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Ta luncheon tendered by the French Senate in the Luxembourg Palace, January 20, M. Antonin Dubost, President of the Senate said:

"Mr. President: My colleagues and myself thank you for having been so good as to accept our invitation and to give us some hours of your time, which we know to be devoted to the high meditations and the important negotiations upon which the fate of the peoples depends. From your first steps on the land of France and since your entry into Paris the French people have spontaneously given their hearts to you, and they perceived at once in your frank smile and in your so loyal and open physiognomy that you, too, were spontaneously giving yourself to them.

"You are to-day in an old palace of France, and it is among these grand reminders of past times that, with thoughts rejuvenated by republican ardor, yet with patriotism, the French Senate shapes a history which already counts fifteen centuries. We welcome here, Mr. President, you and your ideas. Nowhere could your splendid ambition to substitute for the periodically broken equilibrium of material forces the definite award of moral forces elicit more enthusiasm than in France, and nowhere more than in the Senate, since the statute of international peace has been first of all and for a long time prepared by some of its most eminent members.

"Our national problem consists, therefore, in combining our European past and our actual material security with the conditions of the new order for which you have given so noble a formula, because this new order will ever have to lean on some force, for which France will, when all is told, stand the most advanced and exposed sentinel. We firmly believe with you, Mr. President, and, allow me to add, sincere and great friend,

that a new world order and perhaps a world harmony are possible, in which our French country will at last be liberated from the nightmare of invasion our country, for which nearly 1,400,000 men of France have just given their lives.

"It is with such a hope that we shall most willingly participate in the sublime cause which you have come to undertake on the devastated soil of old Europe, where hatred and discord still howl after the guns have become silent, and where anarchy causes a vast part of mankind to stagger. The task is a gigantic one, but it is worthy of your country, accustomed to great undertakings, and of ours, the ancient artisan of western civilization. Mr. President, we salute your great heart and your high intelligence with a joyful hope and a fervent acclamation."

PRESIDENT WILSON'S REPLY

"Mr. President of the Senate, Mr. President of the Republic: You have made me feel your welcome in words as generous as they are delightful, and I feel that you have graciously called me your friend. May I not in turn call this company a company of my friends, for everything that you have so finely said, Sir, has been corroborated in every circumstance of our visit to this country. Everywhere we have been welcomed not only, but welcomed in the spirit and with the same thought, until it has seemed as if the spirits of the two countries came together in an unusual and beautiful accord.

"We know the long period of peril through which France has gone. France thought us remote in comprehension and sympathy, and I dare say there were times when we did not comprehend as you comprehended the danger in the presence of which the world stood. There was no time when we did not know how near it was, and I fully understand, Sir, that throughout these trying years, when mankind has

waited for the catastrophe, the anxiety of France must have been the deepest and most constant of all, for she did stand at the frontier of freedom. She had carved out her own fortunes through a long period of eager struggle. She had done great things in building up a great, new France. And just across the border, separated from her only by a few fortifications and a little country whose neutrality, it has turned out, the enemy did not respect, lay the shadow cast by the cloud which enveloped Germany-the cloud of intrigue, the cloud of dark purpose, the cloud of sinister design. This shadow lay at the very borders of France.

"And yet it is fine to remember here that for France this was not only a peril but a challenge. France did not tremble. France quietly and in her own way prepared her sons for the struggle that was coming. She never took the initiative or did a single thing that was aggressive. She had prepared herself for defense, not in order to impose her will upon other people. She had prepared herself that no other people might impose its will upon her.

"As I stand with you and as I mix with the delightful people of this country I see this in their thoughts: 'America always was our friend. Now she comprehends, and now she has come to bring us this message, and, understanding, she will always be ready to help.' And while, as you say, Sir, this danger may prove to be a continuing danger, while it is true that France will always be nearest this threat, if we cannot turn it from a threat into a promise, there are many elements that ought to reassure France.

"There is a new, awakened world. It is not ahead of us, but around us. It knows that its dearest interests are involved in its standing together for a common purpose. It knows that the peril of France, if it continues, will be the peril of the world. It knows that not only France must organize against this peril, but that the world must organize against it.

"So I see in these welcomes not only hospitality, not only kindness, not only hope, but a purpose, a definite, clearly defined

purpose, that men, understanding one another, must now support one another, and that all the sons of freedom are under a common oath to see that freedom never suffers this danger again. That, to my mind, is the impressive element of this welcome. I know how much of it, Sir, and I know how little of it to appropriate to myself.

"I know that I have the very distinguished honor to represent a nation whose heart is in this business, and I am proud to speak for the people whom I represent. But I know that you honor me in a representative capacity. I delight in this welcome, therefore, as if I had brought the people of the United States with me and they could see in your faces what I see in the tokens of welcome and affection.

"The sum of the whole matter is that France has earned and has won the brotherhood of the world. She has stood at the chief post of danger, and the thoughts of mankind and her brothers everywhere, her brothers in freedom, turn to her and centre upon her. If this be true, as I believe it to be, France is fortunate to have suffered. She is fortunate to have proved her mettle as one of the champions of liberty, and she has tied to herself, once and for all, all those who love freedom and truly believe in the progress and rights of man."

SOCIETY OF NATIONS THE NEED OF MANKIND

In the Chamber of Deputies at Paris on February 3, President Wilson delivered the following address, the assemblage insisting on paying him the compliment of standing throughout its delivery in English, and interrupting the interpreter's translation with much cheering:

"I am keenly aware of the unusual and distinguished honor you are paying me by permitting me to meet you in this place and to address you from this historic platform. Indeed, Sir, as day has followed day and week has followed week in this hospita

ble land of France, I have felt the sense of comradeship ever become more and more intimate and it has seemed to me that the making of history was becoming singularly clear.

