Arizona republican., 1912-03-22
SCHOLARSHIPS
 AND STATESMEN

The carefully concerted but absurd attempt 10 discrcdit Woodrow Wilson through the means of betrayal ot his confidence and publication oi the conversation in a private conference forced upon him by two profcsscd friends naturally has proved to be the sWiftcSt and hardcSt-httlnG boomerang recently hurled in politics. Somehow. the American people seem disinclincd to accept as proof that a man is an ingratc through the eN- posture of his guilt of refusing 10 He To a friend when asked direct confidential question
 Woodrow Wilson is a stronger can didate and stands higher in public estimation from Nevada to New Hampshire. than before Col George Harvey and Col. Henry WattersOn made their joint attempt to destroy him Therefore Gov. Wilson can af- ford to receive mild rcbuke for be- ing guilty-Wc think. for the first tine-of an undcrstatemcnt of fact that amounts almost to miSrcpre- sentatiOn.
 Apparently Gov. Wilson so far ap- pears to feel that he is still bound to the confidence which his two in uusitors broke. At all events his only reply hitherto to the assault upon him has been the assertion that MT. Wattcrson is a nice old gentle man"
 In that statement lies our grievance. It is true that MT. Watterson is nice old gentleman. But he is much more than that And anything but the whole truth coming from Wood TOW Wilson on any subject is so un- usual as to be reprehensible.
 There are lots of nice old gen tlemen." But "Marse Henry" Wat tcrson is one of the joys of life. And only pin-headed pharisees and the most sour-souled of Puritans would darken the world by taking joy Of life seriously
 The great hawk peaked Kentuckian. with his white lion mane-he really is not a Kcntucllian at all, but a Tennessee mountain man-is one Of the most lovablc of men. In all ms walks he is an incarnate dispensation of the beauties of both sunshine and moonshine. He stands alone as past master of the piano. the chafing dish and of picturesque reminiscence. con- tinuanv illuminated by the brilliancy of his amazing imagination.
 It is the fashion for the present Gay newspapers 10 regard MT Wat tcrson as a sort of Holmes last leaf" only grinning with him instead of at him: as the sole eXtant en- bcdiment of the great dead past of personal journalism. The truth is that the worst sin of American jour nalism has been the filching from lit crature of Gn essayist who. though vibrantly different. could have been the peer of Charles Lamb.
 Henry Watterson is the one living writer who can recreate in prose poem the Paris of Louis Napoleon and Eugenie. He is the one living man who can write of Thaclleray in tie pellucid simplicity of perfect English that Thackcray would have employed in tribute to his bcst-loved friend.
 Henry Wattcrsou is man as rc- markedly gifted mentally as person ally he is amiable and lOvable. And he also is the most SupCrlativcly ln- competent politician: unjust judge of men. measures and conditions; false prophet of future political occurr- cnces that American history records.
 There is some justification for dub- hiEg William Jennings Bryan the peerless loser" But il is far more rank injustice than that of which Woodrow Wilson has been guilty, to take away the title that is the simple due of perhaps no braver but much elder and equally consistent loser.
 From the time of MT. Watterson's s threat of marching upon Washington