Address by
Dr. EDUARD BENEŠ,
Czechoslovak Foreign Minister.
A great man has died, a man whose name, when it began to penetrate into the various parts of the world, was pronounced by millions of people with great hope and by millions of others with fear and horror. A man has died who, during the difficult days of the world struggle and the slaughter of the battlefields, became the bearer of the ideals of humanity, the symbol of the moral conscience of mankind, and the incorporation of the ideals and longings regarding eternal peace. A man has died who helped our nation in the difficult days of its history to endure physical sufferings and surmount moral hesitation; in this way he contributed very considerably to its final deliverance.
The Czechoslovak nation bows itself today before the grave of President Wilson.
Wilson’s life-career was a simple one. Born in a presbyterian and poor Scottish family which had settled in Ireland and had then emigrated to America, he studied at Princeton University, was called to the Bar and then became professor of American history and law at the same university. In 1892 he was elected President of Princeton University which office he retained until 1910. Entering practical politics the same year he was chosen Governor of New Jersey by the Democratic party and two years later (1912) he became President of the Republic. In 1916, in the middle of the War, he was re-elected President and on April 4, 1917 he declared war on Germany, thus taking part in all the great world-events of the War. In January 1919 he arrived in Europe in order to attend the Peace Conference; on his return to America in the same year he started a great political struggle for the acceptance the Treaty of Versailles, but in the course of the struggle he suffered politically and physically; his health broke up and by the end of his period of office he had not recovered. In the Presidential elections of 1920 he was succeeded by the Republican candidate Harding. On February 3, 1924 he died at Washington in consequence of his illness.
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