President Wilson's first pnblio utterance after the sinking of the
'Luaitania ' was addressed to naturalized Americans. In the course of a speech at Philadelphia on Monday night he said i-
" America must have the consciousness that on all aides she touches elbows and touches hearts with all the nations of man- kind. The example of America must be a special example, not merely of peace because she will not fight, but because peace is the healing, elevating influence of the world and strife is not. There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight, such a thing as a nation being so right that it doss not need to convince others by force that she is rights' The phrase "too proud to fight" seemed curiously inappro- priate—even though Mr. Wilson's strong wish to keep the peace be generally approved—to a nation whose nerves were tingling. The majority of the American people could not easily follow abstractions and beautiful transcendental thoughts at that juncture, when their hearts were filled with sorrow and their brains with schemes for some kind of definite action. It was afterwards explained that Mr. Wilson did not intend to refer to the ' Luaitartia,' as to which, of course, there is full evidence of the intensity of his feeling.
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