The Alaska daily empire., 1915-03-30
STATESMAN AND POLL
 TiclAN
(St. Louis Republicl

In discussing Woodrow Wilson @
 statesman and politician we take n
 the latter aspect Of his administrator
 of the presidency first, for the reasol
 that no mans statesmanlike Qualitie
 ever benefited his iellow-beings m
 less he was Q good politician to begii
 with. Statesmanship is concerne'
 with ends; politics with means. T
 arrive at the first, one must command the second The Presidents leader
 ship of the legislative branch of th ! government has eventuated in thl most constructive session of Congress
 in 90 years because he is consum
 mate politician.
 The masterful Presidents who have
 failed In their relations with Congress Roosevelt is at once the neares ! and most conspicuous example-hav' failed because they were unable t' perceive how far Presidents righu ip directing legislation extend, anC
 where they stop This jumpingofi place Is not mapped nor charted-an, Roosevelt jumped off, He drew upol him the bitter wrath of Compression al leaders. and upon them the dis pleasure of the country But nothing came of 1t.
 Woodrow Wilson has very clear ideas as to the ends of legislation; but in his messages and public state ments he has always treated matters of detail with pleasing vagoeness He was much criticised for this ai arst Men called him a theorist' and a dreamer" They lamented his political youth and inexperience. As matter of fact he was maturer than they Where other Presidents had merely relieved their minds he was bent on getting things done He knew that accomplishment is only possible in democracy. to the man who bears the other fellows personal rights clearly in mind
 He loft Congress to work out mat tors Of detail. to discuss rival schemes to make concrete decisions. In short, he left Congress to make the laws and confined himself to his constitu. tional function of recommending need ed legislation and passing on 1t after 1t had formulated Back of those beautifully balanced sentences in which he outlined general politics was the shrewdest sense of the potency of congressional selfrespect as n check on presidential sumptiousness. The result is current history How ten aciously the President can fight he showed in the Panama tolls repeal campaign. That was a straight issue of principle. it was yea or nay. What he wanted Congress to do was not Go make a choice of ways and means it was to right a wrong, and Q wrong that hampered the Executive in the realm of foreign relations But in dealing with all matters of legislation detail. he has steadfastly avoided that omniscience. at once beautiful and bogus. which was the rock on which Roosevelt went down.
 The Presidents power as a polite. ion arises out of the fact that he knows how to talk to common folk. to all of us. and understands at the same time how to work with a co-or- dinate branch of the government, firmly grounded on its own dignity and rights.
 As a statesman, Woodrow Wilson has succeeded because he understands the ends of government It takes more than a clear brain and an ex- haustive knowledge of history to give such an understanding. Two things more. in fact. are required A mans sympathies must be right Many a man has gone down to failure in pub lie life. because. while he knew much, he felt little. No man who does not sympathize with natural human ambi- tions and hopes. and with human suf- ferlng and want. has any business be. ing President It is necessary also, that O statesman's life be right. He has decisions to make that demand more than clear vision and true feel ing: they demand that power in ac- tion that only belongs to the man who has been annealed in the fire of a thousand temptations, and come up out of the valley of decision upon the right side The words of the Jewish patriot recur irressistibly to the mind' Who shall ascend into the win of