January 2, 1919

As I came into his study this morning I found Colonel House, always so calm and composed, visibly—but pleasantly—affected. Before him was the speech which the President delivered in Manchester (England) on the thirtieth—the words which they had so carefully, so prayerfully considered together last week. The substantial paragraph which should be long remembered both at home and abroad reads:

“There is a great voice of Humanity abroad in the world just now which he who cannot hear is deaf. There is a great compulsion of the Common Conscience now in existence which, if any statesman resists, will gain for him most unenviable eminence in history. We are not obeying the mandate of party or politics, we are obeying the mandate of humanity.”

The Colonel was so exalted that I did not have the heart to tell him again that while there is a great voice of humanity appealing to the peoples of many lands there are millions who will not listen to it even when these convincing words of promise fall from the lips of the Crusader from across the seas they hailed only a few weeks ago as Salvator! As late as a month ago these words would have met with almost unanimous approval—but not today. Today there are many millions who will not see beyond their noses, who are grateful for what the Great American and his gallant soldiers have done but who are quite determined that he shall not spoil the peace with his “quaint” ideologies. I have told the Colonel so often of the pretensions and the bickerings among the wild tribes with whom I must spend my long days that today, with an almost perfectly happy man before me, I did not have the heart to rub it in. Soon, very soon, he will realize into what disturbed waters our ship of state has sailed. Half to me and half to himself the Colonel continued: “That was indeed a trumpet note. In ringing out the Old Year the President not only heralds, he ushers in the brighter days to come. It was a clarion call to all men of good will to rally behind the flag of the New Freedom.”

It was all that and more, but in view of my daily contacts with delegates arriving from Asia and Africa as well as from Europe I am not confident that they will fight for Wilson now as stoutly as he fought for them in war. I hope I’m mistaken, but certainly I expect squalls— and even storms.