Czechoslovakia's tribute to the memory of Woodrow Wilson/Address of the American Minister Mr. Lewis Einstein

by Lewis Einstein

Address of the American Minister
Mr. LEWIS EINSTEIN.

 

It is deeply gratifying for an American to feel the veneration attached in this country to the name of Woodrow Wilson. Nations honor themselves when they enshrine their great dead and as the memory of Woodrow Wilson passes down to posterity it will be accompanied by the full recognition of his great merits. He stood out during a critical period as the leader of America and the symbol of all that America meant in the Great War. His words brought hope to millions in their suffering. He proclaimed a noble ideal for the Allied cause and rendered it incalculable service. His voice, like that of a prophet of Israel, rang clear over the multitude and crossed the enemy lines where it undermined his resistance. In the terrible struggle then fought over sea and land, in the air and under the water, Wilson spurred on victory, and by achieving the moral collapse of the enemy hastened the collapse of his armies.

Wilson has entered into the history and the inheritance of the new Europe and particularly of Czechoslovakia. For it was under his leadership that two million Americans left their homes and crossed the ocean to decide the final battle. It was their advent which has associated the United States and Wilson’s name inseparably and forever with a victory which brought about the independence of this State. Even before the fight was won, in the minds of countless millions Wilson stood out as the great symbol of human justice who had risen above the carnage to deliver his message of hope to humanity.

One need not dwell on the period of Wilson’s life which followed the conclusion of the War. Partisan strife will always exist in every free country. The whole-hearted support which regardless of party affiliations was so freely given by the American people to their President during the period of the War was withdrawn after hostilities had ended, and all national danger had ceased. The intensity of emotion aroused by the pitch of war, was then transferred homeward and became inflamed by the magnitude of the issues raised. There is no use in entering here into the merits of a dispute which must always remain controversial, or dwelling on the fact that the great majority of the people of the United States were then unwilling to follow Mr. Wilson further along the path he wished to tread. Fortunately the rancor ano violence of that dispute has now died down, and in the presence of death there can be only respect and reverence. Today it is possible for every American to understand that the shadows Wilson cast were those of his lofty stature and to feel pride in the President who is no more. Henceforth he takes rank with the great in our history.

The main outlines of Wilson’s life are well known. The College professor became the College president, the Governor of the State of New Jersey became the President of the United States. In his educational as in his political career Wilson had shown independence of judgment, courage and authority. He had reached his dicisions usually in solitude and in silence. Democracy had always been his goal, but in the presence of events as stupendous as they were unfamiliar he interpreted these in his own way and with processes of reasoning which were not always easy to follow. He remained aloof from the environment of men. Power raised him high above the multitude and separated him from it even against his inclination. A mystic belief in his own mission as the servant of democracy, regardless of all other considerations carried him forward in an isolation which screened him from that humanity to whose service he dedicated his life.

His vision was one which aimed to serve mankind and pour out the bounty of the New World to relieve the misery of the old. The unselfish purpose of America in bringing the aid of our armies to a struggling cause, and the help of our sustenance to an enfeebled and afamished Europe, will always be a source of pride not only to every American, but to all who believe in the power for good within the human heart. Detached as Wilson was from individuals, lonely and isolated as he remained from human contact, he interpreted the deep underlying idealism of the American people and gave it a moral leadership. The same spirit of high courage which three centuries ago made our early settlers cross the ocean in frail barks and tame a wilderness, in order to have the privilege of worshipping God in their own way, now made their descendants and the descendants of the millions who since have joined them, cross the ocean once more to bring victory to the cause they held right. In the design of Providence it was perhaps no mere coincidence that during the very years when Bohemia was losing its ancient liberty, the rugged coast of New England was being settled by those whose descendants were to help regain it.

In this sense the guidance and the ideas of Wilson are linked with the states which Phoenix-like have arisen out of the ashes of the old. The United States which participated in the birth of Czechoslovakia, supported the proclamation of its independence and gave it aid in the hour of need, can take satisfaction in the immense forward strides of this Republic during the brief period since the war, and in the respect shown to its leaders in the Councils of the Nations. No one more than Wilson wold have been gladdened by the real fruits of victory which are now ripening under the peace he helped to create.

In the years of darkness which fell over the world after the war, many, it is true, despaired of what had been achieved and saw only blackness and everywhere around the desolation and the havoc wrought. They gazed on the ruins of vast Empires till they confused the destruction and the anarchy around then with the new order struggling amid difficulty to establish its roots in the soil. Indiscriminately the old became confounded with the new till cause and effect seemed indistinguishable the one from the other. Yet beneath the surface the new seed had already been planted in every soil, and the tender shoots were raising their heads among the weeds.

We commemorate today Woodrow Wilson’s part in this planting of the seed for it is one in which Americans and every Czechoslovak can feel proud.