a! rat ein te ae eS. Sistas: soe Smee aieef ry i He i ) | ia Hl University of Virginia Library E767 .C96 1924 ALD Woodrow Wilson, a biography. QML, YX 000 ble 04d; iWoodrow Wilson a biography HUNUEAUEENTAVEAN CON TOAT AUTON TAT EEE AAT TAA CA EAE EET Current History Magazine MARCH, 1924 NPULTEVEET ATT TONITE TNE TEV PUDUAEY ENED PATNA FUNDA TEE HUGH Il Published by The New York Times Company | (COPYRIGHT, 1924) AUVVENLUGTONUEULTAL ONL EUT UOTE ELT HUIINLUNNUNULUULLLIDOUNINULUUILITHI DLULULUV EEL SUEDE TOA ET PADS ALEP ETAT eee i il HilWOODROW WILSON s of America; born at Staunton, Va., Dec. 28, served a sécond term until ‘eb. 3, 1924 > Twenty-eighth President of the United State ; re-elected and 1856; inaugurated President March, 1913 March, 1921; died in }} ‘ashington, D. C., FTHE DEATH OF WOODROW WILSON End of America’s War President after long illness resulting from breakdown in September, 1919—Nati marked by tributes from political opponents when statesman OODROW WILSON. twenty-eighth \ \ President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and the Navy during the World War. died in his Washington home on Sunday, Feb. 3, at 11:15 A. M. pected, as announcement had: been made on Jan. 30 that the War President was suf- fering from an attack of indigestion, al- The end was not unex- though his condition was not al that time considered serious. The next day, how- ever, reports from the sick-room assumed a more alarming tone, and on the follow- ing evening it became evident that death was only a matter of hours. Dr. Cary T. Grayson, Rear \ dmiral, U. S. N.. who had been detailed as the personal physician of Mr. Wilson since March, 1913, informed Mr. Wilson on Jan. 20 that his end was near. The dying man replied: “I am ready. I am a broken piece of machinery. When the machinery *s broken—” His voice failed for a mo- ment. Then he whispered: “ I am ready.” This was his last complete sentence. Thirty- six hours later he sank into a coma from which he did not awaken. His last word uttered late on the afternoon of Feb. 2— was the name of his wife, “ Edith.” At the bedside were Mrs. Wilson, Miss Margaret Wilson, Dr. Grayson and the two trained nurses, Miss Powderly and Miss Hewlett. Mrs. Wilson sat by the bed, holding her husband’s right hand, which had retained its power of feeline after his paralytic stroke in 1919. Miss Wilson was on the other side of the bed, with the others in the background. A few minutes after 11 o’clock Mr. Wilson's eyes opened. His wife and daughter spoke to him, but onal manifestation of grief Simple ceremonies was laid to rest in Washington Cathedral there was no indication of recognition, and a few moments later the feeble heart-beats ceased. Mr. Wilson’s fatal illness had its incep- tion in the paralytic stroke caused by the mental and _ physical . exertions of his speaking trip in advocacy of American adherence to the League of Nations in the Summer of 1919. when he entered the White House—he was then suffering from incipient Bright's dis- ease, was practically blind in one eye, and *n earlier life had been afflicted with a blood clot in one of his legs—by rigid adherence to the regimen laid down by his medical advisers he had been able to meet the demands made on his strength by the duties of his office in wartime. Then came the months of fearful strain and even more fearful loneliness in Paris, the battle with the Senate “irreconcilables ” who foueht his cherished plan for the League of Nations, and finally the rigors of the Western tour. It was more than his flesh and blood could stand. The first sign-of the 1m- pending catastrophe came on Sept. 25, 1919, while the Presidential special train was between Pueblo; Col., and Wichita, Kan. After ‘going to bed the President complained of feeling ill. Dr. Grayson, who had examined him after his speech at Pueblo, realized with a shock that a stroke of paralysis was impending when he saw a drooling of saliva from one corner of the President’s mouth and a pronounced drooping of the facial muscles on the left side. Disregarding Mr. Wilson’s protests, Dr. Grayson and Mrs. Wilson cul the trip short and returned hastily to Washington, Althoueh far from well 887 s888 THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 1924, where Mr. Wilson was able to walk unaided to his automobile. All went well until 4 A. M.. on Oct. 5, when Mrs. Wilson was awakened by the President calling in a weak voice from the bath- room. She called Dr. Grayson, and they found Mr. Wilson lying helpless on the floor of the bath- room. His left leg had crumpled under him and he was semi-con- scious. Dr. Grayson rolled the helpless form on to a rug, picked up the corners and dragged it across the hall to the bedroom. Where with Mrs. Wilson’s aid he put the President in bed. Woodrow Wilson had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on the right side of the brain. His left side was paralyzed and the shadow of death was upon him. Expert medical attendance, careful nurs- ing and the exercise of undaunted will power prolonged his exist- ence. But his hold on life was weak and he had not enough energy left to withstand any shock arising from digestive or other ir- regularity. The news of his death created profound emotion throughout the world, and from the first an- nouncement until the body Was The crypt in the centre of the aisle in the Bethlehem laid away in the crypt of the Chanel bere the late President. was buried in the Cathedral] a Sr. Albans Heichts rotestant lWpiscopal Cathedral, W ashington at Washington, D. C., a deep sense of grief and sorrow seemed to brood PNG Chace satee Pe. os ee eon rea over the civilized earth. Jérsey. The duties of this high office he os conducted as to win the confidenee of the > pa Dan ve E people of the United States, who twice PRESIDENT’S PROCLAMATION elected him to the Chief Magistracy of the ; : xa ; Republic. President Coolidge, on beine informed As President of the United States he was c : ene ¥ - moved by an earnest desire to promote the or the death of Mr. VY ilson, immediately _ best interests of the country as he conceived wae ; Bihar ee ; : them. His acts were prompted by high mo- issued the following proclamation: tives and his sincerity of purpose canaot be Serie as questioned. He led the nation through the ra ee Goel OF pre Cavied: Stat Sia) rerrific struggle of the World War with a 1€ death of Woodrow Wilson, President lofty idealism which never failed him. He of the United States from March 4, 1913; to Save utterance to the aspiration of humanity March 4, 1921, which occurred at 11:15 o'clock With an eloquence Which held the attention today at his home at Washington District Fae tne earth and made America a gh of Columbia, deprives the country of a most and sShiareed ane ences ive the eS Unive os distinguished citizen, and is an event which ea a : . : causes, universal and genuine sorrow. To In testimony of the Tesbect. in’ which shis many of us it brings the sefise of a profound memory is held by the Government and the personal bereavement, People of the United States, I_do hereby His early profession as a latvia ne crect that the flags of the W hite House Bho a. ehh aaa ema ee was and of the several deparmental buildings be aban oned to enter academic life. In this displayed at half-staff for a period of thirty chosen fieid he attained the highest rank days, ‘and that suitable military and naval as an educator and has left his impress upon honors, under orders of the Secretary of War the intellectual thought of the country. 5 and of the Secretary of the Navy, may be From the Presidency of Princeton Univer- rendered on the day of the funeral, :Mar., 1924 THE DEATH OF WOODROW WILSON 889 Done at the City of Washington this third tion were fought. He was then elected and day of February, 1n the year of Our Lord re-elected President of the United States One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty- which is to us, and which I believe to be the four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the One Hunired ana 3 Forty-eighth. During his period of service in the Presi- Se eye SEY the wae with Germany, the . bayee : most terrible war from which manki as Proclamations of similar import were See ta the period - as hee mp p ae ais Wey ee < orye After the victory of the Allied < issued by Governors and Mayors through- Associated Powers it fell to De. eaisen t out the country. W hen Congress reassem- play the leading part in the unspeakably J Ogee = difficult work of making peace. He stood bled on Monday. Feb. 4, the death of Mr. there, a chief figure in this great transac- a J? tion, and so he will stand in the pages of Wilson was officially announced, and after _ history in the days that are to come, greatest office among men. eulogies had been delivered by the Repubs: epee fisure more conspicuous Wen i 8 : J his in the events of that time, which closed lican and Democratic floor leaders both one period in the history of mankind and F 2 1: = opened another. Here in the capital of the houses adjourned, the Senate for four ¢ ays country, the scene of his many triumphs, : ; " this remarkable career comes to an end. In and the House for two. svmpathy and sorrow, and with every mark SENATOR LODGE’S EULOGY Senator Lodge, who was the leader of the irreconcilable opposi- tion to President Wil- a . d son’s foreign policy. in the course of his eulogy, said: T can say for myself and, I believe, for all my colleagues on this side of the chamber that we have heard with profound sorrow the formal announce- ment of the death of President Wilson. In common with all the people of this country, we have felt a very deep sympathy for the suffering of President Wilson during his long iliness, which he has borne without com- plaint and with — so much fortitude. Mr. Wilson was 2 man of remarkable ability and of strong character. Through laborious years of thought and study he devoted himself to se- curing a mastery of the historical subjects, the economic questions and the theory and science of politics and government, which commanded his espe- cial interest. He rose to be President of the ancient and honorable university of which he was a graduate. From this high place in the field of education he turned. to public life. He was elected to be Governor of New Jer- sey, one of the thirteen original States _ emi- nent in our history and on the _ soil of which so many of the President and Mrs. Coolidge arriving to take part in the funeral battles of the Revolu- ceremonies for the late President890 THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE ~ s YES People praying before the late President’s death in front of his home in S Street, Washington of homage, we stand with bowed heads in solemn. recognition of this event, at once sad and momentous, which has thus come upon us in the wisdom of the overruling Provi- dence’ that guides the destinies of mankind, SENATOR ROBINSON’S EULOGY Arkansas. Senator Robinson of cratic leader of the Senate, who presented the resolution, spoke as follows: The announcement that former Bee ee Woodrow Wilson has passed aw: causes grief throughout the civilized = ae The ill- ness which resulted in his death was pro- longed. During his suffering Mr. Wilson received numerous and pathetie evidences of sympathy from his fellow-countrymen. His departure marks the end of a career gilori- fied by many notable achievements. The eight years while Mr. Wilson served as. President may be aecounted the most momentous in modern history. Into this short period revolutions os immeasurable importance were crowded. The governmental problems solved during those eight years challenged the prudence, foresight and cour- age of the Chief Executive. The proper de- cisions of numerous weighty domestic ques- tions during his Administrations were com- plicated by disturbed conditions in our for- eign relations and by our participation in the great world conflict. Notwithstanding these distracting issues with other nations, the fiscal policy of the Government was rev-~ olutionized by far-reaching changes. in our banking and taxation Sy aeerne When the storm of wa swept Europe in 1914 the United States adoots dd a neutral policy. Many. .thought we Should openly espouse the cause of the Allies. The great majority of the American people, however, justified Mr. Wilson’s ‘course in this par- ticular. It was state Ssmanship of the most courageous order to keep our country out of the war until public sentiment compelled resentment and hostility toward the Central Umpties for the violation of personal and eroperty- rights of American citizens. The Demo- decision of Mr. Wilson as Commander-in- Chief of the Army and Navy to send our troops with all available supplies to the rescue of the Allies, fighting for their ex- istence along the battlefronts of BHurope, re- quired Uae De will power. Thousands were pleading that we Stand on the defen- sive. The de eas ition to hurry our troops to the front saved England, Italy and Hrance from protracted single-handed war Best the enemy. The financing of the ‘far, the .o)ganization of an effective quar- ti ‘rmaster service, prompt provision for transportation and the mobilization of all the physical and moral resources of the country were a gigantic task, made possible only by the spirit of loyalty and sacrifice — which thrilled the men and women of our nation. It has heen suggested that Mr. Wilson unwisely assumed personal direction of. our bart in the nevotiations at the Paris Peace Conference. He felt a personal responsibility —a duty which he could not delegate—to help in bringine about a just peace, an en- during peace. His plan for the preservation of world peace was rejected, and the treaty of peace incorpor: ating it failed of ratifica- tion in the Senate, largely. because it in- cluded the League of Nations Covenant. History must decide whe ther the rejection of the treaty by the Senate w: lS a mistake. As the leader of our country in its great- est crisis, he is passing into history with opinion divided as to the wisdom of some of his foreign policies. When confusion has siven place to calm conviction he must take high place among the renowned of all the ages, because of his exalted ideals. Neither eniloen nor defamation can materially influ- ence the estim: ition in which he will be held by future generations. It is unav: ailing either unduly to applaud or jealously to de- preciate what he has done and what he has tried to do. Measured both ways, he is easily recognized as the greatest man of his time. Men are not always judged by what they do; they are sometimes judged by what they try to do. One thing is certain. In the years to come, if war shall again desolate the earth and the mothers of this land be com- pelled to yield their sons to bloody strife,Mar., 1924 THE DEATH OF WOODROW WILSON 891 i | all they who fight and they who sorrow could not do this latter if we would. History } will rémember and bless» Woodrow Wilson, itself will adjust that, and _it is reasonably because he gave himself in an earnest effort safe to. assert that it will do so unerringly. to deliver them from the heritage of war. \We stand too close to his life work; our at- The final judgment of mankind will be fair, mosphere is yet too much surcharged with in spite of efforts to pervert it. Already recollections of his vivid personality and there has been a revival of his popularity, power to enable us to obtain that perspective and this will gather as the years go by. which will be the final judgment. Leaders in great crises do not depend on Circumstances of social contact and con- favor for renown. Earnestness is indeed flict were so shaped that by reason of the path of immortality, and they who tread his position the opportunity was presented that way are certain of enduring fame. In wherein his virtue and his genius made him the solemn presence of death we behold the for a time, at least, the outstanding indi- evidenees of tender sympathy and universal viduality of the world. He walked upon erief. Tears, tolling bells and héartfelt heights untouched before by human foot; he prayers throughout a grief-stricken land in- sought to break new trails for mankind. -Not spire appreciation for his hopes and his alone in Senates, Parliaments and Chancel- dreams—hopes ' for freedom for every peo- leries: not only In throne rooms and execu- ple—dreams of ‘‘peace on earth and good- tive courts and cloisters, Was his idealism will toward men.’’ weighed and analyzed, but its spirit perme- ater Wes great masses of men, and from all - t nl -pDRT a tT the tribes and races and peoples of all climes IN THE Hot SE Ol REPRESENTATIVES and all civilizations came the profound plau- - re > dits of brain and heart and wistful souls. Representative Nicholas Longworth, Re- It is not conceivable that the impressions so : ‘ | | : f } H ee created.shall perish from the psychology of publican floor leader of the ouse, al- humanity, but just what the full and ulti- % : - A el er Satna mate effects are to be history and destiny nouncing the death of Mr. W ilson, said: musi combine in coming centuries to tell. For us at this moment is just the sad and simple duty to cease for a brief time our labors that we may join the millions of our fellows and stand in solemn contemplation of the awe- some majesty of death. : { | President Wilson will be mourned not only throughout the United States of America, but throughout the entire civilized world, of which he was in his time_so outstanding a figure, Our hearts go out, T am well assured, with profound sympathy to his bereaved TI f 1] < d 2 : ¥ family, and particularly to the gracious lady 1e ollowing i1dentic resolution was who was his trusted and well-beloved com- 7 i : : ee Se A panion equally in the zenith of his great pow- adopte d by the House of Representatives ers and since illness came slowly but surely and the Senate: to undermine them. The House [Senate] having learned with Following Mr. Longworth, Representa- profound sensibility and sorrow of the death . & 2S : ° ? of Woodrow Wilson, former President of the tive Garrett said: United States; 2esolved, That as a token of honor to the Many there are throughout the world who many virtues, public and private, of the will proclaim that the foremost character of illustrious statesman, and as a mark of his generation and one of the foremost in all respect to one who has held such eminent history has passed on. Others will not accord public station, the Speaker of this House him such high praise. It is not for us now to shall appoint a committee to attend the fu- enter upon speculation or to attempt to fix neral of Mr. Wilson on behalf of the House, Woodrow Wilson's place in history. We Resolved, That such committee may join he o4 The scene outside the late President’s home in Washington when his body was taken from ¢ house to be conveyed tothe place of burial in the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral on Feb. 6 192THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 1924 The burial of President Wilson: Such committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate [House] to consider ana report by what further token of respect and affection it may be proper for the Congress of the United States to express the deep sensibility of the nation Resolved, That the clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate [House] and trans- mit a copy of the same to the afflicted family of the illustrious dead. Resolved, That the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House [Senate] be authorized and directed to take such steps as may be necessary for carrying out the provisions of these reso- lutions, and that the necessary expenses in connection therewith be paid out of the con- tingent fund of the House [Senate]. Resolved, That as a further mark of respect this House [Senate] do now adjourn. THE FUNERAL CEREMONIES The funeral of Mr. Wilson on Feb. 6 was the occasion for a national manifes- tation of regret and grief. Thousands of people gathered round his house. while tens of thousands lined the route followed by the funeral cortége and gathered in the grounds of St. Albans, the Episcopal Ca- thedral on the heights overlooking Wash- ington, where the body of the war Presi- dent was laid to rest. Services were held at the hour of the funeral throughout the nation, and the public services in the Beth- lehem Chapel of the cathedral were broad- cast by radio to millions of persons east of the Mississippi. Street traffic in New York and other cities was’ halted at 3 The automobile ISpiscopal C hearse conveying the body to the Protestant athedral P. M., remaining suspended for a brief period; telegraph wires throughout the na- tion were also silenced. Memorial ser- vices were held: throughout the nation and work was suspended in many public and private offices, The services over Mr. Wilson’s body were marked by the utmost simplicity Members of the family, a few intimate friends and high Government officials, in- cluding President Coolidge, who was ac- companied by Mrs. Coolidge, joined in the services at the Wilson residence. The Rev. James H. Taylor, pastor of the Cen- tral Presbyterian Church which Mr. Wil- son attended during his Presidency, read the Twenty-third Psalm. - Dr. Sylvester W. Beach, the dead man’s pastor for years at Princeton, delivered a brief prayer, and the Right Reverend James E. Freeman. Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Washing- ton, read the twenty-seventh verse of the Thirty-third Chapter of Deuteronomy and the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth verses of the Epistle of Jude. Members of the honor guard of twenty-four, selected from the army, navy and marine corps, then carried the body to the waiting hearse, and the cortége moved slowly through streets lined by silent crowds.Mar., 1924 THE DEATH OF WOODROW WILSON 893 At the cathedral the body, preceded by Dean Bratenahl, the choir and Bishop Free- man, with attending clergymen, was car- ried to the chancel. Close behind came Mrs. Wilson, heavily veiled. The services opened with an antiphonal reading of the Thirty-ninth Psalm, of which the Rev. Mr. Taylor read the first verse, the congrega- tion responding. Then Bishop Freeman read the lesson from the Order for the Burial of the Dead: There is one glory of the sun, and another elory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, tt is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory? The male voices of the choir sang the hymn, “Day Is Dying in the West,” and the Apostles Creed, the Lord’s Prayer and other prayers from the Episcopal ritual were repeated. Bishop Freeman pro- nounced the benediction and the congrega- tion retired io the recessional, “The Strife Is Over, the Battle Done,” leaving the members of the family to wait in the north vestibule while workmen removed the slabs of marble and concrete covering the entrance to the crypt of the cathedral. When all was ready Bishop Freeman and the attending clergymen took their places at the side of the opening, the soldier and sailor bearers placed the coffin on sup- porting beams over the vault and returned to their places near the altar. Mrs. Wil- son entered on the arm of William G. Me- Adoo, followed by the others. The Episcopal committal service was read. and the little group joined Bishop Freeman in reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Bishop Freeman pronounced the benedic- tion. and then, in accordance with Mrs. Wilson’s previously expressed wish, re- cited Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar.” The soldiers and sailors stepped forward, and as the nctes of “taps,” sounded outside The last resting place of President Wilsen: Architect’s drawing of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral, Washington, as it will be when completed894 THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 1924 the cathedral by an army musician, echoed through the chapel, the coffin was lowered into the vault and placed in its niche. The family stared mutely into the crypt for a moment while the workmen sealed up the niche by the light of their guttering can- dles: Then Mr. McAdoo led Mrs. Wilson away, the crypt was sealed, and Woodrow Wilson, broken from the battle of life. was left alone with eternity, Deep Grier THROUGHOUT THE Wor~tp— TRIBUTE BY Lioyp GEorcE The news of Mr. ilson’s death evoked a world-wide demonstration of sorrow and sympathy. From the heads of neutral States as well as the nations with which the United States was associated during the World War, and likewise from the heads of remote countries throughout the world, came fervent tributes to the War President’s memory. The most tender. per- haps, and withal the Most penetrating, came from David Lloyd George, Mr. Wil- son's collaborator jn the war and at the Peace Conference. Mr. Lloyd George said: Woodrow Wilson was a very great man, and, like al] éreat men, had his defeets, but these wiil be quickly forgotten in the mag- nitude of his life work. True, he Was a failure, but a glorious failure. He failed as Jesus Christ failed, and, like Christ, sacri- ficed his life in pursuance of his noble ideal]. He was just aS much a victim of the great War as any soldier who died in the trenches, He ruined his health in the endeavor to create a better and happier existence for the people of the whole world, and I am sure that the failure of his altruistic inspirations hastened his tragie end, It will perhaps be a generation before the Sreatness of Woodrow Wilson will be appre- ciated at its real value by his countrymen and the tragedy which closed his life will brine before the world the unselfishness of his ambitions as nothing else could, Like the tragedy which made for your Sreat mar- tyred Lincoln a, permanent place jin the hearts of the American people—even of those Who disagreed with him, as was made very apparent to me in my recent visit to the Southern States—the sad death of this great Statesman, this sreat American, Will in- delibly stamp his name among those at the very top of your history. Like Theodore Roosevelt, Mr, Wilson had violent likes and dislikes, and for this, as always is the penalty of Sreatness, he was violently criticized. T believe I may say that never have I seen Such _ vicious, cruel vituperation as Was heaped upon him at home and in Paris at the time of the Peace Conference. Such abuse never was leveled at any man in like position in history and it hurt him terribly. Criticism cut him like a knife. Had he been a lifelons Politician he could have Overlooked these attacks, Thirty years. or So of political life makes one invulnerable. TI know. But Wilson’s character was Such, he was of Such fine Stuff, that he was immensely sensitive to this public abuse and he suffered more than others would have done, I have no doubt that this helped to bring on his illness, Besides, he was a tireless worker. TI re- member when we were in Paris I would see lights in his room at all hours of the night as he worked at his League idea, 'The rest of us found time for solf and we took our Sundays off, but Wilson, in his zeal, worked incessantly. Only those who were there and witnessed it can realize the effort he ex- pended. He was a man whose personality grew upon one. When T -first met him here in Kngland I did not understand him, nor did Clemenceau in Paris, but when you spend every day for five months with a man you have opportunity to become well acquainted with him, and when it was over [Thad learned to appreciate his great gifts and to like him very much personally, and I re- member Clemenceau at the time telling me his feelings were similar. ; Yes, Woodrow Wilson was a very likable man, and I shall mourn his passing. I had the pleasure of spending a pleasant hour with him when I was in Washington Te- cently, and though his physical condition was a shock to me his wit was just as keen and his remarks were as brilliant as they ever were, He had a wonderful mind and, according to Admiral Grayson, whom I knew, he met the terrible agony of his ill- ness with a stoic courage that was remarka- ble. I can well understand such bravery in such @ man, The prevailing sentiment in France was one of gratitude to Mr. Wilson for Ameri- can aid in the war, opinions differing as to his greatness as a peace-maker. The Chamber of Deputies on the day of the funeral stopped a fierce political debate to unite all factions in a unanimous vote of sympathy and sorrow to be transmitted to the American Congress, and for a few moments the Chamber stood in silence, after which Premier Poincaré pronounced a brief eulogy. German public opinion saw in_ Mr. Wilson’s death only the passing of the man who had betrayed Germany by his Four- teen Points. Two Germans. however, had kinder words for him: Count von Bern- storff, German Ambassador to the United States prior to our entry into the World War, and Maximilian Harden, the pub- licist. Harden said: Certain it is that Wilson did not achieve as much as was hoped of him. * * # Equally certain it is, however, that Wilson sained for the United States a moral basis and world rank in which George Washington would see the fulfilment of his ideals. Only blind enmity can today still doubt the noble purity of Wilson’s motives. Wilson was in Paris the same man he was in Princeton, Trenton and Washington. Only, like the giant in ancient Greek mythology, he had lost part of the strength he had sucked from his home soil and therefore could be overcome and conquered in a to him alien element by people who were far from being: demigods like Hercules; who lifted up and in the air erushed to death Antaeus, who with his feet on his own Sround was invincible. ._ To President Wilson there remained noth- ing but hope in his League of Nations. The 4€aSue could, according to my firm convic-Mar., 1924: THE DEATH OF tion, if after definitely fixing the bounda- ries of its rights the United States were to co-operate therein, today achieve the splen- did goal of Wilson’s aspirations. The ease of Wilson is as tragic as Ham- tet’s. A noble soul, which for lack of bru- tality such as Lenin possessed, strains in its physical container, the body. Even as Shakes- peare’s graduate-Prince, So could the pro- fessor-President groan: ‘“‘The time is out of joint, O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right.’’ Wilson did not attain his goal. But when, or where either, in all history did high aspi- ration gain the peak in the first attempt? Wilson felt, thought and spoke as before him never did the head of a great State. The poorest and mightiest, hushed and awed hearkened to his word that seemed to sound from the threshold of a new era of purified political morality. This will come, because it must Come. Even for the grandest and most glorious of all visions, that of the Savior, an Apostle who knew mankind and earthly things had to build an earthly body around. Perhaps this Paul, too, will America give unto the world. Wilson’s glory, however, will sooner! or later shine from the darkness again and those who today still hesitate to count him among: the great American Presidents, even THE WOODROW WILSON 895 NS — « they will, wien the clouds of partisan po- litical controversies have passed away, be filled with eratitude that Woodrow Wilson, despite his shortcomings, has, through what he did and did not do, left behind among Americans the consciousness, the realiza- tion, that to the period of the World War America gave the greatest, noblest, purest figure. Count von Bernstorff characterized as propaganda the criticisms of Mr. Wilson, and described the War President as ~ not quite statesman enough to win out against allied diplomacy at Paris.” In Argentina, as well as in other South American countries, and throughout Cen- tral America, the day of the funeral was set aside as a day of public mourning. Flags were half-masted not only in the United States but also in many foreign countries. STATESMANSHIP OF WOODROW WILSON By James W. GERARD Former United States Ambassador to Germany Measures by which history will estimate the late Presi- dent’s high qualities as initiator of policies and executive— Benefits of the Federal Keserve system—Government ard to farmers—Railroad and commerce legislation—T he Mexican crisis—His part in the war and world politics HE further we are from the achieve- ments of a man’s life the more clear- ly do we see and understand them. The little details that once seemed so im- portant disappear, and we begin to see the ereat lines which mark the success or fail- ure of a human career. Woodrow Wilson, the world’s greatest idealist, lies in the beautiful cathedral which overlooks the capital City of Washington, and already we begin to measure the greatness and per- manence of his statesmanship. A little soon, perhaps, a little uselessly, for history and posterity, not his contemporaries, will render the verdict on his life. Politician or statesman? That is the first question. There can be no dispute: Woodrow Wilson was a statesman—never surrendering ideals or ideas or even preju- dices for the mere political advantage of the moment. Today, when it is known that conquest is a great illusion, mere acquisition of ter- ritory by a ruler is no longer the criterion of success. But acquisition by peacetul means must still be considered success- ful statesmanship. The beautiful Danish Islands, during President Wilson's Admin- istration, were added to our colonial crown. Much of the credit for the diplo- matic work involved is due to our truly great representative, Maurice Francis896 Egan. But the backing of President Wilson insured the success of the negotiations. Much criticism was directed against Wil- son's Mexican policy. Today, as General Obregon drives the rebels into the sea at Vera Cruz, the Wilson policy is successful. I went to Mexico in 1910 as one of the rep- resentatives of the United States to the celebration of the one hundredth anniver- sary of the commencement of the war for Mexican independence. The night before we left there was a grand ball in the patio of the National Palace, and there I had an opportunity to make by farewells to Presi- dent Diaz. I said: “Mr. President, the next time I come to Mexico I hope to speak bet- ter Spanish.” With prophetic vision the old warrior replied: “The next time you come [| shall not be here.”” And he went on to say that he had made two grave errors in his Administration. He had not soon enough introduced universal education and he had not forced a division of the lands of the great proprietors so as to create a solid, farming, middle class. Within a short time Diaz was a fugitive. The Madero revolution was successful. and then General Huerta, turning on Madero, took him prisoner, and while a prisoner Madero was mysteriously assassinated. Huerta as dictator Wilson refused to recog- nize, taking the position that the United States should not recognize those dictators who had gained their places by assassina- lion. After a period of revolution and counter-revolution Obregon emerged; a Statesman and a warrior who forced the division of lands and‘who was on the point of peacefully surrendering the Presidency to a legally elected successor, when the second Huerta, disappointed candidate. re- belled and sought to gain the Presidency by force of arms. The poor success of his movement shows that Mexico no longer favors election by revolution. The ideals of Woodrow Wilson have prevailed. His much-criticized Mexican policy has been vindicated. One of the first problems in our foreign policy that presented itself was decided by Wilson in the broad Spirit of international Justice. He was subjected to attack be- cause he decided that we should strictly observe the provisions of the Hay-Paunce- fote treaty and that American shins should THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 1924. not be toll exempt in the Panama Canal. To decide otherwise meant a decision against the solemn obligation of the treaty. The blame should be placed where it be- longs—on the shoulders of Hay and the Administration behind him which negoti- ated and ratified a treaty so inimical to the interests of the United States. During President Wilson’s Administra- tion, and through his approval of Secre- tary of State Bryan’s idea, arbitration treaties were made with thirty nations. These treaties provide for negotiations for a year after a dispute arises between us and any nation before war can be declared. Certainly the simplest and most practical way to keep the peace. It is interesting to recall that Germany alone of the great powers refused to sign this treaty with the United States, because, as the Secretary: for Foreign Affairs told me: “If we sign with you it makes no difference to us, but if we do France, Russia and Great Britain will ask us to sign similar treaties; if we re- fuse a refusal is almost a declaration of war. If we sign and hold to the treaty we lose our greatest asset in war—our readi- ness for sudden and unexpected attack.” Since the days of the old United States Bank many suggestions for the improve- ment and centralization of our banking and currency system had been made. It remained for Woodrow Wilson and_ his aids, in Congress and out, to crystallize these ideas and produce the system which in troublous times has been the salvation of our banking and business—the Federal Reserve Banks. To the farmer, broken by high interest rates paid for borrowed money, the Federal Farm Loan banks. established during Wilson’s Administra- tion, gave a needed relief, The establishment of the Tariff Commis: sion was the first step to put the tariff where it belongs—outside of the realm of politics. The Federal Trade Commission gives protection to the honest business man. It is not difficult to sit by the fire in an easy chair and criticize the adoption of the eight-hour day on the railroads. But stand on a freight car in snow and sleet¢ fire a locomotive in the heat of Summer, you will find eight hours ample time when given to assiduous labor. The eight-hour day means more contented workingmen.Mar., 1924, THE STATESMANSHIP better citizens, better educated citizens, healthier children and better homes. At a time when intolerance raises its ugly head in many places in our country, it is not amiss to call attention to the spirit of toleration which ever animated Wood- row Wilson. Jews and Catholics were his friends and were by him appointed to high offices and administered them well. The crusading spirit of his Puritan ancestors and his Presbyterian upbringing found an outlet in his attacks on injustice and on wrong. No man can be a great statesman who cherishes the intolerant prejudices of the small minded. Woodrow Wilson’s last public act was to send me a letter, three days before his death, agreeing to become a member of the committee to raise funds for the suffering and starving intellectuals of Germany. From the first Woodrow Wilson viewed the World War in its proper scale. He could forget the details and grasp the plan in all the breadth and possibilities of this awful world catastrophe. The ex-Kaiser said to me in the gardens of the chateau at Charleville during the discussion of sub- marine war: “Why does not America go after England, which is violating, by its blockade, the rules of international law ?” and my answer that if two men came to M) house and one of them murdered my sister and the other stepped on the flower beds | - would first attack the murderer, was only the reflection and the echo of Woodrow Wilson’s broad view of the situation and of the policy we should pursue. Our War Department may be criticized for not realizing the nearness of war and preparing for it, so that all experiments might have been tried and measures de- cided upon before we entered the world conflict. This neglect of war details in the War Department cannot be imputed to President Wilson. For when we at last stood shoulder to shoulder with the Allies in the fight for civilization and democracy no nation was ever more gloriously, more efficiently led. By some believed impossi- ble, the selective draft, a great measure of justice, went into operation with the smoothness or a well-oiled and great ma- chine, and in all departments of the war, from the huge number of men required to make our entrance effective to the details rar a OF WOODROW WILSON 897 JAMES W. United GERARD States Germany Former Ambassador to of ordering rolling stock sent to General Allenby to enable him to win in Palestine, it was ever Woodrow Wilson who made the decision. Alone in this country he had erasped the vastness of the problem and had grappled with it on the same vast scale. He did not hesitate—our object was to and, seconded by a determined nation inspired_by the zeal of Crusaders, the directness of Purt- tans, he drove on, taking over railroads, win and to win quickly fuel, food and telegraphs—all but with one view—victory. A merchant fleet almost by magic came into being—in a word, it was Woodrow Wilson who by the force of his will brought victory and saved us from the forces that would have en- slaved a world. “To err is human,” and in the career of Woodrow Wilson it is possible that three mistakes were made. First, it is charged that if he had remained in this country in-898 THE CURRENT. “HISTORY. MAGAZINE Mar., 1924 stead of going to the Versailles Confer- ence he would have been able to remain in the background, a great mysterious force, speaking only through his representatives and at the critical moment throwing his power into the scales in behalf of forgive- ness and peace and against the Allies’ policy of land grabbing and revenge. But in his trip to Paris he learned the greatest point of soreness in the whole European situation—the haunting fear which France has of invasion from Germany. It is this fear—the dread by France, already invaded forty-seven times in her history from the east—of German conquest that makes France today keep on foot the best army in the world and that great fleet of airplanes —a source of fear to turn to the British no longer safe behind the barrier of their silver seas. It is this fear, not hope of reparations, which drove France to seize the Ruhr, source of German munitions of war. The far-seeing eye of Wilson saw all this, and he was ready to promote world peace by pledging security to France. Second, some critics say that he should have taken with him Republicans like Taft. Lodge and Root, perhaps one day saying, "1 am not well today, Taft. Won't you take my place? There is a very important meeting on—the constitution of the World Court, and I am sure you understand that better than I do.” Or that, on another day, he might have sent Root or Lodge, so that they all would have had a part in the framing of the treaty and the League. And these critics allege that there is no doubt but that Taft and Lodge and Root would have toured Amer. ica to advocate the adoption of the League; but would these men have been as helpful as many suppose? Could anything have appeased the implacable political enmity of Lodge? Where was Taft and his League to Enforce Peace as soon as the League of Nations became a football of politics? And could the Big Business friends of Root have viewed with anything but disfavor any con- nection with one whose policy as to rail- roads, telegraphs and the eight-hour day they so violently opposed? ' A third mistake, based, however. on the advice of ill-advised and ill-advising poli- ticlans, was the demand for a partisan Con- gress from a nation which during the war had forgotten party, had loyally seconded every move of the Government and which deeply resented this summons on_ party lines. It is undoubtedly true that the call should have been for the election of patriots, not partisans. It has been said that Wilson’s failing, if failing it was, was his failure to understand men. He exacted high service, the service of unfailing ma- chines. He did not realize that men are but grown-up boys who do their best work when patted on the head and given a few words of encouragement. But his confi- dence once given, his appointment once made, he stood by his subordinates in the face of bitter attacks, crawling intrigue and envious backbiting. He gave great dis- cretionary powers and looked only at the results obtained. He felt that he led a great army of civilians and that he could not be expected to stop in his work and reaffirm to every soldier a confidence once given. Great internal reforms carried through: the public, business men, workingmen all served; the monetary system, the very fount and basis of all prosperity, stabil- ized and kept stable; a great war carried to a successful conclusion and the United States of America placed in the forefront of the nations, not as a conquering but as a crusading nation seeking nothing at the peace table but justice for all the world: a great opportunity for the nations strug- gling in the maze of age-long hatreds and revenges—all this is due to Woodrow Wil- son, leader of America, who will stand out in history as the pre-eminent statesman of his age. Nations like individuals have moments at the forked roads of opportu- nity which are marked failure and success. Napoleon said that great leaders must be merchants of hope. Woodrow Wilson offered to the nations the greatest of all merchandise — permanent and_ universal peace. That his merchandise was refused does not detract from the undying fame of Woodrow Wilson, leader and statesman,THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT A review of Woodrow Wilson’s early history, scholastic career, and successes and failures in applying his ideas to the practical problems of State, national and world politics shee oes WOODROW WILSON (he dropped the first name early in life) was born on Dec. 28, 1856, at Staunton, Va.. where his father, the Rev. Joseph Rug- gles Wilson, was pastor of the Presbyte- rian Church. The elder Wilson was the son of an Ulster immigrant, and had mar- ried in Steubenville, Ohio, Jessie Woodrow, the daughter of a Scotch clergyman, who had come to that State via Cumberland and Canada. Not long after Woodrow Wilson’s birth the family moved to Augusta, Ga., where they lived during the Civil War and the early period of reconstruction. Augusta was out of the fighting zone, and the war touched the family only as it touched every family in the South, but those who knew Woodrow Wilson well in later years thought that he got his first stimulus to political thinking under the impressions of the reconstruction period. He received a good many of the essentials of an educa- tion at home, and attended at Augusta a private school opened by a Confederate veteran. His studies were continued in an academy at Columbia, S. C., when the family moved there, and in 1873 he en- tered Davidson College, a Presbyterian ‘nstitution in North Carolina. Ill health compelled him to leave before the college year was over. In 1875, after preparatory study at home, he entered Princeton. His undergraduate career was not par- ticularly distinguished; he finished thirty- eighth in a class of 106, with good grades in the literary and political studies. but no very brilliant showing in the natural sciences. He learned, for taking notes at lectures, that. shorthand which he after- ward used in drafting his notes to the German Government. He had taken some part in oratory and debating, but without distinction and his chief college honor 899 seems to have been the editorship of The Princetonian. During his senior year, however, he wrote an essay on ~ Cabinet Government in the United States.” which was published in The International Review. In this may be found the germ of his theories of the place of the Executive in the American Govern- ment. In the main it was a protest against entrusting the virtual direction of all legis- lation to standing committees of the two houses. and an argument in favor of a re- sponsible Cabinet, which should sit in Coneress, take over the direction of legis- lative policy, and be answerable at all times to the people’s representatives. These ideas were more fully developed seven years later in his Ph. D. thesis at Johns Hopkins, but there is a direct and visible between the college student, who was elated by the receipt of a small check for his first published article, and the President of the United States who went down into the committee rooms of Congress to urge the passage of measures supported by the Administration. Immediately after leaving Princeton he entered the Law School of the University of Virginia, where he remained about a year and a half before poor health sent him to Wilmineton, N. C., where he com- pleted his legal education by private study. At Virginia he had won considerable dis- tinction in oratory; but he is also said to have expressed an opinion that the law had ceased to be a profession and had become a mere trade. connection He Becomes A TEACHER In 1882 he began to practice in Atlanta, but for law as a trade he appeared to have no aptitude. So in 1883 he entered the eraduate school at Johns Hopkins and re- mained there for two years as a student900 THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 1924. and fellow in history and political science. Here he was successful and made a deep impression upon teachers and fellow- students. That impression obtained for him in 1885 an Associate Professorship of History and Political Economy at Bryn Mawr. On June 24 of the same year he was married to Miss Ellen Louise Axson, daughter of a Presbyterian clergyman in Savannah. A year later he received his Ph. D. from Johns Hopkins, and the thesis written for that degree, entitled “Congressional Gov- ernment: A Study in