Iditarod pioneer., 1914-11-07
WILSON TELLS HOW IT
 FEELS TO BE PRESIDENT

Some time ago President Wilson unbos- Omed himself to the members of the Ma
 tiCnaI Press Club of Washington. He told them in frank, conversational way how
 he felt as President of the United States. It was an intimate picture of Woodrow
 Wilson, the man, drawn by himself. The
 President did not intend to have his re
 marks reported, but later at the request of
 the club, the unusual speech was made public. He said in part:
 q was just thinking of my sense of con fusion of identity, sometimes, when l read
 articles about myself. have never read an
 article about myself in which l recognized
 myself and l have come to have the i'm
 pression that 1 must be some kind of a
 fraud, because l think great many of
 these articles are written in absolute good
 faith
 'I tremble to think of the variety and falseness in the impressions l make-and It
 is being borne in on me that it may change
 my very disposition--that 1 am a cold and removed person who has a thinking ma chine inside which he adjusts to the cir
 cumstances, which he does not allow to be moved by any winds of affection or emo
 ton of any kind, but turns like 8 cold searchIight on anything that is presented to his attention and makes it work. l am not aware of having any detachable ap- paratus inside of me. On the contrary, if I were to interpret myself l would say that my constant embarrassment is to re-
 strain the emotions that are inside of me. You may not believe it, but l some
 times feel like a fire from far distant
 volcano, and if the lava does not seem to spill over 1t is because you are not high
 enough to see into the brain and see the caldron boil. Because truly, gentlemen, ln the position which l occupy there IS a sort
 of passionate sense of being called with my fellow men in peculiar relationship of
 responsibility Not merely the responsibil- | ity of office, but God knows thrre are enough things in the world that need to be corrected.
 T 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 experiences that have to be de scrbed 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 for all varieties of salvation from the things they are struggling in the midst of, it makes me tremba It makes me tremble not only with a sense of my own made Quacy and weakness, but as if l were
 shaken by the very things that are shaking them, and if 1 seem crcumspect, 1t IS be cause 1 am so diligently trying not to make
 any colossal blunders, If you just calcu- lated the number of blunders fellow can i make in twenty 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.
 "I was amused the other day at remark that Senator Newlands made. l had read him the trust message that l was to deliver to congress some ten days before l dellv- cred it, and l never stop 'doctorlng' things of that kind until the day 1 have to de
 liver them. When he heard it read in con
 gress he said I think it was better than it was when you read it to me- said i Senator, there is one thing which l do not
 think you understand I not only use all the brains l have but all l can borrow, | it to you first
 That, 1 dare say, is what gives the impression of circumspectness. l am hsten- ing; am diligently trying to collect all the brains that are borrowable in order that may not make more blunders than It IS inevitable that 8 man should make who has great limitations of knowledge and ca pacity. And the emotion of the thing is so
 great l suppose l must be some kind Of a mask to conceal it. l really feel some
 times as if 1 were masquerading when l