Republican farmer., 1919-07-18

IL was recognised tuxst our mater
 ial aid would be Indispensable in the | days to come. ..r when industry and credit won tt have to be brought back to their normal operation again and communities beaten to the ground assisted to their feet once more, and 1t was taken for granted 1 am proud to say, that we would play the help ful friend in these things as in all others without prejudice or favor. We were generously accepted as the un- affected champions of what was right.
 It was a very responsible role to play; but 1 am happy to report that tho fine group of Americans, who helped with their expert advice in each part of the varied settlements sought in every transaction to justify the hiSh confidence reposed in them. And that confidence, it seems to me, is the measure of our opportun fly and of our duty in the days to come, in which the new hope of the peoples of the world is to be fulfill ed or disappointed. The fact that America is the friend of the nations whether they be rivals or associates, is no new fact; it is only the discov- cry of 1t by the rest of the world that is new.
 
 reached her majority as world power It was almost exactly 21 years ago that the results of the war with Spain put us unexpectedly in possession of rich islands on the other side of the world and brought us into association with other governments in the control of the West Indies It was regarded as a sinister and | ominous thing by the statesmen of more than one European Chancellery | that should have extended our l power beyond the confines of our | continental dominions. They were accustomed to think of new neigh l bors as a new menace, of rivals as 1 Watchful enemies.
 There were persons amongst us at ! home who looked with deep disa D. i prOval and avowed anxiety on such | extensions of our national authority l over distant islands and over peoples whom they feared we might exploit i not serve and assist. But we have not 1 exploited them. We have been their friends and have sought to serve l them. And our dominion has been a l men9 ce to other nation. We re- deemed our honor to the utmost in 1 our dealings with Cuba. She is weak
 but absolutely free, and it is her trust ! in us that makes her free.
 &2H We IicIuSS lcauSESIlp. 1 Weak peoples everywhere stand ready to give us any authority among . them that will assure them a like i friendly oversight and direction. They | know that there is no ground for fear | in receiving their mentors and guides.
 i Our isolation was ended 20 years | ago, and now fear of us is ended i also, our counsel and association ! at J ' be no question of our ceasing to be | a world power. The only question is | whether we can refuse the moral 1 leadership that is offered us, whether | we shall accept or reject the conf | dence of the world.
 l The war and the conference of | peace, now sitting in Paris, seem to me to have answered that question. 1 Our participation in the war estab | lished our position among the na- l tions. and nothing but our own mis- l taken action can alter it. It was not an accident matter of sudden
 choice that we are no longer isolated | and devoted to policy which has | only our own interest and advantage | for it's object It was our duty to go
 in, if we were. indeed, the cham | pions of liberty and of right. | We answered to the call of duty | in a way so spirited, utterly with | out thought of what we spent of l blood or treasure, effective, so worthy of the admiration of true | men everywhere, so wrought out of i the stuff of all that was heroic that | the whole world saw at last, in the | flesh, in noble action, a great ideal ] asserted and vindicated by a nation | they had deemed material and now | found to be compact of the spiritual | forces that must free men of every na- l tion from every unworthy bondage. | It is thus that a new role and a new | responsibility have come to this great | nation that we honor and which we | would all wish to lift to yet higher l levels of service and achievement 1 The stage is set. the destiny, dis | closed. It has come about by plan | of our conceiving. but by the hand | of God who led us into this way. We | cannot turn back. We can only go | forward with lifted eyes and fresh i ened spirit, to follow the vision. It was of this that we dreamed at our birth. America shall in truth show the way. The light streams upon the | path ahead, and nowhere else.