American Politics.” has gone into numerous editions and been generally used as a textbook. Its central ideas were those suggested in the essay of seven years before, the need of some better supervisor of legislation than irresponsible standing committees. Dr. Wilson was be- coming noticed as a political student of growing reputation. After three years at Bryn Mawr he be- came professor of history and_ political economy at Wesleyan, and after two years more (in 1890) he was called to the Chair of Jurisprudence at Princeton. He served his Alma Mater twelve years as professor and then for eight more as President be- fore he resigned to put his political theories into practice. During this period he held outside lectureships from time to time at Columbia, Johns Hopkins and New York University. In his years as professor he wrote con- tinually, both books and magazine articles, and came constantly into greater demand as a public speaker. A distinction can be drawn between the two fields of his liter- ary work—the historical books and essays, such as “A History of the American Peo- ple”® (1902), “Division and Reunion” (1893), and “George Washington” (1896). were of a general and popular character. They seem to have represented by-products of the large industry of his study of politi- cal theory and more particularly political practice, and it is in his writings and speeches on politics during this period that the student can trace clearly a tena- cious hanging-on to the original idea of the place of the Executive in the American Government. That place, according to Woodrow Wilson, was as the representa- tive of the whole people, responsible for the advocacy before Congress of the greater policies which could not be en- trusted to.a body whose members were concerned with local interests, nor to standing committees, impregnable to criti- cism and managed largely by log-rolling. A Stronc Supporter oF CLEVELAND That view was advanced in “The State: Elements of Historical and Practical Poli- tics,” published in 1889. It was further developed in an address before the Vir- ginia Bar Association in 1897. It was reflected in an essay on “Mr. Cleveland as President,” in which Dr. Wilson expressed high appreciation of the Chief Executive who was going out of office amid so much disapproval. Those who praised Mr. Cleveland as he was going back into private life were a select and small company, and Dr. Wilson joined them by declaring that “no such great personality has appeared in our pol- itics since Lincoln.” One phrase in that essay is of prophetic interest as bearing on Mr. Wilson’s conception of public ser- vice in general and the Presidency in par- ticular: “A certain tough and stubborn fibre is necessary, which does not easily change, which is unelastically strong.” Dr. Wilson’s elevation to the Presidency of Princeton compelled him to restrict the volume of his writing, and perhaps re- moved the necessity for his more popular ventures. But it increased the demand for him as a public speaker, and in spite of his necessary occupation with problems of university administration and finance. and new questions as to the direction and pur- pose of a university, he found time to con- tinue the development of his political ideas, one might almost say of his single political idea. The times were developing it also: a series of lectures at Columbia University in 1908, afterward published under the tittle of “Constitutional Government in the United States,” show some reflection of the change that had come over the methods of American politics. Presidential direction of policy, which had seemed only a dream of the distant future in 1879 and 1885. was becoming a practical possibility with the examples of Cleveland and Roosevelt in memory; it was to become to some a desirable possibility a few years later,Mar., 1924 THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT when standpatters and progressives fought for the control over the Government around and over William Howard Taft. There was more prophecy in one of those lectures. Mr. Wilson had discussed the possibility of the President, if thwarted by the House of Representatives, carrying the issue to the country as the British Premier would do and getting a mandate. and observed that >this was out of the question with the Senate. He added: But there is another course which the Pres- ident may follow, and which one or two Pres- idents of unusual political sagacity have fol- lowed, with the satisfactory results that were to have been expected. He may himself bs less stiff and offish, may himself act in the true spirit of the Constitution and establish intimate relations of confidence with thé Senate on his own initiative, not earrying his plans to completion and then laying them in final form before the Senate to be accepted or rejected, but keeping himself in confidential communication with leaders of the Senate while his plans are in course, when their ad- vice will be of service to him and his infor- mation of the greatest service to them, in order that there may be veritable counsel and a real accommodation of views instead of a final challenge and contest. Arrracts WipER ATTENTION By addresses, lectures and writings of this sort he was becoming known to a steadily widening public as a man with clear ideas about practical reform of governmental methods; ideas which he as- serted to be founded in the letter and spirit of the Constitution itself, and in conflict only with the perverted practices that had grown up. He was a new man from a new field with clear notions of what should be done and the force that seemed sufficient to do them, and in times when a constantly growing part of the public is becoming convinced that many things needed change he began to stand out as a leader. He said what he thought and said it well: it remained to be demonstrated that he thought what the new movement thought. Proof of that soon began to ac- cumulate. In Colonel Harvey’s North American Review for October, 1909, he published a critical article on the Payne- Aldrich tariff. His study included a de- nunciation of “the policy of silence and secrecy” by which such bills were drawn and a demand for modification of the ma- chinery, which, should give the public an opportunity to see what was being done before the result was beyond the reach of criticism. Alone with this were observa- tions on a tariff policy, deprecation of a 901 Woodrow Wilson as Governor of New Jersey in 1912. when he was. conducting his first campaign for the Presidency sweeping return to a purely revenue basis, and an argument in favor of sradual re- ductions of tariffs to the point where the possibility of competition enforced effi- ciency of operation. His LireERARY WORK Wilson made a distinct reputation as & scholar and author aside from politics. He began with his doctor’s thesis, which gave him a place of acknowledged im- portance among the interpreters of Amer- ‘can institutions, and many of its elucida- tions were embodied by James Bryce in his “American Comomnwealth.” From the outset he believed that the fine art of Iit- erature should be applied in writing about politics. “Politics,” he said in an early essay, “can be expounded by means of the highest literary methods. Only master workers in language and in the groupings and interpretations of heterogeneous ma- terials can achieve the highest success in making real in words the complex life of States. In order really to know anything about government you must see it alive;902 PRESIDENT WILSON’S FIRST WIFE Hllen Louise Wilson (née Axson), by Whom he had three daughters and who died in 1914 and the object of the writer on politics should be nothing less than this. to paint government to the life, to make it live again upon his page.” This was the standard which Woodrow Wilson set for himself as a historian. All his activities as student and teacher and writer were in conformity with that stand- ard. Yet he was not an author from choice. He never set’ out consciously to become an author. Of his five-volume ~ History of the American People,” his most brilliant as well as his largest literary achievement, he said: “ It grew out of a Series of papers or essays on different phases of American history, a number of which were printed. They were not in any way related. I wrote these historical essays as much as anything to make my own con- ception of American history definite and to give them a body and substance. Then. too, I wished somewhat to let others see American. history and American men as I myself viewed them.” After he became President of Princeton THE CURRENT HIS TORY MAGAZINE Mar., 1924 he found no time to write books. An occa- sional essay, educational addresses and a few speeches commenting on politics and economic questions of the day were his only written expressions. As a college professor, however, he used to devote to writing all the forenoons during which he did not lecture. He often forced himself to work. He trained himself to work me- thodically. He could not work in any case until his desk was in perfect order. Mr. Wilson’s second book, “ The State.” was used as.a textbook in many schools and colleges. There followed two books of essays, “ An Old Master” and “ Mere Literature,” which showed very clearly his deep literary concerns, the second volume being a protest against the making of lit- erature a scientific study. Other works were ~ The Free Life” (1913), “The New Freedom” (1913), “ When a Man Comes to Reunion” (1893), “George Washing- ton” (1896), “ Constitutional Government of the United States” (1908), “State Ele- ments of Historical and Practical Politics ” (1889), “ Division and Himself ” (1915) and “On Being Human” (1916). PouiticaL Drirr Towarp His IDEAS While Woodrow Wilson was thus growing in public estimation the times were rapidly prepar- ing for the entry of new forces into politics. The insurgent movement had shattered the Re- publican Party and was growing in power every day, but the activities of the “lunatic fringe” alarmed many men, who still felt’ that some change was necessary, and the prospective reap- pearance of Colonel Roosevelt in politics raised instinctive objections to the third term. On March 19, 1910, came. the revolution in the House of Representatives which overthrew the power of Speaker Cannon. It was an im- portant battle in the campaign for political re- form, but it was still more important to Woodrow Wilson. For in recent years the Speaker had in practice exercised that direction and promotion of legislation which in the Wilsonian system was the function of the President. With a powerful influence ‘suddenly removed there was a_ better chance for bringing in something to take its place. President Taft, meanwhile, condoned measures of which he did not approve, such as the tariff bill, and the Wilson ideas of the Presi- dential function gained in acceptability accord- ingly. Nevertheless, in the years leading up to 1912, not many outside of Dr. Wilson himself seem to have attached much weight to his views on the machinery of the Government: the country atlO Or re =e = Mar., 1924 THE LATE PRESIDENT’S large was interested in him chiefly as a new and forceful representative of the popular politi- cal ideas, who was not handicapped by any accumulation of political enemies. People began to listen*for what he said; and when he talked, now and then, to Democratic audiences in New Jersey in the Spring of 1910, his opinions were read with increasing interest. Hence, as his friend and biographer, Professor Henry Jones Ford, observes: Dr. Wilson’s attention to public affairs, and so frequent were the occasions on which he gave his views, that it is impossible to point to any event that marked his entrance into public life. It was a thing of gradual development.” “So constant was Tue ConFLicts AT PRINCETON Meanwhile his administration at Princeton had siven him some preparation for sovernmental problems, as well as for the meeting of political opposition. When he came into the Presidency of the university in 1902, the current which in the last decades of the nineteenth century had swept science into an overmastering position in American universities had reached its furthest point. It was about time for the ebb-tide, and Mr. Wilson was one of those who helped the process along by emphasis on the enduring value of the classics. RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 903 Many universities were at that time dominated by the elective system, which was too apt to result ina’ product without training or organized knowledge of any sort. Through Mr. Wilson’s efforts the Princeton curriculum was organized into studies and the elective’ system modified so as to provide fora closely prescribed course in the first two years and considerable liberty of choice in the last two. sroups of While Mr. Wilson was thus getting rid of some of the bad features of German education, as in- troduced into America by German-trained educa- tors, he was introducing into Princeton one of the best of English universities. The preceptorial which he established at Princeton, like the tutorial system in England, features system, provides for the supervision of the work of small croups of undergraduates by a young instructor, who outlines the course of reading and, by fre- quent conferences, sees that the reading is done. The burden of imparting all knowledge was thus taken off the lecturers, who were enabled to make their talks less soporific; and the practice of learning enough in cram courses to pass the ex- amination received a considerable setback, These reforms he carried through successfully but other changes which he attempted met with powerful opposition. The English tutorial system ms President Wilson addressing Congress in accordance with the practice of the first Presidents r the Republic, which he revived atter a lapse of nearly a century ee ee904 THE CURRENT HISTORY a MAGAZINE Mar., 1924) was accepted on its merits, but another feature of English university life, which Mr. Wilson tried to introduce, a modification of the Oxford and Cambridge college system, did not find favor at Princeton. His plan would have established quadrangles, boarding and lodging perhaps a hundred students each, with some younger in- structors, in the hope that each quadrangle might become a centre of intellectual and social com- munity life for all its members, such as the Ox- ford and Cambridge colleges are in theory sup- posed to be, and sometimes are. It was an effort to-solve the social problem afflicting all Amer- ican colleges and universities, in which compara- tively few of the student body get intensive social activity through fraternities or clubs, while the majority are a disorganized, unsocial mass. How the quadrangle plan would haye worked in prac- tice is uncertain, for the opposition of the alumni and the upper class clubs of Princeton was enough to lay it on the table after a two years’ fight. During this conflict Mr. Wilson made the com- parison of the modern American university to a circus, which aroused feeling on both sides in the dispute. “The side shows have become so numerous, so diverting, so important if you will, that they have eaten up the circus, and we in the main tent are often obliged to whistle before our audiences, humiliated and disgraced.” At about the same time he remarked that he wanted Princeton to be a college, not an exclusive coun- try club. This fight was not ended when the quadrangle plan was dropped in 1907; its repercussions in club life broke out in the undergraduate body after Woodrow Wilson had moved to the White House. It brought him many friends and ad- mirers; it also brought him enemies among the students and alumni of the university. THe GrapuATE ScHoot ContTROVERSY A year or so later another fight made more enemies. A project for a grAduate school. to be magnificently housed and equipped, had been worked out by Professor Andrew F. West, who be dean of the The was on an elaborate scale that did not commend itself to Mr. Wilson, whose interest cen- tred in the development of instruction for the undergraduates. Early in 1910 William Cooper Procter of Cincinnati, who made an excursion into national politics _ ten later supporter of General Wood, offered the univer- sity half a million dollars for a graduate school to be erected on a site specified by himself and removed by some distance from the university. After considerable debate on the matter, Mr. Wilson refused it. Acceptance would have meant not only decision of the controversy over the graduate school in Dean West’s favor, but de- cision by an outsider whose only claim to be was to school. proposal was years as a arbiter was his possession of money. The refusal aroused much antagonism and sharpened the | animosity of those who had opposed Mr. Wilson | on the quadrangle issue. Alumni and trustees | split on the question and debate was crowing | more vigorous when the will of Isaac Wyman, | an old graduate who had lately died in Mas- | sachusetts, was found to leave $3,000,000 to the | university for a graduate school—and one of | the trustees was Dean West. There were not many who would have sup: | ported Mr. Wilson in the attempt to refuse this amount of money. He was beaten, plainly, on the graduate school: Mr. Procter’s offer was re newed and accepted. The modern American university cannot well go on as_ before when its Faculty contains a man who has beaten the President, and the demand among some of the alumni for Mr. Wilson’s resignation seemed supported by the logic of the situation. In 3 sense, Dean West had pushed him out of Prince- ton, but he fell upstairs. The public had seen in his fight with the “aristocracy” of the clubs, and with moneyed men on the Board of Trustees of the university, a dramatization of the struggle against “special privilege,’ which was then agitating the country, Wilson was regarded as a champion of democ- racy against the caste and the money power; so, for every friend he lost in Princeton he gained a hundred admirers outside. All over the country people began to think that this man could be used in a larger field. system ELECTED GovERNOR or NEw JERSEY A Governor of New Jersey was to be elected in 1910. The Democratic Party was certain to benefit in the Congressional elections, and in most State elections, too, by the Republican split and the revolt against Cannonism and the Payne-Aldrich tariff. People began to talk of Woodrow Wilson as a candidate for Governor of New Jersey, and the talk spread so widely that when the Democratic State Convention met on Sept. 15 he was nominated on the first ballot. The people the country over who had read of and admired Wilson had not hoped for his election as Governor of New Jer- sey; they were thinking of him-as a Presi- dential possibility. In a sense. his entry into State politics was a sort of minor league “try-out” and seasoning which might fit him for a national réle. Wilson won the Governorship by 49,000 votes—a great accomplishment in a State which had been Republican in recent years, and anMar., 1924 THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 905 Me “2 give him a trial, but this did not alter the fact that he had been nominated by the Dem- ocratic State machine, which was controlled by ex-Senator James Smith Jr. During the campaien Dr. Wilson had promised to fight boss rule in both parties and obtain reforms in govern- mental machinery by the in- troduction of independent men into public office and by “pitiless publicity.” The time for “pitiless pub- licity’” was at hand. Unit:-d States- Senators were still elected by Legislatures, but New Jersey had passed a pref- erential primary law, provid- ing that the Legislature should be bound by the popular vote in its choice of a Senator. The law had not been taken wiih seriousness, nor was the can- didate who won the primary, James E. Martine, so taken. But when the election pro- and his first grandchild. Bowes Sayre and Mrs. Sayre, the President’s second daug President Wilson son of Francis Miss Jessie Wilson, child was born accomplishment that could not altogether be accounted for by the general Demo- cratic victory the country over. The victory at the polls was only the beginning of his preliminary trial, which would make or break him as a Presidential candidate in 1912. There was a great deal of work to be done in New Jersey. The State had been the favorite home for cor- porations seeking to have their activities made easier by generous laws, and in a time when there was a general distrust of all corporations it was felt-that this sort of thing must be ended. New Jersey had political problems of its own: some needed only improved machinery, some required a change of heart. But Mr. Wilson had to undergo another test before he came to the actual work of administration. In a sense he had been a national candi- date for a State office. Men all over the country had hoped that New Jersey would Francis Sayre, hter. at the White House on Jan. 17, duced a Legislature with a’ safe Democratic majority on joint ballot, ex-Senator Smith, who had previously said that his health prevented his entry into the primary, suddenly let it be known that he would accept an election to the Senate. formerly The 1915 Governor Wilson thought otherwise, and before he went into office he turned on the “pitiless publicity.” He told legislators that they would be betraying the trust which the people had reposed in them if they refused to abide by the result of the primary; and he told the people that the legislator who did that could hardly be trusted with anything else. The fight was a sharp one for a while: it was argued that Martine was incompetent, it was main- tained that the Governor had no right to interfere. Nevertheless, Governor Wilson was firm in his position that as the tribune of the people it was his duty to see that other public officials kept their implicit promise; and when the Legislature met. Martine was elected to the Senate.906 Rerorms Won 1 First Sesston The legislative session which followed set other precedents in co-operation be- tween the Executive and the Legislature. The reform group, headed by Wilson, had an extensive legislative program. One of the most important items was an Electoral Reform bill, which had hard sledding in the lower house. The Smith-Nugent ma- chine was against Wilson, and it seemed that his measures might be beaten. The Governor went into a party caucus on the Electoral Reform bill and talked more than three hours in its favor, When objection was made to his appearance in this capacity, he pointed to the -constitu- tional provision authorizing the Governor to recommend measures that might serve the public interest—a provision which he construed as meaning that the Governor could recommend and give fullest support to a specific bill. That bill went through, although the Republicans had a majority of three in the State Senate. So did a Cor- rupt Practices act, an Elective Employers’ Liability act, and a bill creating a Public Service Commission. Wherever it was necessary the Governor took a hand him. self and acted as what he called the lobby- ist for the public. Proin the progressive viewpoint, it was a successful session. The next session was not so satisfactory. The Smith-Nugent machine was still bitterly hostile; Nugent had publicly called the Governor “an in- grate and a liar.” The Republicans car- ried Essex County, where that machine was Strongest, and the New Jersey system, by which counties vote as a unit, gave them thereby a majority in the Legislature, al- though the Democrats had an ageregate popular plurality in the State. The Wilson program of reform legislation was slowed down and it looked as if the Governor’s career had slowed down. too. MENTIONED For THE PRESIDENCY But the apparent triumph of James Smith was of no more consequence than the triumph of Andrew F. West. Wilson had been checked in New Jersey as he had been beaten at Princeton. but once again he fell upstairs. His first year in office had been of creat publicity value, and his check at the hands of an established ma- chine helped rather than hurt him the THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 1924, country over. That first year had demon- strated one thing: that Wilson was not a mere scholar in politics. He was a politi- cian in politics, a man who knew what he wanted and-usually could get it done. Back in the Spring of 1904, when Demo- cratic leaders were cheerlessly looking about them for some one to undertake the task of trying to prevent Theodore Roose- velt getting a second term in the White House, Colonel George Harvey, then editor of Harper’s Weekly, had suggested Wilson as the logical candidate. His was the voice in the wilderness, and it cried unheard: Wilson was not even mentioned at the con- vention