The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-21
WILSON UNBOSOMS
 HIMSELF TO CAPITAL
 CITY PRESS CLUB
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 'doctorine' things of that kind until the day l have to deliver them. When De heard it read to Congress he said . I think l. was better than when you read il to me- I said. Senator. there is one thing which ] do not think you understand. I not only use all the brains I have but all can borrow, and l have borrowed lot since l read 1t to yoI first That I dare say, is what gives the impression of circun- speetness. I am listening: l am trying diligently to collect all the brains that are borrowa ble that l may not make more blunders that it is inevitable that a man should make who has great limitations of Knowledge and capacity And the emotion of the thing is so great that l suppose l must be some kind of q mask 10 conceal it. real ly feel sometimes as if l were mas querading when I catch a picture of myself ia some printed description In between things that I have to do as public officer I never think of myself as the President of the United States, because never have had any sense of being identified with that office. feel like a person appointed for cer thin length of time to administer that office, and Iffeel just as much outside of it at this moment as I did before l was elected to it. I feel just as much outside of 1t as I still feel outside of the gove, nment of the United States.
 Office Greater Than Man "No man could imagine himself the government of the United States, but he could understand that some part of his part of his fellow citizens had told him to go and run a certain part of 1t, the best he knew how. That would not mako him the government itself or the thing itself It would just make him responsible for running it 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. I can hard ly refrain every now and again from tipping the public the wink. much as to say Tt is only me, that is in- side this thing
 q know perfectly well that I will have to get out presently. I know that then l will look just my own proper size, and that for the time being the proportions are somewhat refracted and misrepre- sented to the eye by the large things I am inside of. from wnich I am tipping you this wink.
 "For example, take matters of this sort: I will not say whether it is wise or un- wise, simple or grave, but certain prece- dents have been established that in cer- tain companies the President must leave the room first, and people must give way to him. It is a very uncomfortable thing to have to think of all the other people every time I get up and sit down, all and all that sort of thing. So that when I get guests in my house and the public is shut out, l adjourn being President and take leave to be a gentleman.
 'If they draw back and insist upon my doing something first. I firmly decline. There are blessed intervals when I forget by one means or another that I am Pres ident of the United States. One means by which I forget is to get rattling good de- tective story, get after some ina ginary offender and chase him all over-prefer- ably any continent but this. Because the various parts of this continent are be- coming painfully suggestive to me. The postoffices. and many other things which stir "reminiscences have 'sicklied them o'er with a pale cast of thought. There are postoffices to which I wouldn't think of mailing letter, which I can't think of without trembling with all the heart burnings and struggle with which some aspirant was installed as postmaster of that particular office
 Now, if I were free, would come not infrequently up to these rooms. You know l was in Washington but a few times, and for very few hours, until came last year. and l never expect to see the inside of the public buildings in Washington until my term is over. The minute turn anywhere I am personally conducted to beat the band. The curator, and the as- sistant curators, and every other bloom ing official turns up. and they show me so much attention that I don't see the building. I would have to say stand aside and let me see what you are show ing me Some day after I am through with this office I am going to come back to Washington and see it.
 Tn the meantime I am in the same cat egory as the National museum, the monu- ment, the Smithsonian institute, or the Congressional library If I only knew an