The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1924-02-13

high ideal of peace on earth, is ended
The body Of the man who was president OF
the United States while America took part in the
greatest war in all history lies cold and still
now, and voiceess; never again to have speech
with mankind never again to raise the stand
ard of an ideal and fight for it.
The spirit Of that man has gone on to join
the innumerable throng on the other shore. His
memory remains, and his record awaits the judy
ment of history.
What will be the judgment of history upon
this man who, if he had passed away at the mo-
ment when all mankind acclaimed him as the
voice and embodiment of humanity's hope of
peace would Immediately have joined the world;
noblest galaxy of great men?
That will depend very largely upon what his
tory brings to pass.
Woodrow Wilson had vision-a vision, It
now appears, as much before its time as the WIS.,
ions of all the great prophets nave been-of peace
on earth, good will among men.
peace-loving president, he BROUGHT hi.
country into the shambes Of the World war witr
dread and aversion. Once in That war; he sought
to make his countrymen see it war to strike
the shackles Of tyranny and nate and strife from,
the limbs of mankind and to set humanity free
for works of peace and love and blessing
Beyond any possible doubt, he saw it as a
war against war;" as a holy enterprise to ''make
the world free for democracy"
Bitter disillusion awaited him. He found it
at Paris, where, strive as he might, he could not
prevent peace of hate and injustice fashioned!
out of national hates rivalries and fears to SOW
the seeds of more war;
He found establishment again at home
where fellow-citzens savagely attacked him and
his dream of peace, sneered at his ideals deride
his hopes, and transferred their hatred of him
to the cause for which he stood, and defeated it
Whatever learned diagnoses may say of tn
disease that completed the work, it was this that
killed this man.
He fell in the trenches of the worlds pro-
gress giving his life for great cause, as surely
as any doughboy in the Argonne.
The bullet that struck him down was NJ
material thing of lead and steel. The deep wound
that bullet made was CHASTITY cavity in culver
ing fesh but ghastlier hurt the spirit of the
man. 1t brought him low. 1t caused him years
OF suffering, ended, now, in the peace of death
What will be the judgment of history upon
this man?
If-no, not if; it is treason to the glory OF
man and to the purpose of God to say eff
WHEN this mans dream of peace on earth comes
one day to pass, as come it must if utter and
bleak extinction is not to overcome what we call
civilization, history will canonize him.
In that day mankind, in a nobler, wider un-
derstanding of the things of the spirit will write
in letters of gold what the men of his time hooted
him down for saying: that "there is such thing
as a nation being too proud to fight; that the
only enduring peace is ga peace without victory
Let this mans faults-he had them; but let
him that is without fault name them now, if he
will-go into the grave with the stricken body
that seemed to house his unconquerable spirit.
Let his country and the world remember him
for his noble vision of peace and good will, of the
triumph Of right and justice, of world Of the
common man ruled by love and brotherliness.
Let the causes for which he stood and to
which he gave his mortal life stand out, now free
Of the confusions Of personal antipathies ana
hatred, and go on, in swelling strength up the
hard, painful path of human progress toward the
shining heights where mankind freed from the
chains of ignorance, suspicion, hate and fear.
shall stand at last in the glory and splendor of
man in the image and likeness Of his creator, the
God of Love-Duluth Herald