which nominated Parker, The head of Princeton University was, of course. well known, even at that time. not only as a university executive with new ideas and remarkable energy in putting them into practice, but also as a facile speaker and writer on political topics. His reputation in this direction increased gradually but steadily during the next few years, while the Democratic Party went back to William Jennings Bryan once more with the usual outcome, and leaders of the organization began to cast about them for new men and new methods. Their eagerness had been heightened in 1909, when the Payne-Ald- rich tariff split the Republican Party and Democratic victory at the next election be- gan to seem more of an actual possibility. It was known that this- educator had things to say on practical issues in Ameri- can politics. Mr. Wilson’s term as Gover- nor of New Jersey had shown that he not only had ideas on practical issues in Amer- ican politics, but could put them into ef- fect. He was a liberal; he was called, and he did not much deprecate the term. a rad- ical. People who had- not even thought Harvey’s suggestion of 1904 worth lauch- ing at now suddenly found Mr. Wilson seriously talked of as a candidate for the Presidency. CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT Neither the jibe of “scholar in politics” nor the protests of the New Jersey Demo- cratic machine could check the growth of Wilson sentiment. Before the end of 1911 the Wilson-for-President movement was well under way all over the United States. All sorts of men were attracted to the Wil-Mar., 1924 THE LATE PRESIDENTS RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 907 son banner. In New York a group of younger men, most of whom had come from the South, set to work for Wilson. Among their leaders were William G. Mc- Adoo and William F. McCombs, and they did much work in the next year and a half. A more valuable accession, perhaps, came from Texas. Edward Mandell House, Colonel by virtue of an appointment to the Governor’s staff and politician by in- nate proclivities, attached himself quietly, almost stealthily, to the Wilson boom. Wilson was by now prominent enough to cause his opponents to dig into his past for derogatory material. In November, 1911, the story was published that upon leaving Princeton he had applied for a Carnegie teacher’s pension, which had not been granted. There was criticism of such action by a man who was going into public office, but Wilson’s friends replied that the application had been made before he was elected Governor, when, for all he knew, he might be defeated and out of a job; that he had regarded it as a routine matter, and that the Trustees of the Pen- sion Fund had made a special rule, long after receipt of the application, to justify their failure to act on it. Then came the »publication of a letter which Mr. Wilson had written years before to Adrian H. Joline, a member of the Princeton Board of Trustees, expressing the hope that “something at once digni- fied and effective” could be done in order “to knock Mr. Bryan into a cocked hat.” The country was still buzzing with opin- ions cn this episode when a more interest- ing matter came to the public attention. BREAK WiTH COLONEL HARVEY Colonel Harvey withdrew from Har- per’s Weekly the standing motto calling for Wilson for President, and it was learned that he had done it at Wilson’s own ‘request. Colonel Henry Watterson told the story of a meeting between him- self, Harvey and Wilson at the Manhattan Club, when the point was raised that Har- vey’s support was hurting Wilson among the Progressives in the West. it was un- derstood that J. P. Morgan & Co. con- trolled Harper’s Weekly, and Wilson was being represented by political opponents as “the candidate of the interests.” So Wilson asked Harvey to abandon public support of his candidacy. This caused a great stir. According to Harvey’s friends his speech at Savannah on March 17, 1911, was virtually the for- mal opening of the Wilson Presidential candidacy. Harvey, they said, had been singing Wilson’s praises ever since 1904, President Wilson being notified of his nomination by the Democratie Party as_ Presidential candidate in 1916. Ollie James is shown making the announcement at Shadowlawn, Long Branch, AeTHE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 1924, PO Dee aes SSS SSG been decided at Chicago, where the “Old Guard” ran the steam roller over the Roosevelt delegates and renominated Taft. When the Democrats gathered, Roosévelt was already preparing for his third party, and Democratic keenness for the nomination was sumulated by the prob- ability that nomination this year would mean election. As usual in recent Democratic conventions. Mr. Bryan was on hand prepared for a_ battle. He denounced Morgan, Ryan and Belmont from the platform and in- duced the convention to take a somewhat Pick- ; President and Mrs. Wilson driving to the Capitol for the inaugura- ; 1917 tion ceremony in Mareh, only to be discarded in favor of‘ new- comers. Colonel Harvey poured oil on the fire with an interview in which he said that he had hoped that Wilson would be another Tilden, but had found him “a schoolmas- ter rather than a politician.” In describ- ing the interview at the Manhattan Club, he said that Wilson’s manner in rejecting further support “was autocratic if not sOnnous.” The Harvey. episode seemed Whisly for a time to do harm to Wilson’s chances. Nugent, the Essex County “boss,” now had supporters in his cry of “inerate.” But the damage was apparently not per- maneht, not even with Colonel Harvey, who still allowed a cautious admiration for Wilson to appear in his North Amerj- can Review. The Wilson movement grew steadily, until the Governor of New Jersey began to appear as one of the two or three leading candidates for the nomination. NOMINATED FOR THE PRESIDENCY The Democratic Convention met at Bal- timore in the last week in June, but be- fore it met the outcome of the 1912 cam-, paign had already been decided. It had wickian oath that it would never nominate a candidate fovored — by any special interests. He went to the platform later and virtually threatened to bolt if anybody was nom- inated by the decisive help. of the New York delegation. He furnished much local color and provoked much feeling, but toward the candidate whom Mr. Bryan plainly had in mind the convention re- mained cold. The reaction of Bryan’s fulminations, however, had its effect in the balloting. It laid Judson Harmon low and eventually began to hurt Champ Clark, who led through most of the balloting of that long convention and for a time had a majority. But the two-thirds rule was in his way and the unit rule had been abolished at the be- sinning of the convention, with great profit to the Wilson forces. Bryan did not support Wilson, but the Wilson men, whenever they had a chance, supported Bryan; and some of Bryan’s Supporters eventually turned toward Wil- son when it became apparent that Clark was not likely to get his two-thirds. The break finally came on the forty-sixth bal- lot, a break foretold long in advance by the shift to Wilson of the delegates fromor —_— Se —— rm Mar., 1924. THE LATE PRESIDENT’S S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT - 209 Indiana; and on July 3 Woodrow Wilson was nominated for the Presidency. In the campaign that followed Theodore Roosevelt and his hand-made party held the centre of attention, but attention does not win elections. Wilson won more and more favor on his speaking tours, and when he gave up these tours after the at- tempt on Roosevelt’s life at Milwaukee, withdrawing from the argument until Roosevelt was well enough to speak again, the generous gesture perhaps appealed to some of the electorate whom Wilson’s per- sonality had not touched before. The election went as was generally ex- pected; Wilson was a minority President, but he had a plurality of more than 2,000,000 over Roosevelt and nearly 3,000,000 over Taft, and he swept the Elec- toral College with 435 votes to Roosevelt’s 88 and Taft’s 8. The election also gave the Democrats a heavy majority in Con- gress, and incidentally restored Wilson’s control over the New Jersey Legislature. Passage of the ‘ Seven Sisters’ laws against corporation abuses in that State was the last accomplishment of his admin- istration as Governor and tribune of the people in New Jersey. On March 4, 1913, he was inaugurated as President. The Cabinet which he had selected was on the whole well adapted for its purpose, which was the control of Congress. Mr. Wilson had a large personal following over the country, but not much of it had been elected to pub lic office. The naming of Bryan as aha of State was the obvious thing to do, for at that time Mr. Bryan was still the Stones! individual leader in the party, and if the Bryan men in Congress opposed Wilson measures, the participation of the Executive in legisla- tion would come to nothing. Mr. Mc Adoo’s qualifications for Secretary of the Treas- ury were doubted by some, but on the whole the Cabinet was fairly well received.Ree an 910 When Mr. Bryan started off by serving grape juice to diplomats at State dinners. and Secretary Daniels concluded that the first thing to do with the navy. was to dry it up, sentiment changed In some quarters. Politics had presented a rather serious spectacle in previous years, and the spec- tacle of the Secretary of State going about on the Chautauqua circuit with Swiss bell ringers left a distaste among the general masses. Witson AppRESSEs CONGRESS On April 27, 19138. the President~coh- vened Congress in special session and de: livered to it a message on the single topic of tariff reform. The elections of 1910 and 1912 were construed by him as a man- date to cut down the Payne-Aldrich tariff. Mr. Wilson formulated the principle that “the object of the tariff duties. henceforth laid, must be effective competition,” and he warned Congress that tariff reduction was a thing that must be done gradually. What most attracted public interest to this message was the fact that Mr. Wilson de- livered it personally, coming before. Con- gress and reading his message as no Pres- ident since John Adams had done. Tt was merely an incident in his conception of the Presidency, but it was a visible incident Which made an impression on the public and roused some protest in Congress. Back of that symbol, however. was a new pol- icy; the President set himself to work to help the new tariff act. ultimately known as the Underwood-Simmons tariff, through Congress. It went through the House without much difficulty, but hung in the Senate throuch the Summer. There was much lobbying by interests which would be affected, and the President publicly denounced the effort of “great bodies of astute men to create an artificial Opinion.” The party stood together behind the bill. however, and it became a law on Oct. 3. Meanwhile the President had given Con- stess more difficult -wnrk to do. While the Senate was engaged with the tariff the President set the House to work on reform of the currency, which had Jone been an obvious necessity and had become urgent since the panic of 1907. The Aldrich plan had been much discussed during the Taft Administration and furnished a basis for the deliberations of Democratic lead- THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE ers, who-in this field as in that of the tariff had gone through much preliminary work before the new Administration came into office. Taken through the House by Carter Glass and through the Senate by Robert L: Owen, the law was finally signed by the President on Dec. 23. ‘Tt is re- garded by many observers as the most im- portant domestic accomplishment of Presi. dent Wilson’s two Administrations, and, although the Democrats built to a consid- erable extent on Aldrich’s foundations, they received the credit of having at last carried through a currency reform where others had failed. Minor accomplishments of that first year were the Clayton act, amending the existing anti-trust laws -and exempting farmer and labor combinations from their Operation, and the bill creating the Federal Trade Commission, from which great things were expected. On _ the whole, it was a remarkable years work, and the President was given the credit for it. He had: taken part in the delib- erations of Congressional committees; he had stood before the country as the ad- vocate of measures in the hands of Con- gress, and before Congress as the repre- sentative of a popular opinion, demanding action, The Wilsonian concept of the Presidency, after more than thirty years, had been vindicated by the spectacle of President Wilson actually functioning as Prime Minister and leading the majority party in the execution of its legislative program. The end was, in the main, sat- isfactory to the majority of the people, and by the end of that session Mr, Bryan was no longer the most influential leader in his party, Opposition feeling, to be sure, was bitter. Ex-Senator Murray Crane declared that the President had “Virtually obliterated Conegress”’: Representative Al- bert Johnson of Washington spoke of “the gradual Overthrow of representative government, ForerIen ComPLications MENACED There were signs of trouble in foreign politics when Wilson took office. Relations with Japan had begun to be disturbed once more by the land issue in California, and there was unrest in the Philippines. In 1919 Congress had passed a law exempting American coastwise shipping from tolls for passage through the Panama Canal, — Mar., 1924 |< jm i| | j . ; — Mar.. 1924 THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 911 PRESIDENT WILSON (Attorney General), J. Daniels (Navy), D. F. W. C. Redfield (Commerce), F. K. AND HIS The Cabinet as it was constituted after Mr. Bryan’s resignation. around the table, beginning at the further side: W. G. McAdoo CABINET Left to right from the President (Treasury), T. W. Gregory W. B. Wilson (Labor), WAR Houston (Agriculture), Lane (Interior), A. S. Burleson (Postmaster General), N. D. Baker (War) and R. Lansing (Secretary of State) and England, supported by some Continental powers, had protested against the measure as a violation of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty. Worst of all was the continuing unrest in Mexico, where Madero had driven out Diaz, Huerta had over- thrown and killed Madero, while Villa and Car- ranza had risen against Huerta. Meanwhile, Americans in Mexico were being murdered and American property destroyed. This was the most serious international problem before the new Administration, and President Taft had left the matter of recognizing the Huerta Government to the decision of the incoming President. There was also continuing war in the Balkans, but few persons in America, in the Spring of 1913, had more than an academic interest in that. The diplomatic service by which the Wilson Administration could meet these problems had been somewhat improved under President Taft, but when William Jennings Bryan filled the State Department and diplomatic service with his friends and followers—‘“deserving Democrats,” the service was measurably in his own phrase weakened. Bryan did this work of destruction, but Wilson was blamed for letting him do it. Particularly was he blamed by the element who had expected better treatment of the foreign service from a man of Wilson’s record., In the higher posts, however, the President made _ his own selections: and these were generally respec- table and often ccmpetent. Left to himself, the President’s taste ran mainly to novelists for dip- lomatic positions; but some important posts he could not fill at once and had to leave in charge of Republican hold-overs, such as Myron T. Her- rick in Paris and Henry Lane Wilson in Mexico City. The Democrats had announced their intention of ending the Taft-Knox system of “dollar dip- lomacy.” One of the early examples of the new method was the President’s opposition to par- ticipation by American bankers in the six-power loan to China. This action made him some friends and some enemies. In the Philippines many American employes of the Government were displaced by natives; and when leading Democrats began to talk of giving independence -to the islands the Republicans raised the cry of “hauling down the flag.” The California land question strained relations with Japan, and the Secretary of State had to make a personal appeal to the Californians for more moderate handling of t} question. Another issue raised sharp opposition to ?:. President at home, but much support in quarters hitherto not altogether friendly. He in- sisted that the act giving preferential tolls to American shipping through the Panama Canal must be repealed to conform to the treaty pledge of 1901 made with Great Britain. All the profes- sional haters of England were aroused, and the President was the object of a campaign of vilification. Only two or three years before ther: had been some ineffectual talk in England o opposition to the fortification of the canal, an this, with the agitation over the Canadian re procity proposal in 1911, were used as talkj points by defenders of the law. But many Rep lican leaders in the Senate supported the Y dent’s position, and the preferential law repealed. _ also ‘e ‘h ati 4 A! He ie Ty fl : = ~~ _ _ - f 3 } i ft 4 f e ; 912 THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 19.24 President Wilson taking part in the Liberty Day parade in New York in October, 1918. Carrying an American flag, he walked the entire line of march. Next to him on the left Rear Admiral | Cary T. Grayson, his medical adviser, is shown in this photograph | Dirricutties Witn Mexico another “patriot” army or robber band fighting over the country. The alternative to intervention The early months of the Wilson Administration seemed to be recognition of Huerta, but the Wil- resulted in improved relations with Latin America. son Administration laid down the principle that A speech by the President at the Southern Con- a Government which had succeeded to power by gress in Mobile, where he declared that America violence and assassination must not be recog- would never seek another foot of soi] by annexa-. nized. The President inyented the phrase “watch- tion, left a -good impression in South America. ful waiting,” to describe his Mexican _ policy; Practical weight was lent to this policy by the and “watchful waiting” suited neither interven- egotiation of a treaty with Colombia, which tionists nor those who wanted to recognize vould include a payment of $25,000,000, virtually Huerta. Henry Lane Wilson, Ambassador in W an indemnity for the events leading up to Mexico City, and many Consuls were out of fe building of the Panama Canal. As originally sympathy with the Government’s policy, and the drawn this treaty expressed “the sincere regret” President resorted to the first of a long series of the Government of the United States that of confidential agents, when he sent William | good relations between the two countries had Bayard Hale, who had written one of his cam- been disturbed. This implied criticism of the paign biographies, to make a special study of policy -of a Republican Administration roused Mexican conditions for him. (It was this same Republican opposition to the new treaty, and Hale who was greatly discredited during the war though the project was revived several times -for his expressed sympathy with Germany.) during President Wilson’s two terms, the treaty évas not accepted by the Senate until the offend. ng words were omitted. The mere discussion, owever, had a good effect on Latin-American otntiment. Despite patient endurance all through 1913, things kept gettine worse in Mexico, and criticism of the President’s policy increased. Villa and Carranza made progress in the north, and in February, 1914, President Wilson lifted the em- obRelations with the countries south of the bargo on the shipment of arms into Mexico from Sinamus, however, were of minor importance com- the United States. This was of immediate bene- plani with those with Mexico. The demand for fit to the constitutionalists near the border, but Taft ention was growing daily with new reports upholders of Huerta denounced it for th killing of American citizens by one or —_ —- as the encour- agement of brigandage. It began to look as ifJMar,, 1924 THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT ‘ \ 913 * might tontinue indefinitely, [ yatcbfa waiting’ On chen a trivial incident almost lead to war. “April 9, 1914, some American marines, who had ‘of Huerta. } | tizasoline, | to buy officers. at Tampico from a launch were arrested by Huertista ‘They were at once released and the~Mexican ‘Government expressed its regret, but Admiral ;Mayo, commanding our naval forces, demanded ia nded (that the shore batteries salute the American flag by way of atonement. The Huerta Government refused unless the salute should be reciprocal, which would have implied American recognition On April 14 the President ordered the Atlantic fleet to Mexican waters; there was talk of a Pacific blockade to enforce compliance with the demand, and preparations were made throughout the country for possible war. The country backed up the President, except for a minority which was more interested in the ‘industrial disturbances then prominently before the public. Yet there was a widespread hope that somehow the trouble could be adjusted with out war. Even among those who thought the ; Mexican situation had reached a point where intervention was inevitable there was a feeling that the conflict should not be begun over a technical point of etiquette. But the refusal of the salute was only a last straw and in general the nation seemed willing to trust the President. On April 21 the President appeared before a joint session of Congress and asked the adoption of a resolution justifying the employment of the of the “against Victoriano armed forces nation Se Huerta.” Congress did not know that at that very hour American naval forces, driven to action by the arrival at Vera Cruz of a German ship loaded with munitions for Huerta, had landed sailors and marines, who were occupying the city after some sharp fighting. But that something of the sort might soon occur was apparent, and there was a feeling that the President was only asking formal approval of a fait accompli. Men who believed that war was inevitable wondered why a downright declaration was not asked for. The House adopted the resolution, however, by a vote of 337 to 37. By the time the Senate came to consider it the news of the fighting at Vera Cruz had reached Washington, and in the con- that this that at hand the Senate eliminated the personal reference to Criticism by this time was chiefly leveled at the postponement of a flat declaration of war. On April 25, however, Argentina, Brazil and Chile offered their mediation, and the President accepted. The feeling of relief which greeted this action showed that the war spirit was not very high, though a minority still re- gretted that the opportunity had not been seized to settle the whole matter. General Funston had by this time been sent to Vera Cruz with several thousand regulars, while a conference of Ameri- can and Mexican delegates, with representatives of the mediating powers, met at Niagara Falls and deliberated. While the conference was en- gaged, Villa and Carranza, now supplied with viction meant war was Huerta and adopted the resolution. eeneral a RN é re sh Children strewing flowers in the path of President Wilson on his arrival at Dover, England914 THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 19:1 arms, were making progress in Northern Mexico, action, must put a*curb upon our sentiments,’ | 1 ot! hele wncane he: Wuertan Gave: as well as upon every transaction that might } and other rebels against the Huerta sovernment be construed as 4 preference of one party t& 4 were extending control over other parts of the republic. Toward the end of the Summer Huerta gave up and left the country. At this time the President’s Mexican policy seemed brilliantly successful. He had removed what seemed to be the principal obstacle to peace in Mexico without getting into war. What was eventually of greater importance, his refusal to go on after the beginning of invasion, and his Prompt acceptance of South American mediation. had gone far to restore Latin-American confidence in North American disinterestedness. The fears aroused by the Panama episode were in measure allayed, and the action of most of the Latin-American powers in following the United States into war in 1917 ean be traced back to the impression created by President Wilson’s action in this instance. great Complaints against Presidential autocracy were increasing, but most people felt that with Bryan as Secretary of State, betraying little