The Marietta journal. (Marietta, Ga.) 1918-1944, 1919-02-28
WILSON'S SPEECH
Defends LEAGUE
PEOPLE OF EUROPE LOOK ON
!: UNITED STATES AS FRIEND
/ OF MANKIND" PRESi.
DENT wills SAYS

dent Wilson's address follows:
Governor Coolidge, MIR. Mayor, Eel
low Citizens: / wonder If you are half
as glad to see me as am to see you.
1t warns my heart to see great body
OF my fellow-citizens again, because in
Ssome 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.
81 do not want you to think that
have not been appreciative OF the ex-
Extraordinary generous reception which
was given to me on the other side,
i'm saying that it makes me very hap
10y 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 to say to you, in all hon.
esty, that / felt them to be a call OF
greeting to you rather than to me.
81 did not feel that the greeting was
personal. had in my heart the over
growing pride of being your repre-
sentative and of receiving the plaudits
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. 1t was not a tone of mere
GREETING It was not tone of mere
generous welcome; it was the calling
of comrade 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
new world was constructed upon q
new basis and foundation OF justice
and right
Il 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 i
have to report to you is that this
great country of ours is trusted
throughout the world.
"I have not come to report the pro-
.Ceedings of the peace conference be-
cause that would be premature. l
can say that have received very hap
nv impressions from this conference;
the impression that while there are
many differences of judgment, while
there are some EMERGENCIES or Cd
ject, there is nevertheless common
spirit and a common realization OF the
necessity of setting up new STANDARDS
of right in the world.
Because the men who are in confer
ence in Paris realize as keenly as
any American can realize that tney
are not the masters OF their people;
that they are the servants OF their
peoples, and that the spirit OF their
people hasSawakened to new purpose
and a 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 1t
s'The conference seems to you to go
slowly; from day to day in Paris IT
seems to go slowly, but l wonder II
you realize the completely OF the task
which it has undertaken. 1t seems as
if the settlements of this war affect,
and affect directly, every great, ana
sometimes think every small, ma
ton in the world, and no one decision
can prudently be made which is not
properly linked in with the great Sc
ries of other decisions which must
accompany 1t. And 1t must be reck-
oned in with the final result If 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 it from the mouths
of the men most interested; hear 1t
from those who are officially commits
stoned to state it; 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
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
Ak he ~
anguish, they were the tears of ar
dent hope.
"And l 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
Kiividual judgment of his own, but to
try to assist the case Of humanity.
And in the midst of 1t all every
Interest seeks out first of all, when
lit reaches Paris, the representatives
of the United States. Why? Because,
and think am stating the most won
derful fact in history-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 a
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 clashed with one an
other in competitive interest 1t is
impossible for men to forget those
sharp issues that were drawn by
them in times past. 1t is impossible
for men to believe that all ambitions
have all of sudden been foregone.
They remember territory that was
coveted: they remember rights that
it was attempted to extort: they re-
member political ambitions which it
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.
Whenever it is desired to send a
small force of soldiers 10 occupy a
niece of territory where ii is thought
@oLod,, oISa will he welcome thew ask