The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-12
POPULAR FAITH IN WILSON
View of the People Best Gath cred Outside of Wash
 ingtOn.
Samuel 6. Blythe in Saturday Even
 ing POst.)

Samuel c. Blythe in Saturday Even
 ing PostD
 \o matter how close an OfffcehOlder, senator, representative or executive may have been to the sod when he broke into the pubic service, it re- ,.uires; but a shert time to warp his views after he gets to Washington. A certain group of men. numbering 96 in the Senate and 435 in the House, be- cause of their herding in one place, their intimate interchange of ideas and their power to legislate, get to think their view is the prevalent view, not because it is, but because their vision is restricted to the narrow cir cle of their official actions It, IS sort of interpretive egOism. They constantly remain inside, looking out, instead of occasionally going outsloe and having a. look within.
 The Washington idea of what the country wants and the countrys 1dea of what it wants are often widely al variance Though it is quite true the country can get what it wants only through Washington, it will, whenever the chance comes, send to Washington men it thinks will accede to it's desires. This is a political fact that rarely occurs to the man who has the distorted Washington viewpoint, who lives in the political atmosphere of the place; but, without fail, the time comes, sooner or later, when he is given opportunity to retire to an outside point and think things over
 Washington is too close to the ma chinery to get a Knowledge of any thing but the cogs- Washington thinks, because it tends the engine that Washington Supplies the power. It is all a matter of perspective. The statesmen in Washington get strabis- mic They do not see clearly. They have wrong focus. Take this ques- tion of patronage, for exampIe-a most important question politically to the majority party, and most ve&a- tious one You would have your trouble for your pains in trying to convince any Democratic senator or representative that practically the en- tire population of the United States, male and above the age of 21, does not want to get on the federal payroll. The pressure here is concentrated, but the fact is that not one-haf of 1 per cent of the people who do the VOting and are more or less interested in politics, ever had an idea of holding a federal job and never thought about trying to get one
 Therefore, whatever official Wash ington may think of MT. Wilson as president, that view is by means the countrywide view. Instead, it is the strictly professional and strict Iy political view, and as such bears no particular relation to the country wide view, save as a further, evidence of it's own -peculiarities. 6 s
 The place to inquire about a presi- dent is not in Washington, but out side for, though official Washington can do much to defeat a president ii will do little to help him win. His winning depends on himself If a president allows Washington to over ride him he is done; but if he over rides Washington he has a real chance for Is6t this clearer by pointing out the diff ference between the centralized, crys- talizsd politics of the capital and the diffJIse politics of the country
 Recently I came across the contin- ent from west to east, stopping along the route from San Francisco to Bos- ton, and asked the peop1e-not the politicians-what they thought of MT. Wilson. found an almost universal regard for him, an almost universal admiration for him, an almost univers- al support for him, based on the con crete popular recognition of his hon estysof purpose, his power of intellect, his lack of ostentation, his good judg- ment and his evident determination to carry out the policies he has laid down as essential to the well-being of the country, as well as for the capac- ity he has shown for taking the iri- tiative.
 The people. as a whole, are for MT. carefully and have faith in his sin cerity, and are particularly pleased with his mastery of his difficult sit uation-- The people like a man who dominates They want to be govern ed They had a strong personal re- gard for MT. Taft, for example until they made up their minds he was not. running things, but things were run ming him. They find that MT. Will son is really president, with no dele gation of authority whatsoever; 9 nd
  frank to say so.
 OLD TIME BATTLES OFTEN WENT
 OVER ONE HUNDRED ROUNDS