The Commorief
-- - yQk. 19, NO. 3
8
quality and clinraotor of that result In to bo
proparly judgod,
What wo aro doing Is to hear tho wholo case
hear it from tho mouths of tho men most
intorostod; hear; from thoso who aro officially
commissioned to state it; hoar tho rival claims;
hoar tho claims that affect new nationalities,
that affoct now areas of tho world, that affect
now commercial and economic connection. that
havo boon established by tho great world war
through which wo havo gono. And I havo been
struck by tho moderateness of thoso who havo
reprosontod national claims. I can testify that
I havo nowhere soon tho gleam of passion. I
havo soon earnestness, I havo seen tears como
to tho eyes of mon who plead for downtrodden
pooplo whom they wore privileged to speak for;
but they wore not tho tears of anguish, they
wero tho tears of. ardent hope.
And I don't boo how any man can fail to have
boon subduod by these ploas subdued to this
fooling that ho was not thoro to assort an in-"
dividual Judgment of his own but to try to assist
tho case of humanity.
NONE SUSPECTS UNITED STATES"
And in tho midst of it all ovory interost seeks
out first of all, when it reachos Paris, tho rep
resentatives of tho United States. Why? Be
causo and I think I am stating tho most
wonderful fact in history because thoro is no
nation In Europe that suspects tho motives of
tho Unitod Statos.
Was thoro ovor so wonderful a thing soen be
foro? Was thoro over so moving a thing? Was
thoro ovor any fact that so bound tho nation
that had won that esteem forovor to deserve It?
I would not havo you understand that the
groat mon who represent tho other nations
thero in conference aro dlsesteomed by thoso
who know them. Quito tho contrary. But you
understand that tho nations of Europe havo
again and again clashed with otto another in
compotitivo interest. It is impossible for men
to forget thoso sharp issues that 'were drawn
between thorn in timoB past. It is impossiblo
for mon to bolievo that all ambitions have all
of a sudden been foregone. They remember ter
ritory that waB coveted; they remember rights
that it was attomptod to extort; they remember
political ambitions which it was attempted to
realize, and, while they bolievo that men have
como into a different temper, they cannot forget
thoso things, and so thoy do not resort to ono
another for a dispassionate view of tho matters
in controversy. They resort to that nation which
has won tho onviable distinction of being re
garded as tho friend of mankind.
Whenever it is desired to send a small force
of soldiers to occupy a pieco of territory where
it is thought nobody olso will bo welcome they
ask for American soldiers. And where other
soldiers would bo looked upon with suspicion
and perhaps meet with resistance tho American
soldier is welcomod with acclaim.
I have had so many grounds for pride on tho
other sido of tho water that I am very thankful
that they are not grounds for personal pride
but for national prido. If they wero grounds
for personal pride I'd bo tho most stuck-up' man
in tho world. And it has been an infinite plea
sure to me to seo those gallant soldiers of ours
of whom tho constiti ion of tho United States
made mo tho proud commander. You mav bo
proud of tho Twenty-sixth division, but I com
manded tho Twenty-sixth division, and see' what
they did undor my direction! And everybody
praises the American soldier with tho fooling
that in praising him ho is subtracting from the
credit of no- ono olso.
THEY SAW AMERICA ACTED IDEALS
I havo been searching for the fundamantni
fact that converted Europe 'to biliovo S i u? Be
foro this war Europe did not believe in us as
she does now. Sho did not believe in
throughout the first three years of tho war She
seems really to hayo believed that we wero hold!
ng off because W thought wo could make more
by staying out than by going in. And all ot I
sudden, in a short eighteen months, the wholo
vordiot is reversed. Thoro can bo but one T
planation for it. They saw what we dd--that
without making a single claim wo put all our
men and all our means , t the disposal of those
who wero fighting for their homes, in the first
instance, but for a cause -the cause of human
.rights and justice and that we went in nnJ
to support their national claims but to smmort
tho groat cause which thoy hold in common
And when thoy saw that America not only
hold ideals but acted ideals they wero converged
i. A,,.,woi lioMinn Arm TmrHsana of thoso Vergonnes and Benlamin T?mr.i,u ..
i.i-i ' . '' ' names, nothing but a mrwip wrte their
JUUU.1U. ' ' .
