Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-03-23


of the United States, revealing in a
! personal. conversational way the diff
| ficulties he has to meet and the emo
| tons of his own nature with which
he has to struggle for control, Wood
row Wilson, President, conflded re-
markable statement TO the members
of the National Press Club, of Wash
ington, of which he long has been a
member
He said:
Il 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 myself, and | have
come TO have the impression that
must be some kind of fraud. because
( l think great many of these articles
are written in absolute good faith.
/ ! tremble to think of the variety and
I falseness J the Impressions | make
and it is being borne in on me so that
/ 1t may change my very sposition-
/ that ! am cold and removed person
who has a thinking machine inside
which he adjusts to the circum-
4 STATUES. NilNH lt uptS HON dllON W NC
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
I il work.
Il am not aware OF having any de-
tachable apparatus inside of meF on
/ the contrary, if / were to interpret
myself. | would say that my constant
embarrassment is to restrain the emo
/ tlons that are inside of me. You may
not believe it, but | sometimes feel
/ like a far from extinct Volc ano, and II
/ the lava does not sem to sDill over IT
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 fel-
! low-men in a peculiar relationship Of
respo -ibility. Not merely the re-
sponstility of office, but God knows
there are enough things in this word
that need to be corrected,
/ Knows all Sorts of Men.
/ Il have mixed. first and last, with
! all sorts and conditions Of men-there
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 | think of the number of men
who are looking to me as the repre-
sentative of party. with the hope for
all varieties of salvation from the
things they are struggling in tue
midst of. it makes me tremble. II
makes me tremble lot only with a
| sense of my own inadequacy ana
weakness, but as if | were shaken ~
| the very things that are shaking
them! Ard IL | seem circumspect, II s
/ because ] am so diligently trying not
7 to make any colossal blundtrs. II You
! Just calculated the numoer OF blum
ders fellow can make IN "a hours, II
he is not careful and il he does not
listen more than he talks, you would
see something OF the feeling that
have.
Feels Like Masquerader.
81 really feel sometimes as If | were
masuuerading when ! catch a picture
of myself in some printed description
In between things that / nave TO 90
as a 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 q 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 / was elected to II. | 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 It 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 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 fiji il. ! 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 to 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 misrepresented 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 o rafting good detective