The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-04-01
MANNING, S. c., WEDNESDAY APRIL l. 1914
What WILSON SAID
GIVES his PERSONAL IMPRESS.
IONS OF The PRESIDENCY

TELLS PEOPLE ABOUT It
President, as Guest of National Pres
| Club at Washington, Throws Aside
| Formality and Frankly Gave Hi:
Experience as President Of Thi.
Country.
| Woodrow Wilson unbosomed him
self to members of the National Pres:
club, Of Washington, Friday, telling
them in a frank, conversational way
how he felt as president of the Unit
er States, how difficult for him tt
Imagine himself as the chief execu
tive with the formal amenities of the
lposition and how he had struggled tc
be as free as the ordinary individual
without the restraint Of his office.
It was an intimate picture o1
Woodrow Wilson, the man, drawn by
himself, or the occasion Of the
"house warming" at the Press clubs
new quarters. The president did not
Intend to have his remarks made pub
Ilic, but later, at the request Of the
club, he unusual speech was made
public. It follows:
'I was just thinking Of my sense
OF confusion of identity, sometimes,
when 7 read articles about myself.
never have read an article about my
self in which I recognized myself, and
have come to have the impression
that I must be some kind Of fraud,
because think great many of these
articles are written in absolutely good
faith. I tremble to think of the va
riety and falseness in the impressions
make-and it is being borne in on
me that it may change myvery dispo-
sition-that I am cold and removed
person who has thinking machine
inside which he adjusts to the circum-
stances, which he does not allow to
be removed 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.
Hard to Restrain Emotions.
"I am not aware Of having any de-
tachable apparatus inside Of me. On
the contrary, II were to interpret
myself I would say that my constant
embarrassment is to restrain the emo
tions that are inside Of me. You may
not believe 1t, but I sometimes feel
! like a far from extinct volcano, and If
the lava does not seem to. spill over 1t
is because you are not high enough to
see into the basin and see the caldron
boil. Because, truly, gentlemen, In
the position which I now occupy there
| is a sort of don't know how else to
express it than to say-passionate
sense Of being connected with my fell
low men In a peculiar relationship Of
responsibility. Not merely the re-
spons;bility Of office, but God knows,
there are enough things in this world
that need to be corrected.
"I have mixed, first and last, with
all sorts and conditions Of men
there are mighty few kinds OF men
that have to be described to me, and
there are mighty few kinds Of expe-
rierces that have to be described to
me-and when I think of the number
of men who are looking to me as the
representative Of a party, with the
hope of all varieties of-salvation from
the things they are struggling in the
midst Of, it makes me tremble. 1t
makes me tremb1e not only with a
sense of my own inadequacy and
weakness, but as if I were shaken by
the very things that are shaking
them; and if seem circumspect, it Is
because I am so diligently trying not
to make any co. sal blunders. II
YOU lust calculated the number Of
blunders fellow can make in twen-
ty-four hours If he is not careful and
If he does not listen more than he
talks, you would see something OF
the feeling that I have.
Uses All Brains in Reach.
"I was amused the other day at a
remark that Senator Newlands made.
T had read him the trust message l
was to deliver to Congress some ten
DAYS before delivered it, and never
stop 'doctoring' things Of that kind
until the day I have to deliver them.
When he heard It read to congress he
said. I think it was better than when
you read it 70 me- I said, Senator,
there is one thing which don't think
YOU understand. 7 not only use all
the brains 7 have, but all I can bor-
row, and 1 have borrowed lot since
I read it to you first
THAT, I dare say, Is what gives
the impression Of circumspectness. !
am listening; 7 am trying diligently
to collect all the brains that are bor-
rowable that I may not make more
blunders than 1t is inevitable that a
man should make who has great lin
itations of knowledge and capacity
And the emotion Of the things Is SO
great that suppose I must have some
kind of mask to conceal it. I really
feel sometimes as if were masquer-
aiding when I catch picture of my
self In some printed description. In
! between things that I have to do as
public officer, T never think OF my
self as the president Of the United
States, because I have never had
!