The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-08-15
THE ORIGINAL WILSON MAN

Evening Post:
This country is dotted, nay, speckled,
with men whose total achievement in I
life is summed up in the college class /
numerals that adOrn their names. You |
step on them in every university club |
in the country, the men who gradual |
ed and, having attained that distinc- |
ton, never attained any other, except |
perhaps. membership in Greek-letter
fraternity. all of which entities them
to go to class reunions and anniversar-
les and to make up the scenery at frat
banquets, and gives them their sole
topic of conversation, which is the big
men who graduated with them-with
them, mark yOu-and having survived
the handicap Of the association, have
made successes. One of the chief fea-
lures Of the ritual Of the Reflected
Glory Boys is: why, Of course, | know
MIN. We were in the same class to-
gether" at dear old -" whatever dear
old institution II was that sheltered
them simultaneously.
Ordinarily the men who strike twelve
are not the men who remember their
college life, but the men who forget 1t.
The acute rememberer Of what happen
ed at dear old Bcegin while the class
of 70 was macerating its opponents
hasn't anything else to remember. The
climax of his career-as with all OF his
kind-came when they squeezed him
through, stuck a cap and gown on him,
handed him a diploma on which he
learned his name was JacObus instead
Of Jim, and turned him loose.
Ordinarily, / say, this is what hap
pens. / mention these things not in
sinuating that colleges and universities
do IN thair blr merely a
preliminary to the Introduction Of one
professional graduate who, retaining
that fervid interest in his university,
still has had time-and ability-to put
over some other enterprises besides a
class dinner and n frat convocation.
one OF said enterprises being a candi-
date for the presidency of the United
States.
refer to William F. McCombs.
Princeton. '9S. otherwise known as Bill
McCombs. He has all the earmarks Of
the chap who speaks of his alma mater
with the tremolo stop on, and might
have fitted himself for the old grad
profession without half trying, for he
is intensely Princeton; but he spread
out q bit. so to speak, and instead of
specializing on Princeton, he specialize
ed on the president of PrincetOn-a
difference there-and, if things go well
he expects to add a president of these
United States to his specialties.
About all that was known of Wood
row Wilson by the bulk of the people
of this country three years ago was
that he is a person who looks, in his
pictures, as if he would crack his face
if he smiled, and that he has written q
history of the United States which is
h1V n obtain hy the "
ment of a small sum down and tn,
rest in equal monthly installments
Now at this moment the bulk of the
American people know more about
Woodrow Wilson than he knows him
lsef-know about his ancestry, his pos
terity, his habits. tastes, emotions, the
way he likes his eggs. how he parts hi:
hair, the sort of a bath he takes, wha
he prefers in the way of socks. whether
wears union suits or not, and many
other intimate and personal details.
4 short Road to Fame
Moreover, the bulk of the people nov
refer to him as Woody, and call hi.
daughters by their first names, anC
Mrs. Wilson has already been enticeC
several times into telling the femal
reporters what she thinks OF politics
"A man can feel sure he has arrived
thinks of politics-and print what the!
think she ought to say, instead of wha
she says. In other words, Mr.. Wood
row Wilson, in the space of three shor
years, has expanded from academicial
to acme, from pragmatist to pinnacle
from author to apex, and, assumin!
that you ask why this is so, l hasten T.
answer this so largely because o
William F. McCombs. Princeton, '9S.
To be sure, Ii isn't all because o
William F. McCombs, Princeto'., '9S. LIE
us not, by any chance, overlook Thoma
Jones Pense, of whom more hereafter
or William McAdoo. or Walter Page. o
Senator Gore, or Fred Lynch or Bill
Hughes or many others who helped t
elevate Professor Wilson to his presen
proud position of being the White Hop
OF the democracy; but at the mOmen
William F. McCombs, Princeton, '9S, i
the subject OF these remarks. If
ever becomes necessary to fix the iden
tity of the Original Wilson Man-an
Ii won't be unless the Original Wilson
and a majority of his fellow America,
citizens are in favorable ballot con
junction next Observation-Disclosures
must be selected for that distinction.
Ii shall turn out thus-rext. of course
to Wilson himself. McCombs. as
have intimated, is a graduate of Prince
ton. While there he formed a clos
friendship with Wilson. then a profes
sor of some intricate kind, and tn
friendship continued when the profes
sor became president Of the UNIVERSITY
After time Wilson sought caree
in politics. 1t is quite likely McComb
had much to do with the seeking. y
any rate Wilson was elected governo
OF New Jersey, and not long after h
was inaugurated and had stepped o
the political face of Honorable Jill
Smith in an academic but effectiv
manner, in the matter of the Unite
states senatorship, thereby gainin
some acclaim outside of Jersey as We
as within the same. it occurred to Nc
Combs. to Page, to McAdoo. and som
others' that the water in the democrat
c-presidential-n swimmin
hole was fine and that Wilson sbou1
go on IN so one bright morning.
year ago last March, McCombs hired
few rooms down on lower BroaJva,
New York, put up some ten thousan
dollars of his own money as a praliu
mary. and announced himself as chair
man of the Woodrow Wilson Nation;
Committee.
He continued in that position unit
Wilson was nominated at Baltimore h
the democrats The talk. as this
written. is that he will be made chair
man or the democratic national con
mittee and run Wilson's PRESIDENT.
campaign as he ran the ante-conyentio
campaign. Whether or not, he ran III
before-eonvention campaign. and h