Fergus County Democrat., 1916-05-18
President Makes Public
Address Delivered to
Press Club Monday.

WASHINGTON, May 16.-Presdent
Wilson tonight made public frank
and intimate review OF his three years
IN the White House and his impress
sions OF foreign and domestic prob
lens, delivered confidentially last
night before Washington correspond
cntS gathered at the National Press
cub. He spoke OF the difficulties of
the presidency and particularly of the
motives which lave guided his hand
ling Of the European situation.
America" the president said, ''is
FOR peace because she loves peace and
believes the present war has carried
the nations engaged so far that they
cannot be held to ordinary standards
OF responsibility
But, he added, the United States has
grown to be one Of the great nations
Of the world, and therefore must act
more or less from the point OF view
OF the rest OF the world"
III cannot retain my moral influ-
ence over man except by occasionally
knocking him down. he said, "if that
is the only basis on which he will re-
spect me, then for the sake OF his soul
have got to occasionally knock him
down
The president declared lie had been
kept awake nights considering the
European situation. because there
might come a time when the United
States would have to do what | did
rot desire to do and the great bur
den on my spirits has been that it has
been up To me to choose when that
time came He added that he did
rot conceive that he had been elected
president to do as he pleased. .If
We're ii would have been very much
more interesting" he said
Impressions OF public men as class
We're given frankly by the president,
with the comment that some grew and
some swelled. He also discussed the
relations OF the newspapers to the af-
fairs of the nation, and sounded Il
warning that false information about
foreign affairs was more than likely
to lead to trouble.
The presidents remarks as original
ly delivered were read by him careful
ly before being made public but no
important portions We're eliminated,
and the wording was not changed sub,
stantially.
Following is the text of the presi-
dents speech:
81 am both glad and sorry to be here !:
glad because | am always happy to
be with You, and know and like SO
many OF YOU; and sorry because | have
/ to make a speech. One of the leading
/ faults of YOU gentlemen of the press
! is Your inordinate desire to hear other
men talk to draw them out upon all
! occasions, whether they wish to be
drawn out or not. | remember being
in this press club once before. making
many unpremeditated disclosures of
/ myself, and then having YOU with
! your singular instinct for publicity in
sist that | should give it away to ev.
/ erybody else
81 was thinking as | was looking
/ forward to coming here this evening
Of that other occasion when | stood
/ very nearly at the threshold of the
duties that | have since been called
/ upon to perform and was going over
! in my mind the impressions that
/ tnen had by way of forecast of the
] duties of president, and comparing
them with the experiences that have
followed. must say that the fore
, cast has been very largely verified and
/ that the impressions | had then have
/ been deepened rather than weakened
| You may recall that said then tina,
! | felt constantly a personal detach
ment from the presidency; that one
thing that | resented when | was not
performing the duties of the office
| was being reminded that | was the
/ president OF the United States. | fell
toward it as a man feels toward great
function which. in working hours he is
obliged to perform, but which, out OF
working hours, he is glad to get away
from and almost forget and resume the
quiet course of his own thoughts.
am constantly reminded as l go about
as | do some times at the weekend o
the personal inconvenience of beins
president OF the United States. If
=.