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

WASHINGTON, March 21.-Tell-
ing just how it feels TO be President
of the United States. revealing in a
personal conversational way the diff
ticulties he has to meet and the emo
tons of his own nature with which
he has to struggle for control, Wood
row Wilson, President, contided re-
markable statement to the members
Of the National Press club of Wash
ington, of which ne long has been
member
He said
II 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 my self, and have
come to have the impression that |
must be some kind of fraud because
think great many of these articles
are written in absolute good faith
| tremble to think of the variety and
falseness the impressions | make
and it is being borne in on me so that
it may change my very disposition
that | am a 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
81 am not aware of having any de-
tachable apparatus inside of me. ON
the contrary, If | We're to interpret
myself | would say that my constant
emba IRA ssment is to restrain the emo
tons that are inside of me. You may
not believe it, but | sometimes feel
like far from extinct volcano, and II
the lava does not EN- TO SPILL over 1t
is because you are not high enough 20
see into the basin and see the caldron
boil. Because, truly, gentlemen, IN
tn position which | now occupy there
is a sort do not know how else 10
express it than to say passionate
sense of being connected with my fe!-
low men in a peculiar relationship OF
respo Utility. Not merely the re-
sponsirility of office, but God knows
there are enough things in this world
that need to be corrected.
Knows all Sorts of Men.
81 have mixed first and last, with
all sorts and conditions of men-thefe
are mighty few kinds of men that
hive to be described to me, and there
are mighty few kinds of experiences
that have to be described to me-and
when I think of the number of men
who are looking to me as the repre-
sentative of a party, with the hope tor
all varieties of salvation from the
things they are struggling in the
midst Of il makes me tremble. 1t
makes me tremhle OF only with
sense of my own inadequacy and
weakness. but as il were shaken ~
the very things that are shaking
them! Ard if ] seem cirCumspect, II S
becau am so diligently trying not
to make any colossal blundtrs. II you
Just calculated the numper OF blum
ders a fellow can make in "a hours. If
he is not careful and if he does not
listen more than he talks, YOU would
see something o. the feeling that |
have.
Feels Like Masquersder.
81 really feel sometimes as If | were
masqueradug when | catch picture
of myself in some printed description
In between things that / nave to do
as a public officer | never think or
myself as the President of the United
States, because | never have had any
sense of being identified with that Of
fice. | feel like person appointed for
a certain length of time to administer
that office and | feel just as much
outside of it at this moment as / did
before I 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 a certain part of i the best
he knew how. That would not make
him the government itself'or the thing
itself 1t would just make him re-
sponsible for running 1t the best he
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 20 get out presently. |
know that then | will look just my
own proper size. and that for the time
being the proportions are somewhat
refracted and mlsrepresented 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