but a modern scrap OF paper.
Nh nations united to defend 1t, no
great forces combined to make it good.
No assurance given to the down-trodJ
den and fearful people Of the world
that they shall be safe. Any man who
fhinLe that America will take part in