interest in any foreign affairs except his own system of arbitration treaties, the President had to conduct his own foreign policy. Those who wanted inter. vention in Mexico raised once more the cries of weakness and vacillation which had been heard in connection with the Philippines and the canal tolls issue. BEGINNING OF THE Worutp War The outbreak of the European war in August, 1914, seems to have surprised our Government no less than most of those immediately concerned. It found the Pres- ident in the midst of domestic troubles (Mrs. Wilson was fatally ill and died on Aug. 6), but at the moment it seemed to call only for the formalities of a neutral- ity proclamation and a general tender of good offices in case any of the warrine powers should desire mediation toward peace. In his proclamation the President said: _The effect of the war Upon the United States wil] depend upon what American cit- IZENS Say or do. Every man who really loves America Will act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality, It will be €asy to excite pas- S1on and difficult to allay it, * * «x Divi- slons among us would be fatal to our peace of mind and might seriously stand in the way of Proper performance of our duty as one Sreat nation at peace, the one people holding itself ready to Dlay a part of im- partial mediation, * * # I venture, therefore, my countrymen, to speak a solemn word of warning to ‘you O. against that deepest, most Subtle,- most es- sjy Sential breach of neutrality Which may “*Spring out of Partisanship, out of passion- ple tely taking sides, The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name in Tath ese days that are to try men’s souls, We f- nust be impartia] in thought as well as in the struggle before another, aa The President’s purpose was clearly in’ dicated in the suggestion that the time: might come when “the one ereat nation al} peace” would be called upon for media: tion. With the President’s action at the out-; break of the war the great mass of the people were then and long remained in! full agreement; but there was dissent from | the language in which he had expressed himself. The neutrality proclamation was | quoted by opponents with every event 4 which made the guilt of Germany in bring- § ing on the war, and with the barbarity of); Germany in waging the war. more appar- ent to the American public. AGAINST PREPAREDNESS i While the President was thus criticized by those who were beginning to think that | the war was our. ~business. there Was spreading among others the conviction that, whether it was our business or not, it might yet spread so far that we would become involved in it. America Was Vis- ibly unready for any ble than an excursion. into Mexico. The preparedness movement which began in the Fall of 1914 was countered by organ- ized_ pacifist activities, with which almost from the first the pro-German faction al- lied itself. The President’s activities for peace at this time were of the purely for- mal nature required of his office, but the preparedness movement he treated with disdain. He styled some of its advocates “nervous and excitable,” and called djs. cussion of the question “good mental ex- ercise.” As this agitation was beginning there came the Congressional election of 1914. This left the Democrats With a safe majority in both houses. but the over- whelming preponderance acquired throug the Republican split in 1912 had disap- peared. The Progressive Party now vir- tually passed into history. Nothine was left of it but its leaders. many of whom were considering the desirability of going back to the Republican Party as their followers had done. There was now a srowing prospect that even neutrality might not keep America ‘ ' ' : u ‘ ; | War more formida- |/ = \ ' | (Mar.. 1924 "| “from uncomfortable entanglements with Whe warring powers. This danger did not ~{pecome acute, however, until the Germans on Feb. 4, 1915, declared British waters ‘ja war zone and announced the first sub- imarine campaign. The American Govern- ment answered within the week with a warning that if American vessels were sunk or American citizens killed in this | pecampaign, it would hold the German Gov- ernment to “strict accountability.” There- { upon began a correspondence between the two Governments, which was paralleled by proiests to the British Government against ™~ interference with American commerce on “i\the high seas. Ua THE SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 1 “Strict accountability,” however, had no THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 915 terrors for the Germans. The submarines began to kill American citizens by ones and twos and threes. With each new epi- sode more Americans turned against the Germans, and the counter-activities of the pacifists and German agents increased. Complainis against the failure of the Government to do something effective to make the Germans check the submarines were increasing, chiefly in Republican pa- pers, when the Lusitania was sunk on May 7 with the loss of more than 1.200 lives, including upward of a hundred Ameri- cans. There was now a general feeling that No word came immediately from the White House; the President was working out his problem The waited for him to something would be done. alone. country i The Lord Mayor of London presenting President Wilson with were present at the Guildhall on this occasion nearly all the There the freedom of the city. he leading statesmen of the British Empire and many other important figures in British publie lifeTHE CURRENT HISTORY President Wilson driving with the Mayor of Manchester, Iingland, speak, and waited in confidence. The first word which came from his seclusicn, however, was of a vastly different sort from that which had been expected. Ad- dressing a meeting of newly naturalized citizens in. Philadelphia three days after the Lusitania was sunk. the President in- vented another of the phrases which his Opponents have constantly recalled. “There is such a thing,’ man being too proud to fight; there is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does hot need to convince others by force that it is right.” The praise of Germans and_ Irish. and the condemnation of the outspoken champions of the Allies, played around this expression for three days; but in the nieantime the President had completed his note on the Lusitania. On May 13 it was dispatched and published. i denied the right in international law to make such attacks as those on the Lusitania, and warned the German Government that the Administration would not “omit any word he said. “as a through the streets of that city or act” necessary to defend the rights of Americans. The country drew a long breath and prepared for whatever might happen. here was violent protest from the leaders of Irish and German racial groups, and from the pacifists, who included by this time most of the radicals and revolution- aries, but the mass of the articulate part of the population seemed ready for war. if that must be, and al that moment there seemed little chance of any other outcome. The German answer was a series of eva- sions and exculpations. The President prepared a reply, and there was much spec- ulation as to whether this would mean the breaking off of diplomatic relations, Mr. Bryan thought the note went too far, and resigned as Secretary of State on June 8. His going was generally hailed with relief. and the public reaction made it clear that in allowing the official pilot to abandon Wilson had lost the ship of State, Mr. nothing. The note to Germany with which Bryan had refused to associate him- Mr.THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 917 eR. 1924 sp however, was not as strong as ex- Wsted. The fever of the first days “jar the outrage was somewhat abating. re was another German answer and a ‘rd Lusitania note, and still no satisfac- m had been given. Meanwhile the num- ry of German outrages in this country id risen, while the shipment of munitions ( the Allies steadily increased. Propa- anda and sabotage had long been be- ieved to be directed by the German and “ustrian embassies and consulates. In \ugust, 1915, documents were published in ‘New York tracing much of {sents of the German Government. Al- } rough Count von Bernstorff, the German eee was not shown to be impli- ated in any projects for ¢ riminal violence, is embassy was clearly the centre for this well as for the purchase of propa- Proof was presently offered of the onnection of Dr. Dumba, Austro-Hunga- rian Ambassador, with violations of- Amer- fan neutrality, and he was recalled early pend 1 September. A few. months [ater the yerman military and naval attachés were ent after him, but Bernstorff remained. Meanwhile more American lives had een lost by the torpedoing of passenger ae and the pressure of the American overnment obtained from ermany on Sept. 1 a promise [ this back to. forget the Lusitania and felt that national self-respect as well as the principles by the war in Europe de- manded that Germany be regarded as an raised enemy. Qn the other hand, the violent pro- Germans or anti-English were infuriated at the President for calling Germany to account at all. Meanwhile the submarine pee refused to disappear. Off the coast of Ireland the submarines displayed some care in selecting their victims, but in the Mediterranean passenger liners were repeatedly sunk, with loss of life, inelud- There which Germany tried to throw her ally, Austria-Hungary. an incident nearer home: ing Americans. was another series of notes, in the blame on {n March came the Sussex, a passenger ship plying the Enelish Channel. was sunk, and once more there was a series of notes, with the usual German evasion and denials. But on April 19 the President, whose patience was exhausted, informed Coneress that unless the German Government immediately aban- doned its methods, he would break off diplomatic relations. The threat had an immediate effect; the Germans yielded, and for several months thereafter the subma- Still, nothing across rine issue ceased to exist. o torpedo no more passenger F ) jiners without warning. This m | i as supplemented on Oct. 5 by an expression of regret for the Arabic case, the most recent of these episodes, and a renewed } |promise to permit no more oc- ee of the sort. For a \time there were no more such occurrences. ( ) The long waiting since the '\ [Lusitania affair had wearied many Americans, and the note- writing period created a strong opposition party to the Pres- ident. Against the group which in general approved the results obtained by the President there were two factions which from that time on were steadily in fi ee 2s BEES opposition to him. There were, first, a group of many of the influential leaders of i hg: French public opinion who could not President Wilson and M. Poinearé, then President of the Republic, drivine along the Champs Elysées, Paris, in December, 1918918 THE CURRENT HISTORY. MACAZINE Mar., 194 President Wilson and General Pershing reviewing American troops in France 1918 } had been done about the Lusitania, though the Administration continued to try to get some satisfaction out of the Germans. Apart from this special case, many of the intelligent and influential elements in the American people had come to feel that German methods had raised an issue which: had to be settled. PRESIDENT WILSON FAvors PREPAREDNESS Other events of the year had brought an alteration in the President's position. The intense partisan bitterness shown by pro-German elements in 1915 had been a revelation. of unsuspected national unity. In the weeks when war seemed an overnight possibility, the President had had occasion to contemplate the condition of the national defenses, and had seen that they were not adequate. In his message to Congress in December, 1915, he de- nounced hyphenates and called for na- tional preparedness. When it appeared that Congress had not yet come over to his view on these matters, he undertook a speaking tour through the East and Middle West in the Winter of 1915-16, to. stir up public interest in an improvement of military and naval defenses. During the dis- on Christmas Day, Sussex negotiations Congress had been so moved by combined pacifist and pro-Ger man propaganda that it had passed a reso: lution warning American citizens, of! armed merchantmen of the Allies. Th¢ President refused to receive the resolution! and declared that it resigned some of th¢ rights of sovereignty. There was som discussion in Congress, and presently ? sort of revocation of the declaration. In that dispute practically the entire public, except those who were on the side of Ger: many, stood behind the President, and it eave him sireneth in the subsequent nego- tiations which carried the Sussex issue to a satisfactory conclusion, Anti-British and pacifist influence was sull strong in Congress; the preparedness measures of 1916 included a huge naval program and an unsatisfactory army reor- ganization bill. Lindley M. Garrison, who had been Secretary of War since Mr. Wil- son’s inauguration, thought that the Con- gressional leaders were not prepared for any real improvement im the military es- tabhshment, and on the ground that the President was not supporting him resigned his post. Garrison’s place was taken by Newton D. Baker, who was thought by many inclined toward the pacifist side ofMaar., 1924, ‘the day after the Lusitania the controversy. Suspicion of the Presi- dent’s enthusiasm for preparedness was created by the Garrison, incident, and the bill which finally went through Congress made little if any improvement in the army. The great naval building program planned at the same time had to be de- ferred on account of subsequent events. But the President’s tour undoubtedly roused an interest which later was to make itself felt. Outside of the development of munitions factories, created to meet al- lied demands, valuable work in the way of preparedness was largely accomplished by the Military Training Camps Association, a private organization whose moving force was General Leonard Wood. But Wood received no thanks from the Administra- tion; he was even reprimanded by Secre- tary Garrison for allowing Colonel Roose- velt to make a speech at the first Platts- burg camp attacking the Administration for slackness. At the end of a year of domestic strife, violence, plot- THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 919 A MExIcan INCIDENT Nevertheless he had not altogether kept the country out of war. Mexico was still an issue. Carranza’s Government had been recognized by the United States and most of the Latin-American powers in the Fall of 1915, and controlled the greater part of the country; but partisan leaders were at large in many provinces, and Villa was especially powertul in the north. His progress was marked by the murder of American citizens, singly or in groups, and in March, 1916, his troops raided Co- Jumbus, N. M., caught the military garri- son unawares, and killed a score of sol- diers and civilians before they were driven off. The Administration acted promptly. It was evident that Carranza could do noth- ing with Villa, so an expedition of regu- lars under General Pershing sent across the border to catch him. The ex- pedition penetrated 200 miles into Mexico, Was ting and diplomatic negotia- tion, America was not much “nore ready for war than on l.ffair, and the Lusitania ques- tion was not yet disposed of. On the other hand, Germany had promised that there would be no more Lusitanias; and, above all, the President had come to realize that America might have to fight; he had stood out against weaklings in Congress, and if he had not settled the great issue, he had held his own against Ger- many,’ had exacted promises from the German Government, and had appeared as the de- fender. of national rights which Congress would have surrendered. To a fraction of the people he was a_ note writer who was “too proud to fight”; to a smaller fraction he was the enemy of Ger- many; to a much _ larger number he was the man who had kept America out of war. President Wilson and General Pershing at the review of Ame rican troops in France on Christmas Day, 1918. The late President is shown speaking to Major Gen. Alexander§20 THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 1924. and easily dispersed the bands of Villistas which it met. But Villa himself, though wounded and almost captured, escaped into the mountains; and twice Pershing’s troops came into conflict with Carranza’s soldiers. in small brushes, where the Mexi- cans had the advantage. Carranza, who owed everything to Wil- son that he did not owe to Villa and Obre- gon, was as bitter against Wilson as against Villa. It seemed: likely that all Mexico would unite against Pershing if his troops went further. Some Americans thought that would be an excellent thing, as Mexico could be conquered and cleaned up. But the Administration, which still hoped that the Mexicans would recover by their own efforts, halted the expedition- ary force where it was. There it remained for eight months, and finally returned with no- visible result accomplished. At the beginning of Summer the National Guard was called out to protect the border, and revelations of unpreparedness such as the country had hardly suspected were made. As an object lesson the military demonstra- tion was valuable, but it had no other effect. All through the Summer and Fall of 1916 the watch on the Rio Grande re- mained quiescent, while the Presidential election was being fought out. There had been a declaration in the Democratic platform of 1912 in favor of a constitutional amendment limiting the President to a single term. But, though the Senate had passed a resolution for such an amendment in the month before Presi- dent Wilson’s inauguration, the House failed to concur, and nothing more was done about it. A year or so later there was published a letter written by Mr. Wil- son to Representative A. Mitchell Palmer on Feb. 21, 1913, expressing his disap- proval of the measure on the ground that a President ought to be kept to the mark during his term by the realization that he would have to come before the people for rebuke or expression of confidence. By .1916 there was not, and had not been for a long time, any possible Demo- cratic candidate but Wilson. This would have been true even if custom and the power of the White House had not com- bined to compel his nomination. In 1916 his record was the party’s record. The President-Premier was seeking a vote of confidence from the people on the record of accomplishment, and this record in- cluded activities in the conduct of foreign relations and the measures passed by Con- gress, which were as much a part of the Wilson program as his Lusitania notes. RENOMINATED AT ST. Louts Wilson was renominated at St. Louis by acclamation, and the platform gaye his record full endorsement. A _ significant episode in the convention was the keynote speech of Martin H. Glynn, a speech built upon the theme, “He kept us out of war.” It was received with great enthusiasm. This convention demonstration was denounced, deplored or ignored, so far as it could be, by Democratic leaders in the East, for most of Wilson’s supporters in the large cities were backing him as the defender of American rights, who had compelled the Germans to give up their submarine war against passenger vessels, The issues of the election were even more curiously than usual entangled and confused. The Republicans had nominated Charles E. Hughes, who during the party = civil war of 1912 had been locked up in the Supreme Court and could take rj sides. Colonel Roosevelt’s Progressive Party had met, nominated the ex-Presi- dent and then committed suicide when he vefused the nomination, announcing that he had discovered that Hughes’ corivictions on foreign and domestic is- Were such he could endorse. Though most of the Progressives followed their leader back to the Republican Party, a number went over to Wilson. Justice Hughes had convictions about Democratic maladministration, partisanship ana inef, ficiency, tariff and Mexico, but was much less outspoken about the war. Colonel Roosevelt went up and down the country, denouncing the Administration for pusil- lanimity, encouragement of hyphenation, hostility to preparedness, weakness before the Kaiser and similar shortcomings. In the Eastern States many men prepared to vote for Wilson because he had stood up against the German submarine policy, while in the West they were voting for him because he had resisted those who thought the submarine policy was a cause for war. sues as$i“ ne oS al arn =e SO a ee Mar., 1924 THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 921 The scene in the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 1919 when President Wilson received the freedom of the City of Rome. The King of Italy was seated TROUBLE WITH THE RAILWAY UNIONS A domestic issue was thrust into the campaign in August with the threat of a general railroad strike, if the demands of the four great brotherhoods for a wage in- crease under the form of establishment of a basic eight-hour day were not granted. The President called leaders of unions and heads of roads together in Washington, and when they could not reach an agree- ment, proposed to Congress the enactment of a series of laws granting the immediate demand, but providing for careful study of the railroad question, increases in rates if necessary, and the establishment of a commission of inquiry and wage adjust- ment which should prevent the arising of any such threat in future. While this program was under discussion, it became known that the unions had secretly or- at the President’s left dered a strike to begin on the morning of Labor Day, the discovery of the secret being, apparently, part of their plan. De- spite appeals from Congress and the Presi- dent, they refused to revoke the order; they also let it be known that the President's program was not to their satisfaction, and that they wanted a law giving them the basic eight-hour day at once. The Wilsonian theory of executive par- ticipation in legislation triumphed in the last days of August. Both houses of Con- eress adopted by large majorities a bill which many legislators denounced and none publicly defended, a bill passed “in the dark,” as some of them said, under pressure by a man of whose program it was an essential part. Congress and the President had submitted to coercion, and the Republicans made much of the affair. But Mr. Hughes, when challenged for a922 statement as to what he would have done in the same case, did not make a very satisfactory answer, and the President’s action won him much labor support. Early on election night everybody thought Hughes had been elected, but re- ports, then coming in from west of the Mississippi, indicated that for the first time the West and not the East might de- cide the election. For three days the issue was uncertain; Wilson had lost the East and most of the Middle West, but he had won Ohio and most of the trans-Mississippi States, largely on the issue of “he kept us out of war.” California, which elected Hiram Johnson to the Senate by more than 300,000 plurality, gave Wilson its electoral vote by a margin of 3,773, and on the third morning after election it was clear that Wilson had been elected. He had 277 elec- toral votes to Hughes’s 254, and a popular THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 1924 plurality of nearly 600,000. The Demo- crats still held a majority of twelve in the Senate; in_the lower house they had only 212 Representatives to 213 Republicans, with a corporal’s guard of scattering mem- bers holding the possibly decisive votes. But the President-Premier, leader of the party, had received a vote of confidence. Witson’s PREDOMINANCE IN 1916 Four years had made a considerable change in Mr. Wilson’s position, both pri- vate and public. The long series of notes to Germany had kept alive criticism of him as “schoolmaster,” but the President’s po- litical capacity could nct be denied. Some of the Jeffersonian innovations of his early days had passed away. The impression of spiritual aloofness, which at first had often been ascribed merely to the President’s long life as a professor, had deepened. The President's position was tend- ing toward the superhuman. He was the President-Premier of the most powerful of neu- tral nations; a nation whose intervention, as was becoming clearer each day, could decide the war. And he was the leader of that nation; it would do what he told it to and refrain from doing what he forbade it to do. There was no political figure in his party capable of disputing his ascendency or seriously af- fecting his policies. The Cabinet was regarded as weak, and some of its mem- bers as a serious handicap to the Administration. The