"We knew before this war began that France and America were united in affection. We knew the occasions which drew the two nations together in those years, which now seem so far away, when the world was first beginning to thrill with the impulse of human liberty, when the soldiers of France came to help the struggling little Republic of America to get on its feet and proclaim one of the first victories of freedom.

"We had never forgotten that, but we did not see the full meaning of it. A hundred years and more went by, and the spindles were slowly weaving the web of history. We did not see it to be complete, the whole of the design to be made plain.

"Now look what has happened. In that far off day when France came to the assistance of America, America was fighting Great Britain. And now she is linked as closely to Great Britain as she is to France. We see now how these apparently diverging lines of history are coming together. The nations which once stood in battle array against one another are now shoulder to shoulder, fighting a common enemy.

"I visited the other day a portion of the devastated region of France. I saw the noble city of Rheims in ruins, and I could not help saying to myself: 'Here is where the blow fell because the rulers of the world did not sooner see how to prevent it.' "The rulers of the world have been thinking of the relations of Governments and forgetting the relations of peoples. They have been thinking of the maneuvres of international dealings, when what they ought to have been thinking of was the fortunes of men and women and the safety of homes, and the care that they should take that their people should be happy because they were safe.

"They knew that the only way to do this is to make it certain that the same thing will not always happen that has happened this time, that there never shall be any

doubt or waiting or surmise, but that whenever France or any free people is threatened the whole world will be ready to vindicate its liberty.

"It is for that reason, I take it, that I find such an intelligent enthusiasm in France for the Society of Nations--France with her keen vision, France with her prophetic vision.

"It seems to be not only the need of France, but the need of mankind. And France sees the sacrifices which are necessary for the establishment of the Society of Nations are not to be compared with the constant dread of another catastrophe falling on the fair cities and areas of France.

"There was a no more beautiful country. There was a no more prosperous country. There was a no more free-spirited people. All the world had admired France and none of the world grudged France her greatness and her prosperity, except those who grudged her liberty and prosperity. And it has profited us, terrible as the cost has been, to witness what has happened, to see with the physical eye what has happened, because injustice was wrought.

"The President of the Chamber has pictured, as I cannot picture, the appalling sufferings, the terrible tragedy of France; but it is a tragedy which could not be repeated. As the pattern of history has disclosed itself, it has disclosed the hearts of men, drawing toward one another. Comradeships have become vivid. The purpose of association has become evident.

"The nations of the world are about to consummate a brotherhood which will make it unnecessary in the future to maintain those crushing armaments which make the people suffer almost as much in peace as they suffer in war.

"When the soldiers of America crossed the ocean, they did not bring with them merely their arms. They brought with them a very vivid conception of France. They landed upon the soil of France with quickened pulses. They knew that they had come to do a thing which the heart of America had long wished to do. When General Pershing stood at the tomb of Lafayette and said, 'Lafayette, we are

here,' it was as if he had said, 'Lafayette, here is the completion of the great story whose first chapter you assisted to write.'

"The world has seen the great plot worked out, and now the people of France may rest assured that their prosperity is secure, because their homes are secure, and men everywhere not only wish her safety and prosperity but are ready to assure her that with all the force and wealth at their command they will guarantee her security and safety.

"So, as we sit from day to day at the Quai d'Orsay, I think to myself, we might, if we could gain an audience of the free peoples of the world, adopt the language of General Pershing and say, 'Friends, men, humble women, little children, we are here; we are here as your friends, as your champions, as your representatives. We have come to work out for you a world which is fit to live in and in which all countries can enjoy the heritage of liberty for which France and America and England and Italy have paid so dear."

M. Leon Bourgeois, on February 1st, presented to President Wilson and associated Premiers at Paris the following proposal for a League of Nations as agreed upon by representatives of various voluntary league organizations in France, Great Britain, Italy and the United States. The Associated Press thus reports the text of the composite proposal:

"First-To submit all disputes arising between themselves to methods of peaceful settlement.

"Second-To prevent or suppress jointly by the use of all means at their disposal any attempt by any state to disturb the peace of the world by acts of war.

"Third-To establish an international court of justice charged with the duty of deciding all justiciable disputes and to insure the execution of its decisions by all appropriate international sanctions-diplomatic, juridic, economic and, if necessary, military.

"Fourth-To establish an international representative council, which will provide for the development of international law and take common action in matters of general concern. The representative council will watch over the freedom of nations and the maintenance of international order. Considering itself invested with the moral guardianship of uncivilized races, the repre

sentative council will secure the execution and, in case of need, promote the development of international covenants necessary for the protection and progress of those races. A permanent Committee of Conciliation shall take in hand all differences between the associated nations. The comImittee will act in the first instance as conciliator or mediator and if necessary it will refer the differences, according to their nature, either to arbitration or to a court of justice. It will be charged with making all such inquiries as it considers useful and will determine the necessary limits of time and conditions. In every and any state refusing to obey either the award of the arbitrator or the decision of the committee, the application of appropriate sanctions will be proposed to the representative council and the associated Governments by the committee. These sanctions shall be obligatory in the case of violence or aggression.

"Fifth-To limit and supervise the armaments of each nation and the manufacture of all material and munitions of war, having regard to the requirements of the league. "Sixth-To renounce the making of secret treaties.

"Seventh-To admit to the league on the basis of equal right before the law all peoples able and willing to give effective guarantees of their loyal intention to observe its covenants."