are unthinkable. Men will be thrown back upon the bitterness of disappointment not only but the bitterness of despair.

All nations will be set up as hostile camps again; the men at the peace conference will go home with their heads upon their breasts, knowing that they have failed-for they were bidden not to come home from there until they did something more than sign a treaty of peace.

Suppose we sign the treaty of peace and that it is the most satisfactory treaty of peace that the confusing elements of the modern world will afford and go home and think about our labors, we will know that we have left written upon the historic table at Versailles, upon which Vergennes and Benjamin Franklin wrote their names, nothing but a modern scrap of paper; no nations united to defend it, no great forces combined to make it good, no assurance given to the downtrodden and fearful people of the world that they shall be safe. Any man who thinks that America will take part in giving the world any such rebuff and disappointment as that does not know America.

I invite him to test the sentiments of the nation. We set this up to make men free and we did not confine our conception and purpose to America, and now we will make men free. If we did not do that the fame of America would be gone and all her powers would be dissipated. She then would have to keep her power for those narrow, selfish, provincial purposes which seem so dear to some minds that have no sweep beyond the nearest horizon.

I should welcome no sweeter challenge than that. I have fighting blood in me, and it is sometimes a delight to let it have scope, but if it is a challenge on this occasion it will be an indulgence. Think of the picture, think of the utter blackness that would fall on the world. America has failed! America made a little essay at generosity 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 the next day said: "Let right take care of itself and we will take care of ourselves.' America said: "We set up a fight to lead men along the paths of liberty, but we have lowered it; it is intended only to light our own path." We set up a great ideal of liberty and then we said: "Liberty is 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 believe in the Polish cause, as I do? Are you going to set up Poland, immature, inexperienced, as yet unorganized, and leave her with a circle of armies around her? Do you believe in the aspiration of the Czecho-Slovaks and the Jugo-Slavs 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 liberty?

Have you thought of the sufferings of Armenia? You poured out your money to help succor 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 cannot you not see the picture? Your hearts have instructed you where the burden of this war fell. It did not fall upon the national treasuries, it did not fall upon the instruments of administration, it did not fall upon the resources of the nation. It fell 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 dull despair would settle were this great hope disappointed, I should wish for my part never to have had America play any part whatever in this attempt to emancipate the world. But I talk as if there were any question. I have no more doubt of the ver

dict of America in this matter than I have doubt of the blood that is in me.

And so, my fellow citizens, I have come back to report progress, and I do not believe that the progress is going to stop short of the goal. The nations of the world have set their heads now to do a great thing, and they are not going to slacken their purpose. And when I speak of the nations of the world I do not speak of the governments of the world. I speak of the peoples who constitute the nations of the world. They are in the saddle, and they are going to see to it that if their present governments do not do their will some other governments shall, and the secret is out and the present governments know it.

There is a great deal of harmony to be got out of common knowledge. There is a great deal of sympathy to be got of living in the same atmosphere and except for the differences of languages, which puzzled my American ear very sadly, I could have believed I was at home in France or in Italy or in England when I was on the streets, when I was in the presence of the crowds, when I was in great halls where men were gathered together irrespective of class.

I did not feel quite as much at home there as I do here, but I felt that now, at any rate, after this storm of war had cleared the air, men were seeing eye to eye everywhere and that these were the kind of folks who would understand what the kind of folks at home would understand and that they were thinking the same things.

I feel about you as I am reminded of a story of that excellent witness and good artist, Oliver Herford, who one day, sitting at luncheon at his club was slapped vigorously on the back by a man whom he did not know very well. He said: "Oliver, old boy, how are you?" He looked at him rather coldly. He said, "I don't know your name, I don't know your face, but your manners are very familiar." And I must say that your manners are very familiar, and let me add, very delightful.

It is a great comfort for one thing to realize that you all understand the language I am speaking. A friend of mine said that to talk through an interpreter was like witnessing the compound fracture of an idea. But the beauty of it is that, whatever the impediments of the channel of communication the idea is the same, that it gets registered, and it gets registered in responsive hearts and receptive purposes.

I have come back for a strenuous attempt to transact business for a little while in America but I have really come back to say to you, in all soberness and honesty, that I have been trying my best to speak your thoughts.

When I sample myself I think I find that I am a typical American, and if I sample deep enough and get down to what is probably the true stuff of a man, then I have hope that it is part of the stuff that is like the other fellow's at home.

And, therefore, probing deep in my heart and trying to see the things that are right without regard to the things that may be debated as expedient, I feel that I am interpreting the purpose and the thought of America; and in loving America I find I have joined the great majority of my fellowmen throughout the world.

APPENDIX III

PRESIDENT WILSON'S ADDress at New YORK

On March 4, 1919, in Further Explanation of the League of Nations

Μ'

Y Fellow Citizens: I accept the intimation of the air just played; I will not come back "till it's over, over And yet I pray God, in the interests of peace and of the world, that that may be soon.

there."

The first thing that I am going to tell the people on the other side of the water is that an overwhelming majority of the American people is in favor of the League of Nations. I know that that is true; I have had unmistakable intimations of it from all parts of the country, and the voice rings true in every case. I account myself fortunate to speak here under the unusual circumstances of this evening. I am happy to associate myself with Mr. Taft in this great cause. He has displayed an elevation of view and a devotion to public duty which is beyond praise.

And I am the more happy because this means that this is not a party issue. No party has the right to appropriate this issue, and no party will in the long run dare oppose it.

We have listened to so clear and admirable an exposition of many of the main features of the proposed covenant of the League of Nations that it is perhaps not necessary for me to discuss in any particular way the contents of the document. I will seek rather to give you its setting. I do not know when I have been more impressed than by the conferences of the commission set up by the Conference of Peace to draw up a covenant for the League of Nations. The representatives of fourteen nations sat around that board-not young men, not men inexperienced in the affairs of their own