The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1916-05-19
President Tells Story Of
Three Years At Helm
Reveals Some of the Motives Which Haze Made Him Sc
Strong for Peace Yet So Firm in His Defense of the
Rights of Humanity Caution to Ne1OspaperMen

washington, MAY 1o.-STestueHt
Wilson tonight made public a frank
and intimate review of his three years
in the White House and his impress
sions of foreign and domestic prob
lens, delivered confdentially last
night before Washington correspond
ents gathered at the National Press
club. He spoke of the difficulties of
the presidency and particularly Of the
motives which have 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
can not be held to ordinary standards
of responsibility" But, he added, the
United Staes has growA 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
6world."
"If / can not retain my moral in
fuence over an American except by
occasionally knocking him down." he
said, If that is the only basis o.
which he will respect me, then for
the sake of his soul I have got to
occasionally knock him down"
Might Have to Strike.
The president declared he had been
kept awake nights considering 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 bur-
den on my spirits has been that it
has ben up to me to choose when
that time came" He added that he
did not conceive that he had beea
elected president to do as he pleased.
eff l were it would have been very
much more interesting" he said.
Impressions Of public men as a
class were given frankly by the pres
ident, with the comment that some
grew and some swelled. He also dis
cussed the relations of the newspa-
pers to the affairs of the nation and
sounded a warning that false infor-
nation about foreign affairs was more
than likely to lead to trouble.
The presidents remarks as orig
inally delivered were read by him
carefully before being made public
but no important portions were elm
mated, and the wording was not
changed substantially. The president
said:
81 am both glad and sorry to be
here; glad because l am always hap
py to be with you, and know and like
SO many of your, and sorry because
have to make a speech One of
the leading faults of you gentlemen
of the press is your inordinate de-
Sire to hear other men talk, to draw
them out upon all occasions, wheth-
er they wish to be drawn out or not
l remember being in this press club
once before, making many unpremid-
itated disclosures of myself and
then having you with your singular
instinct for publicity insist that I
should give it away to everybody
else"
Il was thinking as 1 was looking
forward to coming here this evening
os that other occasion when 1 stood
very nearly at the threshold of the
duties that l have since been called
upon to perform and l was going over
in my mind the impressions that I
then had by way of forecast of the
duties of president and comparing
them with the experiences that have
followed. l must say that the fore
cast has been very largely verified and
that the impressions l had then have
been deepened rather than weakened.
Wants Some Rest.
"You may recall that I said then
that l felt constantly a personal de-
tachment from the presidency, that
one thing that I resented when was
not performing the duties of the Office
was being reminded that l was the
president of the United States. I felt
towards it as man feels towards a
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 course Of his own
thought. I am constantly reminded,