The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1912-03-28
WILSON A REAL MAN.
For Democracy and Not Aristocracy-
BY Burt Williams.


position came to him through his
scholarly attainments not particularly
because it was real man who was
desired for the place. Princeton Uni
versity was at that time like most of
the great eastern colleges, with the
great majority of the student body
made up of the sons of rich men, to
whom wealth was the all important
consideration and whose environment
had been such that to them money
made the man. In this institution,
Princeton University, there was on
every side the things that go to make
a moneyed aristocracy. The students
who came from the ordinary walks of
life found daily and hourly the evil
dences of the superiority that money
tries to enforce through the individ-
uals who possess it in quantities to
consider themselves of aristocratic
inclinations. Many of the clubs among
students were SO organized that only
young men with rich parents behind
them could enter, the living accommo-
dations of these same young men were
of the most expensive character and
naturally their circles and doings were
most exclusive, the separation and
distinction between the rich and poor
students being studiously emphasized.
Then it was that the real man be-
came president of the institution. He
had not been there long before he
realized that the tendency of the col
lege was too aristocratic, that con-
tinuation of such conditions, the en-
phasizing of the size of bank accounts,
was sapping the very foundation of
American educational ideals and plain
American manhood.
With this real man feeling in every
fibre of his being, protest against
these tendencies in the institution he
had taken charge of, he resolved on
plan to strike down at once the false
barriers of class that existed between
the student body and make prominent
in Princeton University the principle
that true character and scholarship
should transcend riches In every test
that should come up.
This real man president thereupon
outlined his plan which was the en-
tire reconstruction of the method of
living among the students on the
quadrangle" basis, the dividing of the
students into communities SO that
these various groups would come to-
gether constantly, the rich and the
poor elbow together at the same table,
sleep and study under the same condi-
tions, eliminating entirely from the
university the Injuries, and thus place
all OF them on an absolute equality as
would be in harmony with the ideals
of American institutions.
Naturally this radical change, rad
zeal to those who had been taught
that money made them better than
poorer men, aroused bitter strife in
Princeton University
Professors and students, who had
welcomed him at first to the head of
the institution grew bitter toward him
for his fight to sustain the ideals of
true Democracy, of true manhood that
he was trying to inculcate and perpet-
uobCt OuL Ll1C, Lul Llll6 dodlu0L I'LL VI
these erstwhile friends deferred him
not in his fight to establish true Ameri-
canism in this little educational insti-
tuition and his fight thus waged, with
nothing to be gained but a recogni-
ton of human equality for those too
weak to establish it for themselves,
is the most significant fact in the en-
tire life of this real man as showing
his true character and honest ideals
In 1910 the president of Princeton
University was nominated for govern
or of New Jersey and in the fall of that
year the people of that commonwealth
broke the chains that had bound them
for years to privilege and monopoly
and they elected this real man for
governor and in this way Woodrow
Wilson entered public life and found
awaiting him a conflict that called for
a brave, courageous general to lead the
fight against the insiduous power of
wealth.
1t was the same fight as governor
that our real man had had as presi-
dent of the college except that the
field was greater, the enemy more
powerful and the forces against him
better entrenched.
He found, as is too often the case,
the power of privilege controlling his
own party. as well as the opposing
one, but he made his fight for the peo-
ple@far above the standards of partisan
prestige and had the courage and
Americanism to drive into humiliating
defeat and bitter disappointment the
corrupt machine bosses of his own
party who for years had made the
Democratic party of New Jersey
seville tool for privilege and monopoly.
Let us now hope that this real man,
who has been so valiently and success
fully making your fight and my fight,
is able to carry on the same battle for
the American people as the chief ex-
ecutive of the nation.
The first step to bring this about
must be his nomination for president
on the Democratic ticket and when we
stop to consider the one fact, that
against him in this campaign is ar