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
ficulties he has to meet and the emo
tions 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 q
member.
He said:
y was just thinking of my sense OF
confusion of identity, sometimes, when
/ read articles about myself. l 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,
! tremble to think of the variety and
| falseness i = the impressions | make
and it is being borne in on me so that
it may change my very isposition-
that ] am a cold and removed person.
who has a thinking machine inside
which he adjusts 10 the circum-
stances, which he does not allow to be
moved by any winds of affection or
emotion of any kind, but turns like a
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
I the contrary if ! were to interpret
myself. | would say that my constant
embarrassment is to restrain the emo =
tions that are inside of me. You may
not believe it, but / sometimes feel
like a far from extinct volcano, and il
the lava does not EN- to SDill 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 now occupy there
is sort do not know how else 20
! express it than TO say passionate
sense of being connected with my fe!-
low-me in a peculiar relationship OF
respo Utility Not merely the re-
sponsibility 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-theTe
are mighty few kinds of men that
have to be 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
who are looking to me rs the repre-
sentative of a party, with the hope for
all varieties of salvation from the
things they are struggling in tue
midst of. it makes me tremble. 1t
makes me tremble ot only with
sense of my own inadequaey and
weakness, but as If | we're shaken ~
the very things that are shaking
them! Ard if seem circumspect, 1t s
because | am so diligently tryingNnot
TO make any colossal blundCrs. II you
just calculated the NUMBER OF blum
ders fellow can make in "A hours, ii
he is not careful and II he does not
listen more than he talks, you would
see something o. the feeling that
have.
Feels Like Masquerade.
al really feel sometimes as If were
masquerading when | catch picture
Of myself in some printed description.
In between things that / nave to do
as 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
certain length Of time to administer
that office, and I feel just as much
outside of it at this moment as did
before ! was elected to It, | feel Just
as much outside of 1t as ] still feel
outside the government of the United
States.
mo man could imagine himself the
vovernmeut 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 It the best
he knew how. That would not make
him the government itself or the thing
itself. 1t would just make him re-
sponsble 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 il. ! can hardly
rferain every now and again from tip
ping the public the wink, as much as
to say, IT 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 msrepresented 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 10 get q rafting good detective