The Hattiesburg news., 1915-03-12
Editorials Worth
Reading
TWO YEARS OF WILSON.
(Frpm the New York World.J

On the 50th anniversary of Lincoln's
second inaugural, Woodrow Wilson
completed half his presidential term.
These two years of the Wilson ad-
ministration have helped to make
more history than any other two
years since Lincoln. The coming two
years of the Wilson administration
must inevitably be the most moment
Gus period that this country has
known since the civil war.
1t is fact of enormous importance
that this crisis finds in the White
House a president who is completely
master of himself Being master OF
himself, he is master of his party and
of his administration.
There is no kitchen cabinet. There
are no back-stairs advisers. There are
no secret influences that pull and sway
the policies of the executive. No un'
derground wires run from the White
House into Wall street of into the
headquarters of a political commit
tee.- Men may agree with Mr.. Wilson
or disagree with him; they may like
him or they may dislike him; but ev'
erybody knows that he and he alone
| is president. Everybody knows that
during the remaining two years OF his
term he and he alone will be presi-
! dent.
A very unusual man, meet to cope
| with a very unusual situation in the
affairs of mankind-a president who
| in all his official relations displays
| neither vanity nor resentment, nor an
ger nor personal ambition. If he has
| friends. their friendship counts for
nothing in the afafirs Of state. If he
has enemies, their enmity weighs
nothing in the balance of government.
He seeks neither to reward the one
nor to punish the other.
So evenly does he hold the scales
| that the members of the diplomatic
| corps. with all their ighly-developed
facilities for obtaining information.
| have never been able to learn where
the presidents personal sympathies
lie in the great conflict that is now
devastating Europe. Whatever his In
dividual opinions may be, he has
smotbered them in the responsibilities
of his office.
| At this period in their first term
most presidents have been carefully
calculating their chances for renomina-
ton and re election. Nobody knows
whether Mr.. Wilson intends to be q
candidate for reelection or not. Not
"a member of the cabinet, not mem
her of Congress, can say OF his own
knowledge that the president desires
a reelection or that he would not re
fuse a denomination. What all OF
them know is that tho president would
not stoop from principle to VIII eithe--
a denomination OF q reelection.
/ That is where his great strength lies
That is where his great usefulness lies
in this crisis. It is easy to rattle the
| saher 1t is easy to make the welkin
| ring. 1t is easy to be spectacular and
sensational ard theatrical. It is easy
to be demagcg 1t is easy to juggle
with the fate of nation when no man
can foresee what the next day will
bring forth. But it is not easy to b.
calm and restrained and judicial II
is rot easy to face every responsibility
without prejudice and without pae
sion. It is not easy to hew straight
to the line of censure or praise or de
annexation. 1t is not easy to be san
! when the world has given itself over
to madnees.
| The enormous good fortune OF tn
people of the United States in tn
storm and stress of these comma
years is that their chief magistrate |:
sane-the sanest mind today that il
intrusted with the responsibilities o.
government anywhere in civilization