I met a group of scholars when I was in
somo gentiemm irom one u. mu uiecn.
..!.... U I tn 1n li.wl nnme in RIAn TTIO JlTlfl 111
UUlVVlDttlUO Vu UU.V. ,uw ww ww ---
whoso presence, or rathor in the presence of
whoso traditions of learning, I felt very young
indeed. I told them that I had ono of the de
lightful revenges that sometimes comes to a
man. All my life I had heard men speak with
a sort of condescension : ideals and of idealists,
-and particularly those separated, encloistored
porsons whom thoy choose to term academic,
whb wero in tho habit of uttering ideals in the
free atmosphere when they clash with nobody
in particular.
And I said I have had this sweet revenge.
Speaking with perfect frankness in the name of
tho people of the United States, I havo uttered
as the objects of this great war ideals, and
nothing but ideals, and tho war has boon won
by that inspiration. Men were fighting with
tense muscle t.nd lowered head until they came
to realize those things, feeling they were fight
ing for their lives and thoir country, and when
these accents of what it was all about reached .
them from America they lifted their heads, they
raised their eyes to heaven, when they saw men
in khaki coming across the sea in tho spirit of
strange men, reckless of danger not only but
reckless because they seemed to see something
that made that danger worth while.
Mon have testified to me in Europe that our
men were possessed by something that they
could only call a religious fervor. They wero
not liko any of the other soldiers. They had a
vision, they had a dream, and they wero fight
ing in the dream, they turned the whole tide
of battle and it never came back.
One of our American humorists, meeting the
criticism that American soldiers were not
trained long enough, said: "It takes only half
as long to train an American soldier as any
other, because you only have to train him one
way, and he did only go one way, and h,e never
came back until ho could do it when he pleased."
HEART OF EUROPE FULL OF HOPE
And now do you realize that this confidence
wo havo established throughout the world im
poses a burden upon us if you choose to call
it a burden. It is one of those burdens which
any nation ought to be proud to carry. Any
man who resists tho present tides that run in
the world will find himself thrown upon a shoro
so high and barren that it' will seem as if he
had been separated from his human kind for
ever. The Europe that I 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 Europe of
the third year of the war, was sinking to a sort
of stubborn desperation. They did not see any
great thing to be achieved even when the war
should bo won. They hoped there would be
some salvage; they hoped that they could clear
their territories of invading armies; they honed
they could set up their homes and start their
industries afresh. But they thought it would
simply bo resumption of the old life that Europe
had led led in fear, led in anxiety, led in
constant suspicious watchfulness. They never
dreamed that it would be a Europe of settled
peace and of justified hope. iuea
And now these ideals have wrought this nPW
magic that all the peoples of Europf are buoyed
up and confident in the spirit of, hope, because
they believe that we are at the eve of a new
age in the world when nations will unite everv
mora and every physical strength to see that
tho right shall prevail. at
If America were at this juncture to fail th
world what would como of It' I L It I he
any disrespect to any other ir'reat in f m? an
I say that America is the hone of ?Z ??
and if she does not justThope the "esufts
are unthinkable. Men will be thrown back non
the bitterness of disappointment not only but
tho bitterness of de3pair. 7' Dut
All nations will be set un a Wtfia
again; the men at the peace conterSil m1
homo with their heads upor their brea'V" g
ing that they have failed for tw? ' JX.W-
labors, wo will know ttt ! "nlc, al)out ur
upon tuo WATyV8Z. L2
no nations united to defend it, norn-ft PPer;
combined to make it good, no assuSSl
10 uie uowntrottuen and fearful nnnnu ? veu
ffho
world, any rsuch rebuff and di8apnointZVh6
that flnon rmf Trnrmr A .t., Ottll'0intment as
world that thoy shall h Ul F? o!
t.ifn.rci I10. Ami.tnn ...in ,. V11' Mail Wlrt
thinks thatmerica will take part in $3t
world, any fSuch rebuff n.mi fiiBn.ivinS
that does not know America.
