Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-03-21

ing just now II 1eelS to be President
OF the United States. revealing in a.
personal, conversational way the diff
flculties he has to meet and the emo
tons of his own nature with which
he has to struggle for control, Wood
row Wilson, President, confided a re-
markable statement to the members
of the National Press Club, of Wash
ington, of which he long has been
member
He said
Il was just thinking of my sense of
confusion of identity, sometimes, when
| read articles about myself. | never
have read an article bout myself in
/ which | recognized myself, and | have
! come to have the impression that ]
must be some kind of a fraud, because
| think a great many of these articles
are written in absolute good faith.
| trembc to think of the variety and
4 falseness j the impressions | make
and it is being borne in on me so that
it may change my very disposition
( that am cold and removed person.
who has a thinking machine inside
which he adjusts to the circum-
stances, which he does not allow to be
moved by any winds of affection or
emotion of any kind. but turns like
! cold searChlight on anything that is
presented to his attention and makes
it work
II am not aware of having any de-
taChable apparatus inside of me. on
the contrary, If ! were to interpret
myself, | would say that my constant
embarrassment is to restrain the emo
4 fl...N Il. L. g
not believe il, but ! sometimes feel
! like a far from extinct volcano and If
the lava does not ,em to snill over 1t
is because you are not high enough TO
| see into the basin and see the caldron
/ boil. Because, truly, gentlemen. IN
ths position which | now occupy there
I is a gort--l do not know how else 20
express it than to say passionate
| sense Of being connected with my te!-
+ low-men in a peculiar relationship %
respo Utility. Not merely the re-
sponsirility of office, but God knows
/ there are enough things in this word
( chat need to be corrected.
Knows all Sorts of Men.
Il have mixed, first and last, with
all sorts and conditions OF men-there
are mighty few kinds OF men that
/ have 10 he described to me. and there
are mighty few kinds of experiences
that have to be described to me-and
when | think of the number of men
ahO are looking to me as the repre-
sentative of a party, with the hope TOR
an varieties of salvation from the
things they are struggling in the
midst of. it makes me trembe. 1t
makes me tremble OF only with
sense of my own inadequacy and
weakness, but as If | We're shaken ~
! the very things that are shaking
| them! Ard if ! seem circumspect, 1t Is
| becau5e ! am so diligently trying not
| to make any colossal blundLrs. IL you
/ just calculated the NUMBER of blum
ders a fellow can make in "a hours, II
he is not careful and if he does not
| listen more than he talks, you would
| see something o. the feeling that l
| have.
| Feels Like Masquerader.
Il really feel sometimes as if ! were
masquerading when | catch picture
of myself in some printed description.
/ In between things that / nave to do
as a public officer | never think of
myself as the President of the United
/ States, because | never have had any
sense Of being identified with that Of
fee. feel like person appointed for
q certain length Of time TO administer
( that office. and / feel just as much
: OUTSIDE OF II AT llliS HlOHltHl d. tiih
| before ! was elected to it. | feel just
as much outside of it as | still feel
/ outside the government of the United
/ States.
mo man could imagine himself the
/ government of the United States; but
| he could understand that some part of
| his fellow citizens had told him to go
| and run certain part Of It the best
/ he knew how. That would not make
aim the government itself or the thing
4 itself 1t would just make him re-
sponsible for running it the best he
4 knew how. The machine is so much
! greater than himself, the office is so
much greater than himself; the office
/ is so much greater than he can ever
| be, and the most he can do is to look
grave enough and self-possessed
enough to seem to fill it. ] can hardly
rferain every now and again from tip
! ping the public the wink, as much as
to say, 1T is only me- that is inside
this thing. | know perfectly well that
! ! will have to get out presently. |
/ know that then viii look just my
| own proper size, and that for the time
| being the proportions are somewhat
refraCted and misrepresented to the
eye by the large thing | am inside of.
There are blessed intervals when
( ! forget, by one means or another,
/ that am President Of the United
/ States. one means by which | forget
! is TO get a rafting good detective