New Britain herald., 1916-05-17
KEEPING THE POST WHITE.

On the occasion of the formal open ing of the new club rooms of the National Press Club in Washington two years ago President Wilson made the most remarkable address of his first year in the White House. Then it was that he disclosed his innermost thoughts to the newspaper corre- his place in the ranks of real human ! beings. Before that there were doubtful souls who thought the .Presi- | dent was in the world but not of it. | Last night the President again visited the haven of the newspaper men in l Washington and this time gave a frank and intimate review of his three years in the White House. His i'm pressions of foreign and domestic problems were laid before the discern 1 ing gaze of the men who must inform the nation of the happenings in dip lomatic circles and these impressions are well worth while reading, are ] worthy of preservation, because they reveal the motives. that have guided the Chief Executive while piloting the ! nation through some of it's most peril ous moments,
 There are so many interesting points in this "confession' of the President that it is very difficult to point finger at one and label it the salient
  kept awake at nights pondering over the European situation, because there might come a time when the United States would have to do what it did not desire to do, and the great burden on his spirit has been that he would have to choose when that time came. His impressions of men ap- pointed to public office mark them in two classes,-those who grow and those who swell. As far as America herself is concerned, the President has believed all along that she should hold aloof from the madhouse of Flu rope, that what those people over there were doing was no concern of ours; but then there was the other side of it. America is not only one of the nations of the world, but one of the chief nations of the world, a nation that grows more and more powerful in spite of herself, and if she is to play a big part in maintaining peace she must act more or less from the
 
 These are a few of the impressions given by the President; but only few. Perhaps his happiest vindication of l what some have termed his ''Vacillat- 1 ing policy" his constantly and ever lastingly applying new views to old : doctrines, is given in the following ! excerpt:
 "There is a simile that was used by a very interesting English writer that has been much in my mind, Like my elf, he had often been urged not to try to change so many things. I re- member when I was president of a university, a man said to me: Good heavens, man. why don't you leave something alone and let it stay the way it is?' and I said, if you will guarantee to me that it will stay the way it is will let it alone, but if you knew anything you would know that if you leave a live thing alone it will not stay where it is. It will develop and will either go in the wrong direc- ton or decay
 s'I reminded him of this thing that the English writer said, that if you want to keep white post white you cannot let it alone. It will get black. You have to keep doing something to it. Tn that instance you havo got to paint it white very frequently in order to keep it white, because there are forces at work that will get the bet black, but the forces of moisture and the other forces of nature will pene- trate the white paint and get at the fibre of the wood, and decay will set in, and the next time you try to paint it you will find that there is nothing but punk to paint.'
 The forces made up of partisan politicians have been ever at the job of making the white post a different color. While Woodrow Wilson has ably applied the brush, has painted and kept the post white, he has had to combat those disintegrators, those destroyers whom he justly and ap- propriately labels as men of party passion and personal preference. They - 41>A ..a a+S of Sncietx the len who