TEST THE SENTIMENTS OF NATION
I invite him to test the sentiments of L
Hon. We set this nation up to make '
anc we did not confino our conception and 2?
poso to America, and now we will malt Si
free. If wo did not do that tho fame TSoX
would bo gono and all her power would bad?
sipated. She then would have to keep her w!
for those narrow, selfish, provincial pu 2
which seem so dear to some minds that have nn
sweep beyond tho nearest horizon. I should U
come no sweeter challenge than that. I ha
fighting blood .in me and it is sometime a 2
light to let it have scopo, but if it is a challenea
on this occasion it wH be an indulgence
Think of the picture, think of the utter black
ness that would fall on the world. America has'
failed! America made a little essay at gener
osity and then withdrew. America said "We
are your friends," but it was only for 'today
not for tomorrow. America said, "Here Is our
power to vindicate right," and then tho next
day, "Let right take caro of itself and we will
take care of ourselves." America said, "We set
up a light to lead men. along the paths of
liberty, but we have lowered it; it is intended
only to light ur own path." We set up a great
ideal of liberty and then we said, "Liberty ia
a thing that you must win for yourself. Do not
call upon us," and think of the world that we
would leave.
Do you realize how many new nations are
going to be set up in the presence of old and
powerful nations in Europe and left there, if
left by us, without a disinterested friend?
Do you beiieve in the Polish cause, as I do?
Are you going to set up Poland, immature, in
experienced, as yet unorganized, and leave her
with a circle of armies around her? Do you be
lieve in the aspiration of tho Czecho-Slovaks
and the Jugoslavs, as I do? Do you know how
many powers would be quick to pounce upon
them if there were not the guarantees of the
world behind their libdrty?
Have; you thought of the sufferings of Arme
nia? You poured out your money to help suc
cur the Armenians after they suffered; now set
your strength so that they shall never suffer
again.
The arrangements of the present peace cannot
stand a generation unless they are guaranteed
by the united forces of the civilized world. And
if we do not guarantee them can you not see
the picture? Your hearts have instructed you
where the burden of this war fell. It did no
fall upon the national treasuries; it did MJ
upon tho instruments of .administration; it did
not fall upon the resources of the nations. It
fejl upon the victims' homes everywhere, where
women were toiling in hope that their men
would come back. .,
When I think of the homes upon which dun
despair would settle were this great hope dis
appointed I should wish for my part never to
have had America play any part whatever in
this attempt to emancipate-the world, w J
talk as if thero were any question. I have no
more doubt of the verdict of America In w
matter than I have doubt of the blood that is
ini me.
THE PEOPLE ARE. IN SADDLE
An so, my fellow citizens, I have come back
toieport progress, and I do not believe uw
theprogress is going to stop, short of the goy
The;, nations of the world have sot their ueau
now to do a great thing, and they are not go
to slacken their purpose. And when I spea "
tho nons of the world I do not speak of w
gQVori?mentsJ of the world. I speak of tnei
pies who ' constitute the nations of the jvj
Tliey are in the saddle, and they are gowb
see to it that if their present governments
not do tlieir will tome other government su
And the,5;secret is out and tho present gov-
mentsfknow it. . v
.n , 1, ,.1.B,nnTtOllfl8"
"fo is u, ureal, ueui vi,v'"'""' -n deal
MUftaKommon knowledge. 'There is a grew
otflm-ahrbo got of living n the m
atinpsphere"; WTIxcept for tho f fere"creye y
ersailles , V, J ianguaTges,..which puzzled my imu jn
sallies, UI)0U WUic" sadlv., T nmilrf .W l.nHmrflf. I WttS at UODie
, VwvV AM I V MW... -
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