President’s influential friends were unofficial. Chief of these was Colonel House. He had twice been sent to Europe on long trips for conference with the heads of the warring powers, and it was on the in- formation given by this un- official private envoy that much of the President’s for- eign policy was based. This President Wilson photographed with Cardinal Mercier at 3elgian prelate’s residence at Malines, the entrance to the Belgium unusual intimacy was mys- teriously and suddenly ter- minated during the Peace Con-Mar., 1924 THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 923 A scene in the Rue Royale, Paris, when President Wilson drove through the streets with M. Poincaré ference at Paris in 1919 and the real cause was never divulged by either; the popular rumor had it that. the President resented the growing importance of Colonel House in .the confidences of Clemenceau and Lloyd George. In the White House were three persons who knew the President better than any one else—Joseph P. Tumulty, who had been his secretary since he took office as Governor of New Jersey; Dr. Cary T. Grayson, naval surgeon, who acted as ‘White House physician, and over whose appointment as Rear Admiral there had been comment; and the new Mrs. Wilson. The President had been married on Dec. 18, 1915, to Mrs. Edith Bolling Galt of Washington. A sort of process of natural selection had taken away most of the emi- nent figures from the President’s political environment, so far as it concerned his own party, and left him alone. No. one but Colonel House and Mr. Tumulty seemed to have his ear, and with the vote of confi- dence behind him he was left free for such individual conduct of national affairs as few Presidents had been before him. Diplomatic reports in the Fall of 1916 made it clear that the party in Germany which favored ruthless submarine war was gaining ground, and was likely to get the better of Bethmann-Hollweg and other moderates who had yielded to Wilson in the Spring. This was well enough known to Count von Bernstorff, who had been laboring for months to keep the President reminded that America would have a great opportunity for mediacion when the war had fought itself to a standstill. That the war might fight itself to a standstill seemed more and more likely at the end of 1916. First STATEMENT ON LEAGUE The President had been thinking for a long time about the probable conditions at the end of the war, the proper terms for ending the war, and arrangements that might be made to remove the possibility of a similar catastrophe hereafter. The world was already talking of some league of na- tions. One plan for this was supported by a distinguished group of Americans in the League to Enforce Peace. In an address before that body on May 27, 1916, the President had given some idea of what he was thinking on these problems. He had declared that Americans were not “mere disconnected lookers-on” in the European conflict, and had admitted that such a war must affect the interests of every nation in the world. He added that if the warring powers had realized at the outset where it would Jead it might never have been started. Then he went on:THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 1924 cause, were more in- terested in another phrase in that speech. “With the causes and the objects of the great war,” the Presi- dent had said, “we are not concerned. The ob- scure foundations from which its stupendous flood has burst forth we are not interested to search for or ex- plore.” Some Americans felt that this statement in- dicated blindness to the issues or conviction that America, to be able to mediate with effect, must still be morally neutral. That the President felt that bygones must be by- gones and that the peace concluding the great war must be one of equality, material and moral, became evi- dent from the course which he pursued la\er. President Wilson greeted at Boston in February, 1919, by President Coolidge (at that time Governor of Massachusetts) on his return Mrs. Wilson is standing to America after his first visit to Europe. between the two men If we ourselves had been afforded some op- portunity to apprise the belligerents of the attitude which it would be our duty to take, of the policies and practices against which we would feel bound to use all our moral and eco- nomic strength, and in certain circumstances even our physical strength, our own contribu- tion to the counsel which might have averted the struggle would have been considered worth weighing and regarding. In the next world crisis, he added, it must be possible to do that. The war must be followed by the formation of an asso- ciation of free, self-governing nations to preserve the freedom of the seas and com- pel intending belligerents to submit their case to the opinion of the world. This commitment of the United States to the support of a League of Nations was widely discussed, favorably and unfavorably, but many of those, already favoring the allied Popular interest in the war diminished, however, in the early Winter of 1916-17.» The partisans of both sides held to their views, but the ferment of national feeling against Germany after the sinking of the Lusitania had long since subsided. The early expectation of a speedy victory in Europe, held by each side, had vanished in the grind of a long war. Battles and campaigns were won and lost, but the war was still undecided. Mr. Wilson had his mind firmly set on the organization of a League of Nations. In the ordinary event the war would be ended by a peace conference of the belligerents, and after the treaty had been signed, according to Mr. Wilson’s ideas, there should be a conference of all nations of the world to establish a League of Nations which should guarantee peace and “the freedom of the seas.” During all 1916 the chief aim of the President’s foreign policy seemed to be to keep America in the position to play the leading part in this conference after the peace, and, if need be, take the initiative inMar., 1924 bringing the belligerents to the peace table. This plan had to take into account the attitude of both sides in the war. The difficulty with the belligerents was that something was con- stantly happening to give one or the other side the hope of victory in a few months more. Moreover, the section of American opinion which favored the Allies was convinced that they must win in the end, and talk of media- tion was suspected as being advantageous to Germany. In June the Germans did not want the President to make any suggestion about peace. Two months later they were willing to let him mediate, though solely to get the war- ring powers together around a green table; but by that time Rumania was about to come in, and her entry gave the Allies a new hope of early victory. In October Ambassador Gerard came home from Berlin on leave, with reports of the in- creasing demand in Germany for unrestricted submarine war. By that time the President had concluded that he could do nothing on his own initiative before the election. A request for mediation by any of the belligerents would have given him = an tunity which he could Oppor- THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 925 time knew America pretty well, and saw that it was a race between the Wilson peace pro- gram and the rising agitation in Germany for a ruthless submarine war. Any idea of peace proposals through Ameri- can mediation was made impossible by the Bel- gian deportations, which in November, 1916, revived here much anti-German feeling that had slumbered for months. America was in no mood to force upon Belgium and her allies a peace which must be more or less favorable to the enslavers of Belgium. On Dec. 12, how- ever, Bethmann Hollweg, in the name of the German Government, proposed a conference for the negotiation of peace. He mentioned no terms and he talked as a victor to the defeated. The intervention of Rumania had ended in the capture of Bucharest, and the Somme offensive had been stopped, though not without heavy losses. Germany needed peace, but on the sur- face she had the better of the war. The had not answered when on Dec. 18 President Wilson proposed to the belligerents that each side state in detail allied Governments what they regarded as conditions of a just accept without offense, but no belligerent dared to ask for it for fear the request would seem to be a confession of de- feat. The election removed this fear. On Nov. 9 Bethmann Hollweg made a speech to the Reichs- tag, expressing a gen- eral and vague ap- proval of the President’s ideas on the League of Nations. Bethmann Hollweg and the Ger- man Foreign Office wanted peace with vic- tory, but they were wise enough to realize that the impossible demands of a section of the Ger- man public could not be realized without creat change in the mil- some itary situation. They were still holding out, with increasing diffi- culty, against the party that wanted to turn loose the submarines and bring England to her knees in_ three [Ee months. Working with them in Washington was . left to Bernstorff, who by this : right), After the signing of the Versailles Treaty: The David “Bie Three’ (from Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau and President Wilson /926 THE CURRENT HISTORY MACAZINE Mar., 1924 peace in the hope that it might be found that they were nearer an agreement than _ they knew. He prefaced that suggestion with the re- mark that the objects which both sides had in mind, “as stated in gen- eral terms to their own people and the world,” were “virtually the same.” That was liter- ally true, but it con- veyed the impression to many Americans that the President himself regarded the aims of the two sides as_ virtually the same and aroused hot and continuous criti- cism by a large percent- age of thinking Ameri- cans. Further excite- ment was aroused by an interview in which Mr. Lansing made the ad- mission that unless the war ended soon, Amer- ica might be drawn into it. The most natural in- President Wilson on his return from Europe after the signing of the terpretation of which Versailles Treaty. He is here seen on the bridge of the George this was susceptible was Washington, responding to the welcome of the crowd at Hoboken, that it would have to N. J., on the other side of the Hudson from New York fight Germany. Mr. Lan- sing immediately under- took to remove this impression. The Presi- dent was willing to serve as a “clearing house” for the ideas of the belligerents, but the German Government would have none of this. The Foreign Secretary, in a confiden- tial message to Bernstorff, stated’ the reason: the Germans were afraid it would be “det- rimental to their interest,’ and did not pro- pose to be “robbed of their gains by neutral pressure.” So the German answer to the Presi- dent's proposal, which came on Dec. 26, re- marked that “a direct interchange of ideas would seem the most appropriate way of ob- taining the desired result,” and proposed ap immediate peace conference. Bernstorff continued to appeal for a state- ment of terms, but in vain. His Government did, however, express its agreement with the outline of the President’s plan for the founda- tion of a League-of Nations at a separate gen- eral conference after the peace treaty had been siened. The President did everything possible to give the German moderates time to work. On Jan. 6, at a dinner given by the American Associa- tion for Commerce and Trade at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, Ambassador Gerard declared that the relations between America and Ger- many had not been so good since the beginning of the war as they were at that moment. He said this on instructions from Washington; the additional remark that so long as those at pres- ent in charge of German-American relations (that is, Bethmann Hollweg and Zimmermann), remained in control, good relations would con- tinue, it was indicated, was Mr. Gerard’s own contribution, On Jan. 11 the Allies made their reply to the President’s suggestion. They stated their war aims in a way that heartened their friends in America. On Jan. 22 the President appeared before the Senate and made an address which marked the climax of his long effort to stop the war before America could be brought in. Read in the light of full knowledge of that campaign, it produces an effect very different from that which followed at the time. In that speech the President declared that it was not for America to say what the terms of peace should be; but that if America was to enter into a League ofMar., 1924 THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 927 Nations, which would guarantee and preserve that peace, our interest demanded that it must be “a peace worth guaranteeing and preserv- ing.” And that peace, he said, must be “a peace without victory.” Once again one phrase made more impression than the rest of the speech. There was much comment on the develop- ment of. the President’s idea of a League of Nations. and also on the demand for democratic principles and self-determination which he ex- pressed strongly. But the line that people re- membered was “peace without victory.” In the minds of many sympathizers with the Allies the Administration’s sympathy for Germany was proved. Our ENTRANCE INTQ THE WAR But the issue of peace or war had al- ready been decided. On Jan. 9 the German Civil Government had been forced to yield to the military and naval leaders and agree to the resumption of unlimited submarine warfare. This decision, communicated to German diplomats a week or so later, was President Wilson as he appeared in Sep- tember, 1919, at the beginning of his speechmaking tour to urge ratification of the Versailles Treaty and participation of the United States in the League of Nations not to be made known to the world till Jan. 31, and the submarines were to begin their work the next day. On the 23d, according to Bernstorff, the President had formally offered to propose a peace conference if only the Germans would state their terms. In a patched on the 29th, to be delivered at the same time as the announcement of the sub- marine campaign, they did state their terms for the President’s information. They were impossible terms, and they were too late. What the Administration had feared had happened. The policy to which the President had stood fast for two and a half vears had been balked just as it seemed on the point of success, and by the very Gov- ernment which for months had assured him of its sympathy and approval and had seemed eager to cooperate with him. Sel- dom has a policy been more completely shattered; but this, like his previous de- feats, Woodrow Wilson had the good for- tune to turn into a stepping stone to higher achievements. The first result of the revival of the Ger- man submarine war was the announcement to Congress on Feb. 3 that he had broken diplomatic relations with Germany. The Germans did not seize the opportunity which the President had held out to them in his address of Feb. 3 and revoke their order. The submarines were set to work. Nor did European neutrals follow the American lead and break with Germany, as the President may have expected, so as to surround the faithless Government with note dis- the moral pressure of a disapproving world. A note from Germany to Mexico, endeavoring to enlist Mexican and Japa- nese aid in the case of war with America, was intercepted by secret agents and pub- lished semi-officially. It convinced many who had hitherto been hard to persuade that war was near. American merchantmen were attacked by submarines. The President asked Congress for authority to arm merchant ships. The pacifist element and those sympathetic with Germany declared that this meant war, but the bill passed the House. It was talked to death in the Senate, in the closing hours of the session, by a minority of twelve. The President spoke the indignation of the pub- lic against “the little group of willful928 men” who had held up the measure, and armed the ships by Executive order. The country was waking up, and: the leaders of the Republican Party were at the front in the demand for recognition of the fact that war existed. Former pacifists and pro-Germans now stood firmly in sup- port of the President’s policy, which moved slowly but steadily. But he had said that America could fight only in a cause worth fighting for; and he had to prove, to those who had followed his previous declara- tions, that the cause of opposition to Ger- many was worth fighting for. That proof was furnished in perhaps the greatest of Woodrow Wilson’s speeches—a_ speech which for months dominated the opinion of the world on the issues of the war. War WitH GERMANY On April 2 the President appeared be- fore Congress and asked for a declaration that the acts of the German Government constituted war against the United States. THE CURRENT HISTORY MACAZINE Mar., 1924. Neutrality was no longer possible, he de- clared, when the free peoples of the world were constantly menaced by autocratic powers. We had no quarrel with the Ger- man people; our only feeling for them was sympathy and friendship; they had not willed the war. But their Government, by its breaches of faith and its constant in- trigues, had shown itself to be the kind of Government which could never be our friend; it was “the natural foe of liberty.” So America would fight for the freedom of all peoples, the German people included; “the world must be made safe for democ- racy. This was the most famous of all his fa- mous phrases. The logical dilemma had been solved; the President, who according to the pro-Allies had been indifferent as to the issues of the war, had found a new and transcendent issue, and on that issue the people followed him. The great mass of the people ac- cepted the issue, though not all agreed The late President Wilson’s home in Washington from March 4, ended, until his death on Feb. 3, 1924. 1921, when his second term The house is No. 2340 S Street, N. W.Mar., 1924 THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 929 were as if they had never been; America went into the war with- out compunction. Once more, and more than ever before, the President was the lead- er of the people. There was hostility to some of his measures; Gen- eral Pershing was ap- pointed to command the expeditionary forces to be sent to France, and this was not pleasing to friends of General Wood. (A letter published after the death of the Presi- dent disclosed the fact that he did not send General Wood abroad because he felt that “he would not be amenable to any high- The late President and Mrs. Wilson in the procession at the funeral . ital of the Unknown Soldier on Nov. with the President's interpretation. This difference appeared in the debates in Con- gress over the declaration of war; among others, a Republican Senator, named War- ren G. Harding, in announcing that he would vote for war, said that he was “not voting for a war in the name of democ- racy,’ but for “the maintenance of just American rights, which is the first essential to the preservatzon of the soul of this Re- public.” But whatever the motive, both houses passed the declaration of war by over- whelming majorities. In the following weeks the American people showed a rapidity of spiritual and practical prepara- tion for war that could not have been ex- pected in the preceding Winter. A war loan of unprecedented size was easily raised. More surprising than that, a con- scription bill went through Congress by a considerable majority and was accepted by the people with little protest. Still more surprising, the American people en tered into a systematic campaign of econ- omy in food to save surpluses for the allied nations. The two years since the Lusitania er authority.”) Criti- 1921 cism more bitter in character followed the refusal of the Adminis- tration to let Colonel Roosevelt take a vol- unteer division to France. In that the Ad- ministration had the approval of most mil- itary men. But opposition to the Presi- dent’s policies was not strong in the early months of the war; everybody realized that winning the war was the important thing. The President was the leader, official and spiritual, of the nation. In the eyes of Eu- rope, too, he had overnight assumed a new character. To transatlantic spectators there had been three Wilsons: the first, the scholar in politics, who was coming out of the cloister to purify the atmosphere of political life; the second, from 1915 to 1917, the note-writing pacifist whose pol- icy could most charitably be explained on the ground of weakness; and the third, the Wilson of 1917 and later the prophet of a new age, the herald of the millennium, who had at last realized that this was a war for world freedom, and had a pro- eram that would bring this war to an end and prevent wars in future. Delegations from the allied powers came to the United States to arrange for military and economic cooperation. The President930 was now exploring the obscure foundations of the war. When the Pope in August sug- gested peace negotiations, based in general on the status quo ante bellum, the Presi- dent’s reply made it clear that he realized that the German Government could not be trusted with a “peace without victory.” Meanwhile, however, American Liberals, British Laborites, German Socialists and Russian Bolsheviki were all proclaiming themselves the followers of Wilson’s ideas. “Peace without annexations or indemni- ties’ was a cry raised by Lenin in Russia and by Erzberger and others in Germany, and many of their followers ascribed the idea to Wilson, although, as his speeches of the previous Winter had shown, his op- position was only against forcible annexa- tions and punitive indemnities. The year ended with the allied cause in 2 rather bad way. The collapse of the Rus- sian armies and the Bolshevist revolution had removed the eastern front. America was preparing, to be sure, on an enormous scale, but preparing slowly and with many blunders; and only a few American sol- diers had reached the front. It was evi- dent that the opening of 1918 would see bloodshed more copious than any previous year, and the futile “peace offensive” started in Germany in the Summer of 1917 was countered by the Allies in the Winter. Colonel House was in Europe, talking to the allied Governments and receiving re- ports from unofficial persons in Switzer- land. Austria-Hungary seemed the weak spot in the enemy ranks, and during the Winter the Allies made an effort to detach her. The result was a development of the new type of peace offensive conducted by long-range speeches, the most notable of which was Wilson’s speech of Jan. 8, 1918, embodying his Fourteen Points. That speech was very similar to one made by Lloyd George three days earlier, and was not much unlike the allied terms laid down in the note of January, 1917, except for the shrinkage of some demands on account of subsequent military reverses. In form it was an address to the Senate; in substance it was a peace proposal to Austria, and through Austria to Germany. THe Fourteen Porn'rs In that famous utterance the President THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 1924 declared that the essential bases of peace were as follows: ¥. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private interna- tional understandings of any kind, but diplo- macy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view; It. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants; Ill. The removal so far as possible of all eco- nomic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the na- tions consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance; Iv. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the low- est point consistent with domestic safety; v. A free, open minded and absolutely impar- tial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in de- termining all such questions of sovereignty’ the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the Government whose title is to be determined; VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest co- operation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unem- barrassed opportunity for the independent deter- mination of her own political development and national policy and assure her of a sincere wel- come into the society of free nations under in- stitutions of her own choosing, and more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The treat- ment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good-will, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy; Vit. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with one another. Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of international law is forever impaired; Vill. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be made secure in the interest of all: IX. A readjustment of the frontiers should be effected along clearly lines of nationality; &. The peoples of of Italy recognizable Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest Op- portunity of autonomous development; XI. Rumania, Serbia and Montenegro should be accorded free and secure access to the sea: and the relations of the several Balkan States to one another determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of the political and economic independence and terri- torial integrity of the several Balkan States should be entered into: XI. The Turkish portions of the present Otto- man Iimpire should be assured a secure sov- ereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous develop- ment, and the Dardanelles should be perma- nently opened as a free passage to the shipsMar., 1924 THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT and commerce of all nations under international guarantees ; XIII. An independent Polish State should be erected which should include the territories in- habited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant; XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political inde- pendence and territorial integrity to great and small States alike. The Austrian Government made a con- ciliatory reply, and the German Chan- cellor, Count von Hertling, an entirely un- satisfactory reply, on Jan. 24. Austria would have been glad of an escape from the war, but German coercion prevented her. It was virtually, then, in reply to Hertling that the President addressed Con- gress on Feb. 11 in a speech which was a sort of commentary on the Fourteen Points. On Feb. 25 Hertling told the Reichstag that he could accept Wilson’s general prin- ciples, and that the speech constituted “a small step toward rapprochement.” But on March 3 the peace of Brest-Litovsk, be- tween Germany and Russia, was signed, and that showed clearly the sort of terms Germany would impose, with Austria’s as- sent, when she had the power. Barely a month later, at Baltimore, the President indicated that to the men then ruling Ger- many there was only one answer— force to the utmost, force without stint or limit.” THE FINAL GERMAN OFFENSIVE The application of force had already begun. On April 21 Ludendorff opened his' attacks on the allied lines in France, and for a few months the chief position among the allied leaders passed from Wil- son to Foch. America not there in much force at the beginning, but American troops et once began to pour in. Many Americans were agreeably surprised, for the Winter had been a bad one. The rail- roads had been taken under Government control, but were not working with great success. The Fuel Administrator had had to close down the industries of the East for a week in January to find coal for the movement of food trains. The Senate Committee on Military Affairs had investi- gated the War Department and had found deficiencies in equipment of all sorts and shortcomings in hospital care of the sick. The Secretary of War on the stand before was 931 In the Winter of 1921-22 the committee had contented himself with general denials. On Jan. 19 Senator Cham- berlain of Oregon, Democratic Chairman of the committee, said in a speech at New York that “the military establishment of the United States has fallen down; it has almost stopped functioning,” and that this was due to “inefficiency in every bureau and every department of the Government.” The next dav he introduced a bill to create the post of Director of Munitions, and an- other providing for the appointment of ao 932 War Cabinet of “three distinguished citi- zens of demonstrated ability,” to whom the President should turn over virtually the entire work of war preparation. Presi- dent Wilson denounced Senator Chamber- lain’s statement as “an astonishing and absolutely unjustifiable distortion of the truth,” and declared that it must have been “inspired by hostility to the Adminis- tration rather than by any real desire for reform.” Chamberlain answered by a speech in the Senate in which he professed loyalty to the Commander-in-Chief, but cited facts in support of his statement, which, he admitted, might have been over- emphasized. But the President announced his firm opposition to the bills which would have turned over so much of the conduct of the war to others, and he won. At the President’s request Congress passed a bill authorizing him, when necessary to meet the war emergency, to reorganize the executive departments by his own decree instead of by the authority of Congress. This was criticized at the time as giving too much power to the President, but gen- eral sentiment seemed to be that so long as the President was in command it was only reasonable to give him the machinery he regarded as essential to efficient adminis- tration. AMERICAN TROOPS TURN THE TIDE In the Spring American soldiers began to go to France by the tens and hundreds of thousands, and by July 4 a million were on their way. They had to depend for most of their artillery and practically all their aircraft on the French and British, but they were getting there, and by the end of Summer their intervention in the conflict had turned the tide. Germany was on the road to disaster, and her leaders now began to think of that mediation by President Wilson which they had rejected eighteen months before. The disappointments of the past Winter were forgotten in pride over the perform- ance of American troops at the front, and the fact that when the need arose they had been rushed to France in incredible num- ber had dissipated most of the dissatis- faction with the Administration. But on the issue of peace negotiations the Presi- dent had once more to face opposition. THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 1924 The first move for peace was made by Austria-Hungary on Sept. 15, in a note suggesting a conference for “preliminary and non-binding” discussion of war aims. On the next day the President refused this, with the curt remark that America’s war aims had been so often stated that there was no need of a conference to dis- cuss them. The other allied powers did not even answer it. The President spoke in New York on Sept. 27, declaring that the peace must be one of impartial justice, “involving no dis- crimination between those to whom we wish to be just and those to whom we do not wish to be just.” The President said in that speech that the League of Nations must be a part of the peace settlement, “in a sense the most essential part.” If formed at that time, he said, it would be merely the alliance of the nations united against Germany. “It is not likely,” he added, “that it could be formed after the settlement. It is necessary to guarantee the peace, and peace cannot be guaranteed as an afterthought.” The peace had to be cuaranteed, he explained, because nobody would trust the Germans. In that speech the interwining of treaty and League at Paris was clearly foretold. A new German Chancellor, Max of Baden, on Oct. 4 appealed to the President to call a conference at once. The Germans realized that they would have to state their terms, and they went back to the conditions of Wilson’s Fourteen Points “and his later pronouncements, specifically his address of Sept. 27,” as a “basis for peace negotia- tions.” In the subsequent exchange of mes- sages the President acted as intermediary between the Germans and the Allies, al- though he kept constantly informed of the ideas of the allied leaders. Virtuaily he was the spokesman for the anti-German coalition. In England, France and Italy his successive notes were discussed with reserve; at home there were expostulations and demands for unconditional surrender of the Hohenzollerns. GERMANY Forcep To YIELD Step by step the Germans. their armies drawing nearer the old frontier every day, were driven to more concessions. On Oct. 12 they promised that the Fourteen PointsMar., 1924 THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 933 would be accepted flatly, and that discussion at the Peace Conference should be confined to “practical details of their application.” Two days later the President informed them that there must be an armistice, the terms of which would “assure the present supremacy” of the allied armies in the field. He added a plain intimation that the reformed German Gov- ernment was not yet democratic enough to suit his ideas, and warned the Austrians _ that American recognition of their subject nationalities had com- pletely altered one of the Four- teen Points. The German response to this was unsatisfactory, and _ the President’s reply on Oct. 23 told the Germans that the ar- mistice terms would have to be such as to make renewal of the war impossible. He added that if the “military masters and monarchial autocrats” contin- ued to hold their place in the German Government uncondi- tional surrender would be the only terms possible. The Ger- man leaders yielded to his stip- ulations on the matter of an armistice, and began to discuss its conditions with Marshal Foch. The German people be- gan to take the other stipula- wae? tion to heart. On Nov. 5 the Allies informed the President In that they accepted the Fourteen nis Points, with reservations — the exception of the freedom of the seas, which they held in pending elucidation of its specific mean- ing, and the restitution of invaded ter- ritories, which they understood to mean (and with the President’s approval) that Germany must pay for all “damage to the civilian population and their property the abeyance by the aggression of Germany.” While the armistice was being discussed, revolution spread from Kiel to Berlin, the Kaiser hurried across the frontier into Hol- land, and on Novy. 11 hostilities ceased. Spring of home j Pan-American Conference of Women in the door of attending the Washington 1922 . spoke to As he appeared at when he the delegates DEFEAT IN 1918 ELECTION President Wilson thus had played the principal part in bringing the war to an end. It was ended on the basis of prin- ciples stated by him, and it left him ex- alted in the opinion of Europe to a posi- tion such as no American, and very few Europeans, had ever before enjoyed. But he was not so generally exalted at home. It had been apparent early in, the Fall that the Democrats were likely to lose the Con- eressional election. Chief responsibility934. THE CURRENT HISTORY MACAZINE Mar., 1924 for this seems to have.rested on their of a hundred or more military, technical, leadership in the House, where Claude Kitchin had proclaimed that his tax- ation program was based on the prin- ciples that “those whe wanted the war ought to pay for it,” and where the Presi- dent had put Republicans in charge of many war measures. There was plenty of dissatisfaction with the Post Office De- partment, and the effect of charges against the War Department in the previous Win- ter had not died out. On Oct. 25 the President issued an ap- peal to the people to vote for Democratic Senators and Representatives “if you have approved of my leadership and wish me to continue to be your unembarrassed spokes- man in affairs at home and abroad.” He disclaimed any intention of drawing a dis- tinction between the parties in patriotism, but said that although the Republican lead- ers had been pro-war they had been anti- Administration. There must be no divided leadership, he declared, at such a critical] moment; and, he added, “I am your ser- vant and will accept your judgment with- out cavil.” In spite of this appeal—its ef- fect, if any, being of help to the Republi- cans—the country went Republican. Op- ponents of the Administration won a ma- jority of thirty-nine in the lower house, and a majority of two in the Senate, which would have to ratify the President’s treaty of peace. A few days later the armistice was signed. When talk of the peace conference had begun, it was intimated in Washington that Lloyd George and Clemenceau wanted the President to come to the meeting. The sentiment of the American public, so far as could be judged from newspaper expres- sion, was strongly against this. Neverthe. less, the President announced that he had decided to go. There was an unfavorable reaction to this, and still more criticism of his choice of colleagues on the peace dele- gation. There had been a loud demand for a bipartisan delegation which should in- clude some leaders of the Republican Party. One Republican was indeed ap- pointed—Henry White, a retired diplomat of no prominence in the party. whose selec- tion was regarded by party leaders as per- haps even less satisfactory than the ap- pointment of no Republican at all. To this delegation was added a formidable body economic, historical and sociological ex- perts, with an enormous quantity of pre- viously compiled information. Some of the experts were sent ahead; most of them sailed with the peace delegates on Dec. 4 on the former German liner George Wash- ington, which had been in use as an army transport. With the President went Mrs. Wilson. The President was leaving home after an election in which he had issued an un- precedented challenge and had been de- feated. With him and his delegates went the good wishes of the soberer element of the country, who realized the importance of the errand; but there was mingled with that ridicule, condemnation and extreme regret. Despite the fact that his prestige at home had been-seriously injured by the Con- eressional election of the preceding Fall, the President was received with more than royal honors by Europe. From the mo- ment of his landing at Brest till the open- ing of the Peace Conference six weeks later the President enjoyed a triumphal progress through Western Europe such as no man before him had ever known. Wherever he stopped he was met by delegations of dig- nitaries conferring upon him all the honors in their power, and by throngs of the popu- lace who welcomed him as the deliverer from all their troubles. He was received in Paris by the President of the French Re- public, visited the King of England at Buckingham Palace and the King of Italy in the Quirinal, and called on the Pope for a long conference; he spent Christmas at the headquarters of the American Expe- ditionary Forces in France, and a few days later worshiped in the church in the North of England where his grandfather had formerly preached. Ahead of him municipal councils has- tened to decree the freedom of their cities and prepared gold medals for presentation. A delegation of Italian scholars presented him with a branch of laurel in the Roman Forum, and thousands of workmen at Turin stood in the rain for hours to greet his train with cries of “Viva Wilson, the god of peace!” Royalties, ministers and municipalities loaded him with presents, and cities all over Europe hastily renamed their principal streets, bridges or publicMar., 1924 THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 935 squares in his honor. He had no time, before the conference opened, to visit Belgium and the devastated regions of France; invitations for these excursions were paralleled by similar invitations from munic- ipal councils in Ireland, the Queen of Holland, and many leaders of public opinion, even in Germany. At that moment Wilson was the popular hero in Germany, too. Everywhere the masses of the people re- ceived him as the man who had given voice to their aspirations and led them out of the wilder- ness of war into the promised land of peace. There was reason in this. The Fourteen Points and the other Wilson principles which had been accepted as a basis of peace were not so precise as to be incapable of varying inter- pretations. Every nation in Europe believed that its pro- gram was founded on the prin- 7 S Tilec ‘ aR The fifth anniversary of the armistice: The late Presi- ciples of W ilson, and that \ il- dent, with Senator Carter Glass and Mr. Bolling, brother son had come to the peace con- of Mrs. Wilson, on the steps of the Wilson home in Wash- : : : . ; ington on Nov. 11, 1923, when several thousand people ference to fight for precisely gathered to hear the statesman speak that. _ ai o . . The idealistic thought of the world, THE PEACE CONFERENCE o The Peace Conference opened on Jan. 1919. The European powers pressed their own ideas as to what the terms of surrender meant, and interpretation had to be agreed on by long arguments. American liberals. “tee the peace terms were eventually published, denounced the President for his “surrender to imperialism.” Q O, Some European As a result of a difference of opinion with the Italian delegates over Fiume the President issued in April a statement of the reasons which had actuated the American representatives in their position on this dispute. That statement was generally re- garded as an appeal to the Italian people over the heads of their own Government. Signor Orlando, the Italian Premier, went home from the conference and obtained a vote of confidence from the Italian Cham- ber which was virtually unanimous. which had placed such high hopes on the Fourteen Points, was rudely shocked when small nations, ties, and aspiring racial minori- lacking the benevolent support of a larger failed to attain even a meas- ure of their desires. The Korean plea went unheard; Japan received Shantung; the Irish were ignored. The feeling was insis- tent in many circles that the President had yielded to the subtler diplomats of France and Italy in order to preserve his dominant ideal of a League of Nations. The Wilson who had been the world’s idol in December was now only the head of one of many States in conference—head of the largest and most powerful State, to be sure, but the representative of one na- tion and no longer of the world. It was manifest that the peoples of the world wanted many different things; and every decision of Mr. Wilson in favor of any power,936 THE CURRENT. HISTORY MACAZINE Mar., 1924. particular measure set a body of opinion against him. Republican leaders at home blamed the President for the collapse of allied unity which became evident soon after the sessions of the conference had begun. Their opposition to the League of Nations, as President Wilson presented it, also was growing. As early as Jan 4, two weeks before the Conference met, Senator Lodge had said that the peace treaty ought to be first and the League discussion taken up later. This was the President’s own view in 1916, when America was a neutral with no seat in the prospective Peace Con- ference; but now that the war had in- cluded most of the neutrals the difference between a peace conference and a general conference was much less. THE FIGHT FOR THE LEAGUE On Feb. 14 the President read the text of the League covenant to the conference, which adopted it. A few days later the President started for home, and as he reached the United States he invited the Senatorial leaders who had expressed op- position to meet him at a White House dinner to talk the matter over. The President landed Feb. 24 at Boston, and in a speech there declared that Amer- ica must not fail the world which was de- pending on her to help construct a League which would prevent the recurrence of such a catastrophe. Two days later came the White House dinner, at which the Pres- ident received the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—a commit- tee which, the President’s friends were be- ginning to say, had been “packed” against the League—and discussed the question with them for several hours. He did not convert the doubters. On the night of March 3 Senator Lodge announced that thirty-seven Republican Senators were op- posed to the acceptance of the League cove- nant in the form in which it stood, and that they regarded a demand for its revi- sion as an exercise of the Senate’s consti- tutional right of “advice” to the President on treaties. (Mention may here be made of the report that a “round robin” signed by thirty-seven Senators, enough to defeat ratification, had already been circulated among the peace delegates at Paris, point- ing out objections to the covenant and in- dicating that it could not be ratified by the Senate. ) Twenty-four hours following the Lodge announcement, at a meeting in New York, - which Mr. Taft also addressed, the Presi- dent declared that the League was inex- tricably interwoven with the treaty; that those who opposed it must be blind to the demands and feelings of common people the world over, and that he did not intend to bring the corpse of a treaty back from Paris. On the next day he sailed back to the Peace Conference. The League cove- nant was somewhat modified: to meet Re- publican suggestions, especially those of Elihu Root, and on June 28 the treaty was signed. That night the President started back home to take up the fight for ratifica- tion, which it was already evident. would be long and bitter. There was a popular demonstration of respect at his departure from Brest, but the enthusiasm of the pre- vious December was lacking. In the early months of 1919 the world had lost most of . its enthusiasm for everything. Despite the opinion of some constitutional lawyers, . Mr. Wilson had succeeded in proving that he could still be President while out of the country. It remained to be seen how far he could be President when he came back to the country. On July 10 the President laid the treaty before the Senate. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held long confer- ences, examining everybody who seemed or pretended to know anything about the treaty; the President himself appeared be- fore that body for a long examination on Aug. 19. Something of a stir was caused by the testimony of William C. Bullitt that Secretary Lansing had said that the treaty was thoroughly bad and that the Senate would reject it if it understood it. The President insisted, however, that the masses of the people the world over were with him, and on Sept. 3 he “went to the country” once more, though in a different form. He started a tour from coast to coast, making speeches for the League and declaring that if America rejected it she would “break the great heart of the world.” The President’s exertions on this trip were so great that he broke down onMar., 1924 THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 937 been ill in the White House. How serious his illness was few knew; official reports depre- cated its seriousness, while un- official and more or less irre- sponsible rumor offered sev- eral versions of the nature of his collapse. Not till much later did it become known that for a time his condition had been very serious; but he was well enough to see Senator Hitchcock, Democratic Sena- torial leader, on Nov. 18, and to tell him that he regarded the Lodge reservations as noth- ine less than nullification of the treaty. Most of the Demo- crats followed his leadership and voted against ratification with the Lodge reservations. The Republicans could not get the necessary two-thirds, and the revised version of the treaty was beaten. The President had written to Senator Hitchcock, “I under- stand that the door will prob- ably then be open for a genuine resolution of ratification.” But this did not prove to be the case. The Republicans held to- gether. Lodge would not yield to Wilson; and it presently ap- peared, Wilson would not yield armistice: The Nov. 11, 1923 The fifth anniversary of the on Armistice Day, Sept. 26 and was compelled to return at once to Washington. Meanwhile, on Sept. 10, the Senate For- eigen Relations Committee had reported the treaty with a series of amendments, while others were offered from the floor. But every amendment was defeated. The dis- cussion provoked by this led to some ef- forts at compromise, and on Nov. 6 Sen- ator Lodge, Chairman of the Foreign Rela- tions Garaminee! presented a list of four- teen reservations, all but one of which were adopted after a ten days’ struggle. TREATY FAILS IN THE SENATE During this conflict the President had le rte President to Lodge. The special session ended, and the regular session began. The discussion over reservations continued; the President let it be known that he would accept “interpretative” reservations, but nothing like the list which Senator Lodge sull supported. While the argument was going on a letter from the President was fend at the Jackson Day dinner in Wash- ington on Jan. 8, in which he said: IT do not accept the action of the Senate as the decision of the nation. * * * if there is any doubt as to what the people of the country think about the matter, the clear and single way out is * * * to give the next election the form of a great and solemn ref- erendum, Senator Lodge promptly declared that this laid down an issue that would have to be fought out. Not many Democrats went so far as Bryan, who would have938 THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 1924 surrendered to the Lodge reservations, but the opinion was expressed by many of them that a Presidential election could not be restricted to a referendum on a single issue, and that the question should be set- tled at that session. The President refused to go further than the interpretive reserva- tions; the Republicans would not accept them, and the Democrats would not cccept tiie Lodge reservations. On March 20 the rejected treaty was sent back to the Presi- dent. Lansinc InviTtED TO RESIcN There was some speculation as to whether the President, in his call for a referendum, implied that he meant to be a candidate again. In the meantime one or two disturbing incidents had On Feb. 13 the resignation of Secre- tary Lansing was announced, and correspondence was published in which the President began a letter to the Secretary with the question: “Is it true, as I have been told, that during my illness you have freqently called the heads of the executive departments of the Governmnt into con- frence?” occurred. Mr. Lansing admitted that he had done this. People felt that he had acted rightly, that the Government machinery had had to be carried on somehow at a time when the opposition was wondering if the President’s condition did not constitute disability such as would call for the summoning of the Vice President. A second letter from the President referred to differences of opinion in Paris, -and criticized more recent acts of the Secretary (apparently the Mexican policy) which seemed to indicate that the State Department was carrying on a pro- its own initiative. He consequently asked Mr. Lansing to give place to “some one whose mind would go willingly along with mine.” The substitute was found in Bainbridge Colby, a recent convert from the P-ogressive Party. gram on The next act of the President was a sudden reappearance in the discussion of the Adriatic problem. England, France and Italy had again taken up this question during the President’s ill- ness and had proposed a solution unfavorable to the Yugoslavs. In February the President addressed some rather sharp notes to the powers which had the effect of checking their action. In a letter to Senator Hitchcock on March 8 the President had referred to a “militarist party in France” which had tried to dominate the Peace Conference. “They were defeated then,” the President wrote, “but they are in control now.’ This unusual reference to the policy of a friendly power was criticized on both sides of the Atlantic. THe Drirt From WILson The treaty conflict waited on the nominating conventions of the two parties. Mr. McAdoo, the President’s son-in-law, was a leading candi- date on the Democratic side, and received the support of many Federal officeholders. Repub- licans called him the “Crown Prince,” and Sen- ator Lodge’s keynote speech at the Republican convciution sputtered with denunciation of the “dynasty,” to which he ascribed the intention to continue the one-man Government of the United States. But the President gave no active en- couragement to McAdoo, and some observers thought he had a hope that the convention would turn to him as its leader in the election. The Democratic convention at San Francisco was for the first two or three days a _ ratification meeting to endorse the President’s record. Homer Cummings’s keynote speech was a panegyric on Wilson, and the convention went wild over it. The platform endorsed the record of Wilson without reservation; it had to do so, for the party’s only record was his record. But when it came to the balloting Wodrow Wilson’s name appeared on only one ballot, and then he received but two votes from delegates who were tired of the long deadlock and hoped they could start a little excitement. Nobody knew whether Wilson wanted McAdoo, but suspicion that Wil son might want him hurt McAdoo’s chances. Governor James M. Cox was eventually nomi- nated, in part by the efforts of a group of old-line bosses, who had hated Wilson ever since the Baltimore convention, in part by delegates who hoped he was “wet,” partly by Middle Western- ers, who liked his record, and partly by some of the original Wilson men who had fallen out of favor in the eight years and had turned against McAdoo, the only one of their early faction that had survived. But the final drift to Cox seems to have been based mostly on the conviction of delegates that to stand any chance of success they would have to get as far away from Wilson as they could. Cox nominated on Wilson’s record, and pushed forward to “the great and solemn referendum.” was In the campaign the President took virtually no part. He conferred with Cox immediately after the nomination, and it was announced that they were agreed on the League issue. Cox fought valiantly for the League, but was plainly willing to compromise on reservations that did not de- Woodrow Wilson did not shift his position, but remained in the back- eround. It was thought for a time that he did not want to embarrass Cox, but when Hamilton Holt led a delegation of pro-League independents to the White House in October it was found that the President’s health had suffered such a relapse that he could not have taken part if he had wanted to stroy the principles.Mar., 1924 THE The old scenes had changed. The Democratic Party of 1920 was not the party of 1912. Bryan’s heart was in the grave with his bone-dry plank; Colonel House, greatest of all the Wilson men of that year, had fallen into some disfavor and had relapsed into a deeper silence than ever; the others who had fought in the front ranks in 1912 were most of them out of sight, and the final appeal to the country of the President-Premier for the ratification of a policy to which he had civen four years of constant struggle was in the hands of an outsider. One original Wilson man, however, was promi- nent in the campaign, and that was the earliest of all, the rejected Colonel Harvey. For three years his new weekly had been a virulent critic of the Administration, and in his room at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago, just before an early June dawn, half a dozen men had gathered to bring about the nomination of Warren G. Hard- ing by the Republicans. On the night before election day it was an- nounced from the White House that the Presi- dent felt confident of the success of his party on his League issue, and that he would remain up until 11 o’clock on election night, later than was his custom since the beginning of his illness, to receive reports. But election day brought the overwhelming landslide to Harding; the Presi- dent read a few early bulletins and retired at 9 o clock. Two nights later a delegation of citizens of Washington friendly to the League, some hun- dreds in number, came to the White House to pay the President a tribute of respect for his long struggle for the covenant. For the first time since the war with Germany reached America, the cates of the White House grounds were opened to the public. The President was rolled out on the east portico of the White House in his wheel chair and sat there, his lips moving in silence as the visitors sang “America.” Then they gave three cheers for “the first figure of the age,” and the President lifted his hat in salute before he was wheeled back into the White House. The country was beginning to feel more kindly to- ward him. Now that he was about to go back into private life, even his enemies were beginning to give him credit for the courage and determina- tion with which he had sacrificed his health and his political power in the service of his great ideal. Mr. Witson IN RETIREMENT Woodrow Wilson’s exit from the Presi- dency was tragic. Shattered in health by an illness from which he never recovered, he accompanied the incoming President, Warren G. Harding, in the procession from the White House to the Capitol. Mr. Wil- son was so fatigued that he was unable to LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 939 witness the inaugural ceremonies of his successor and left the Capitol just before them, limping on a cane but smiling as he walked to his automobile. Later in the day a crowd, composed mostly of those who had supported Mr. Wilson in his fight for the League of Nations, gathered in front of his home and cheered him. After his retirement. to private life Mr. Wilson avoided controversy, and practically every public utterance or letter of his showed him to be unchanged in his belief that the United States should, and must ultimately, enter the League. His scrupulous regard for the dignity of the high office he had held was shown by the way in which he refrained from criticizing his successors and he had no criticism, personally, for either President Harding or President Coolidge. Although health at times showed apparent improvement, his ° his illness practically barred him from any but mental activity, although he took frequent automobile His fondness for vaudeville continued marked, and rides and attended the theatre occasionally. the constant progression in the return of his pop- ularity was shown by the plaudits of the crowds which gatheréd outside the theatre to await his departure. In the opinion of many observers, each month showed a turn in the tide of feeling toward Mr. Wilson which had been engendered by the partisan fight upon him during and preceding the Presidential! campaign of 1920, and it was be- lieved that this revulsion might indicate a more friendly sentiment, if not toward the League of Nations, at least toward some participation of the United States in world affairs. Soon after his retirement as President Mr. Wil son formed a law partnership with Bainbridge Colby, his last Secretary of State, but the condi tion of his health never permitted active partici- pation in the affairs of the firm. Mr. Wilson’s first reaffirmation after leaving office of his confidence in the vitality of the League of Nations and his belief that the United States would enter it ultimately came in January, 1922. “There can be no doubt of the vitality of the League of Nations,” he told a delegation headed by Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor. “It will take care of itself. Those who don’t regard it will have to look out for themselves. I have no anxiety for it My only anxiety is to see our great people turn their faces in the right direction and move with all their force.” Such political activity as Mr. Wilson manifested during this period was generally by letter and was always for the League or aimed at an oppo- nent of the League. He exerted his influence against Senator James A. ‘Reed of Missouri, the principal “irreconcilable” Democratic Senator, but this was insufficient to defeat Mr. Reed either in the primary or general election He also con-940 THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 1924 demned the candidacy of Senator James K. Var- daman of Mississippi, and referred to Senator John K. Shields of Tennessee as one of the “least trustworthy” of his supporters. An interesting incident was Mr. Wilson’s re- pudiation of the “message” purporting to come from him which was read by Joseph P. Tumulty, formerly his secretary, at a dinner of the National Democratic Club in New York in January, 1922. The circumstances at the dinner were such that the message was construed as an attempt to start a “boom” for James M. Cox of Ohio, who had been the Democratic nominee for President in 1920. Mr. Wilson said he sent no such message. Mr. Wilson’s last and perhaps most important statement of his position on the League was made in a speech broadcast by radio on the eve of Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1923. He then said: The anniversary of Armistice Day should stir us to great exaltation of spirit because of the proud recollection that it was our day, a day above those early days of that never- to-be-forgotten November which lifted the world to the high levels of vision and achievement upon which the great war for democracy and right was fought and won, although the stimulating memories of that happy triumph are forever marred and em- bittered for us by the shameful fact that when the victory was won—won, be it remem- bered, chiefly by fhe indomitable spirit and ungrudging sacrifices of our own incompa- rable soldiers—we turned our backs upon our associates and refused to bear any responsi- ble part in the administration of peace, or the firm and permanent establishment of the results of the war—won at so terrible a cost of life and treasure—and withdrew into a sullen and selfish isolation, which is deeply ignoble because manifestly cowardly and dis- honorable. This must always be a source of deep mor- tification to us, and we shall inevitaby be forced by the moral obligations of freedom and honor to retrieve that fatal error and assume once more the rdéle of courage, self- respect and helpfulness which every trué American must. wish to regard as our natural part in the affairs of the world. That we should have thus done a great wrong to civilization at one of the most criti- cal turning points in the history of the world is the more to be deplared because every anxious year that has followed has made the exceeding need for such service as we might have rendered more and more pressing as demoralizing circumstances which we might have controlled have gone from bad to worse. And now, as if to furnish a sort of sinister climax, France and Italy between them have made waste paper of the Treaty of Versailles, and the whole field of interna- tional relationship is in perilous confusion. The affairs of the world can be set straight only by the firmest and most determined ex- hibition of the will to lead and make right prevail. Happily, the present situation in the world of affairs affords us the opportunity to retrieve the past and to render to mankind the inestimable service of proving that there is at least one great and powerful nation which can turn away from programs of self- interest and devote itself to practicing and establishing the highest ideals of disinterested service and the consistent standards of con- science and of right. The only way in which we can worthily give proof of our appreciation of the high significance of Armistice Day is by resolving to put self-interest away. and once more formulate and act upon the highest ideals and purposes of international policy. Thus, and only thus, can we return to the true tra- ditions of America. His Last Pusiic UTTERANCE The last political declaration by Mr. Wilson was contained in a message sent Jan. 7, 1924, to the State Democratic leaders assembled at Pitts- burgh in celebration of Jackson Day. The text was as follows: Please give my warmest salutations and greetings to those who will assemble for the Jackson Day dinner. They are to be con- gratulated on representing the party to which must be entrusted the redemption of the nation from the degradation of purpose into which it has in recent days been drawn. An aggressive fight for the establishment of high principles and just action will restore the prestige of our nation as nothing else could, and I shall be glad to take part in so distinguished a service. A few days before his fatal illness he wrote a mnessage commending the movement to aid the poverty-stricken authors, professors and _ intellec- tuals of Germany. THE PRESIDENTS FAMILY A month after the outbreak of the war in 1914 the first great sorrow came into the President’s life. On Aug. 6 Mrs. Wilson died after a linger- ing illness. Three daughters survive this first marriage. The first is Miss Margaret Wilson. The second was Miss Jessie Woodrow Wilson, who as the “thirteenth White House bride” became the wife of Francis Bowes Sayre, at one time on the staff of the District Attorney of New York, later as- sistant to President Garfield of Williams College and afterward a lecturer in the Harvard Law School. The third daughter was Miss Eleanor Randolph Wilson, who was married to William Gibbs McAdoo, at that time Secretary of the Treasury and one of the President’s closest politi- cal advisers. The President left five grandchil- dren, three of them having been born to the Sayres and two to the McAdoos. On Oct. 7, 1915, a little more than a_ year after the death of the first Mrs. Wilson, his engagement was announced to Mrs. Edith Bolling Galt, the widow of Norman Galt, who had been a prominent Washington jewelry merchant. Mx. Wilson had become acquainted with her through Miss Margaret Wilson, who, with Mrs. Galt, had been interested in social work. The wedding took place on the 18th of the following December, and was marked by extreme simplicity. When the Wilsons first came to the White House they set many precedents, and the first of them was that they asked that the Inaugural Ball be discontinued. The public business was con- ducted in the Executive offices, apart from the White House proper, and only at the rare official functions, the receptions to the foreign Ambassa- dors and to the Supreme Court and the Cabinet dinners, did the State intrude. The family preserved its domestic simplicity upon coming to Washington. The household fur-Mar., 1924 niture, including a sewing machine, which had been brought from Princeton, was installed on the second floor of the mansion, away from the formal settings of State parlors on the floor be- low. ‘There the President and his wife and chil- dren lived among their own personal belongings, and it was in this seclusion that Mr. Wilson found comfort and rest. The universal demonstration of pro- found emotion throughout the world when the news of Mr. Wilson’s death was pro- PHRASES THAT WOODROW RESIDENT WILSON had the ability to an unusual degree of crystallizing in a phrase, sometimes of not more than a couple of words, an idea or even a_ complete policy. A number of these phrases have already passed into the language of the English-speaking world, so that it is of interest to bring the most striking together and show the context in which they were originally used. The fol- lowing are the most memorable: Pusuicity. —“I have made it business for years to observe and understand that [system of and [| as thoroughly as I understand it. I would pro- pose to abolish it by the election to office of men who refuse to submit to it and bend all their energies to break it up, and by pitiles® publicity.”"—October, 1910, while candidate for Governor of New Jersey. PITILESS my system party bosses ] hate it Democratic “WATCHFUL WAITING.”—‘There can be no cer- tain prospect of peace in America until General Huerta surrendered his usurped author- ity in Mexico We shall not, I believe, be obliged to alter our policy of watchful waiting. has And then when the time comes, we shall hope to see constitutional order restored in distressed Mexico by the concert and energy of such of her leaders as prefer the liberty of their people to their own ambitions.’ —Message Dec. 3, 1913. ‘ “Too Proup To Ficut.’—“There thing as a man being too proud to fight; there is to Congress, such a is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is 1915. “Lirrte Group oF Wittrut Men.”—“A little sroup of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great Government of the United States helpless and contemptible. The remedy? There is but one remedy. The only remedy is that the rules of the Senate shall be so altered that it can act.”—Statement when right.”’,—Address at Philadelphia, May 10, THE LATE PRESIDENT’S RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 941 claimed and the solemn manifestations of erief among all nations on the day of the funeral bear convincing testimony to the universal esteem in which he was held and was an expression of homage to America’s illustrious dead. It was a world-wide dem- onstration of sorrowful respect to the mem- ory of a man who was venerated through- out the civilized world for his lofty ideal- ism and disinterested service for humanity. WILSON MADE FAMOUS the Armed Ship bill was talked to death in the closing hours of the Senate session, March 4, 1917. “Strict ACCOUNTABILITY.’ —“If such a deplor- able situation should arise [German U-boats sink- ing American ships], the Imperial German Goy- ernment can readily appreciate that the Govern- ment of the United States would be constrained to hold the Imperial Government of Germany to a strict accountability for such acts of their naval authorities, and to take any steps it might be necessary to take to safeguard American lives and property and to secure to American citizens the full enjoyment of their acknowledged rights on the high to ly protesting unrestricted submarine warfare, Feb. 10, 1915. “PEACE of both the one another, have said, in terms that could not be misinterpreted, that it was no part of the purpose they had in mind to crush their antag- onists. They imply first of all that it must be a peace without victory. It is not pleasant to say this. I beg that I may be permitted to put my own interpretation upon it and that it ‘may be understood that no other interpretation was in my thought. I am seeking only to face realities and to face them without soft concealments. Vic- tory would mean peace the a victor’s terms imposed upon the vanquished. seas. —Message German Governme WitHour Vicrory.’”—‘“The croups of nations, now arrayed against statesmen forced upon loser, It would be accepted in humiliation, under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and would leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory, upon which the terms of peace would rest, not permanently, but only as upon a quicksand. Only peace be- tween equals can last.”—Message to the Senate, Tane25 LON: “ArMED NEUTRALITV.”—“‘We_ stand armed neutrality, since in no other way can we demonstrate what it is we insist upon and cannot We may even be drawn on by circum- firm in forego. stances, not by our owm purpose and desire, to a more active assertion of our rights as we see them and a more immediate association with the942 THE CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE Mar., 1924 ~~ ereat struggle itself.”—Second Inaugural, March “CONTEMPTIBLE QuitTers.”—‘I hear some Be Lol gentlemen who are themselves incapable of altru- “No QuarREL WITH THE GERMAN PEOPLE.”— “We have no quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling toward them but one of sym- pathy and friendship. It not upon their impulse that their Government acted in entering this war.”’—War message to Congress, April 2, 1917. “MAKE THE WorLD SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY.’— “The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foun- dations of political liberty.”"—War message to Congress April 2, 1917. “OpeEN CoveNANTS OpenzLy .ArRIVED AT.”— “Open covenants openly arrived at, after which shall be under- standing of any kind, but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.’—Point ]. of the Fourteen Points for a basis for peace, was there no private international contained in a message to Congress, Jan. 8, 1918. ““SELF-DETERMINATION.’ —‘‘National aspirations must be respected; people may now be domi- nated and governed only by their own consent. ‘Self-determination’ is not a mere phrase. It an imperative principle of action which statesmen will henceforth ignore at their own peril.”—Mes- sage to Congress, Feb. 11, 1918. S istic purposes say, ‘Oh, but that is altruistic. It is not our business to take care of the weak nations of the world.’ No, but it is our business to prevent wars, and if we don’t take care of the weak nations of the world there will be war. Let them show me how they will keep out of war by not protecting them. Let them show me how they will prove that having gone into an enterprise they are not absolutely contemptible quitters if they don’t see the game through.’— Address at luncheon of the Chamber of Com- merce, St. Louis, Sept. 6, 1919. “GREAT AND SOLEMN REFERENDUM.”—‘Per- sonally, I do not accept the action of the Senate [in refusing to ratify the Treaty of Versailles] as the decision of the nation. If there is any doubt as to what the people of the country think on this vital matter, the clear and single way out is to submit it for determination at the next election to the voters of the nation, to give the next elec- tion the form of a great and solemn referendum, a referendum as to the part the United States is to play in completing the settlements of the war and in the prevention in the future of such out- rages as Germany attempted to perpetrate.”— Letter sent to Jackson Day Dinner, Washington, Jan. 8, 1920. eae shies 3YX O00 tie O48 ALDERMAN LIBRARY The return of this book is due on the date indicated below DUE DUE NOSETTIS Usually books are lent out for two weeks, but there are exceptions and the borrower should note carefully the date stamped above. Fines are charged for over-due books at the rate of five cents a day; for reserved bcoks the rate is twen- ty-five cents a day. 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