Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-01-27
\ WILSON LAUDS
| FRENCH WOMEN
America Feels Closely Kin,
a President Assures
Suffragists
SEES GAIN FROM WAR
\ ,crnal Questions Not Matter
n = Decision at Peace Con-
.crence, However

Paris, Jan. 25 (delayed).-The text OF
President Wilson's address to delega'
tion rc, ,senting tho working women
of France. who called on him today at
the Murat mansion to urge that tho
\, Peace Conference include woman's sur
}frage among the points TO be settled by
the conference, follows:
'M lcm, 7clle Thompson and ladies':
r rju hive not only done mo great
i, onor. but you havo touched me very
I much by this unexpected tribute: ana
may 1 add that you have frightened
me, because, realizing tho great confi'
dence YOU place in me, am led to the
Eauc on of my own ability TO justify
d" confidence.
IA have not placed your conti.
Ience wrongly in my hopes and pur'
noses; but perhaps not all OF those
- pcs az ~urposcs can be realized in
- vat matter that you have so
mt 1t hext---tho right OF women to
take their full sharo in the political life
Of the nations to which they belong.
THAT is necessarily domestic question
for tho several nations. conference
OF peace settling lno relations or ma
4 tons II each other would be regard
cd as going very much outside Its
l. province il it undertook to dictate to
the several States what their Internal
policy should be.
" May Express Sentiments
"A, the same time these considera.
tions apply also TO tho conditions OF
labor; and 1t docs not seem to be uil'
likely that tho conference Will take
some action by way of expressing its
e,r-urrmen.s at any rate with regard 10
tho international aspects at least OF
labor and should hope that somo oc'
casion might 20 Offered for the case
not only of the women OF France, Dut
of their suppor' ers all over tho world:
TO be presented to the consideration OF
the conference.
"'The conference Is turning out TO be
n rather unwieldy body, u very large
body presenting a great many ma
tions, large and small, old and neW'
and the method of organizing its work
successfully, [ am afraid, viii have 10
pc worke out stage by stage. Thcre'
fore, | have no confident prediction TO
make as to the way in Wlich IL can
take up questions OF this sort.
But what / have most at heart to.
1ay is tc avail myself of this oppor'
tunity &c express my admiration Tor
the WON IN of France and my admira.
tion for The women OF all the nations
that hav, been engaged in the war.
BY the fortunes of this war the chief
burden las fallen upon the women or
Fraroe, and they have borne II with
sr rit and a devotion which has com.
IN, nded the admiration of the world.
:" do not think that the people of
Frai ce fully realize, perhaps, the in
tcn&iry Of the sympathy that other ma.
tions have felt for them. They think
of us n America, for example, as long
vlytf And we are In space, but we
that tho United States is made up
)natons of Europe: that French
sympathies run straight across the
seas, n,t merely by historic associa.
tion, but by blood connection, and that
these he, YES of sympathy are quick
to transmit the impulses OF tho one
nation to the other.
I'VE hav, followed your sufferings
with feeling that we We're witnessing
one of the mosl heroic and, may add,
at the same Ill le satisfactory, things
IN the worlds satisfactory because 1t
I showed the str ength of the human
spirit the indo' nitable power of men
and women alike to sustain any bur.
}en If the caule was great enough.
& In an ordinary war there might
3IE been some shrinking, some sink.
g q: effort; but this was not an
-rlJrdinary war. This was a war not
only to redeem France from an enemy,
but to redeem the world from an
p enemy. And France, therefore, and
4 the women of France, strained their
1 hearts to sustain the world. I hope
| that the strain has not been in vain.
| tkncw that it has not been in vain.
This war has been popular and
Hike other wars in that it seemed
" mo time as If the chief strain was
VA hind the lines and not at the lines.
vi took so many men to conduct the
that the older men ana the women
n lome had to carry the nation. Not
that, but the industries of the
aion were almost as much a part of
the fighting as the things that took
place at the front.
$50 it is for that reason that I
have said to those with whom I am
at present associated that this must
be a peoples peace. because this was
h a peoples war. Tho people won this
war, not the governments, and the
people must reap the benefits of tho
n war, At every turn We must sec 10
HE il that it is not an adjustment be.
tsH tween governments merely, but an
tH agreement for the peace and security
b of men and women everywhere.
The little obscure sufferings and
.thc daily unknown privations, the un.
spoken sufferings of the heart, are tho
4 tragical things of this war. They have
A been borne at homo, and the center
of the home is the woman. My heart
goes out to you, therefore, ladies', I'm a
Very unusual degree, and I welcome
this opportunity to bring you this mes.
sage, not from myself merely, but
- from the great peoDle whom 7 rnnra