The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-07-25
WILSON A SUCCESS, WATTERSON
ADMITS

himself permanently and properly es-
tranged from Woodrow Wilson, the
man, but doesn't prevent him from
believing that Wilson, the president,
is making good.
"My personal relations with him?
have none" the colonel said recently
at the home of DR.. NJ. o. Terry in
Mamaroneck.
Our break was complete and final
Our friendship is a closed chapter.
But" he quickly added, we've got TO
admit that he has beaten those dem
ocratic politicians in Washington to a
pulp. A man of great ability and in
trepidity, he has thus far handled
his end of the business of government
with obvious success.
president Wilson," he went on. SIS
a man Of acute understanding, highly
trained and of cold heart receptive to
its own purposes, who came 10 the
head OF affairs at the beginning of a
formative period with politics in
something Of fluid state and parties
much at loose ends.
ITO the schoolma' spirit of in
tellectual experimentation he unites
the showmans aptitude for the sur
prising. From the schoOlroom he has
learned the value of tyranny as a fine
art, and the efficacy of self-assertion
His dive into New Jersey politics was
an adventure. Fortune favored him.
Upon the larger stage of the ma
ton the adventure, grown enterpris
ing, developed into an irresistible
tour de force. Winning the lesser
stakes he played for the larger-play-
ed well, and won; and now, caparison-
ed, intrepid and tenacious, he appears
a lion indeed among the tanner ami
mails of the political jungle.
Both his luck and his nerve stay
with him. He may prove to be one
of the favored few of destiny. It is
not too much to expect that the lack of
the human, which is obvious, may in
time be supplied by circumstances,
the chrysalis of the narrow school
room falling away from the leader of
boys and in the amplitude of the
White uouco ravaoIipo tho Iaodar Of
men, the clever shifts and smart de-
vices of the politician gaining breadth
from the weight of responsibility and
dignity through the sense of eleva-
ton.
LET us hope so. 1t is pleasant to
a real scholar at the head
of affairs. 1t were a glorious thing
to have this scholar a man of flesh
and blood, equally generous and up
right, at once responsive to natural
affection and unselfish in his daily
walks and ways
Being asked what he read in the
sky as to the future of Theodore
Colonel Watterson replied:
mo man can tell whether he will be !
a presidential candidate again. No
man can tell what Roosevelt will do
next. But in my opinion he will new
er be formidable factor in the poll
tics of the future. He has reached the
top of the hill. For the rest of his
life he will be going down on the 9TH
er side"
Then the interviewer reminded
Marse Henry that after a season of
following last falls nation
al election, he wrote: THE republi-
can party is as dead as a door-nail"
Did he still think so?
Well" he said, I'm not so GER
tain. 1t still looks as if it's going the
way of the old whig party, but we
must remember that the republican
party has a glorious record | sup
pose there will continue to exist an
including the best ele-
ments of republicanism
Colonel Watterson thinks that if
the democrats at Washington use
their great opportunity rightly the
will be weakened: for
he holds that the progressive demo-
Gratis and Col. Roosevelts followers
are working for the same ends.
The colonel was asked if he had
read an article in which ex-senator
Beverage said that the two old par I
ties had failed to catch the sentiment
OF the people.
Life is too short to read anything
that Beverage writes" was Colonel
Watterson's reply.
And finally he confessed that he
was an optimist but that his reliance
on the perfectness of our institutions