The Rice belt journal., 1916-05-26

of the world and therefore must ACT
more or less from the point of view
Of the rest Of the world"
IF | can not retain my moral influ
ence over a man except by knocking
him down occasionally" he said, it
that Is the only basis on which heswill
respect me, then for the sake of his
soul have to knock him down occa'
sionally."
The president declared he had been
kept awake nights. considering the
European situation because there
might come time when the United
States would have to do what it did
not desire to do and "the great burden
on my spirit has been that it is up to
me to choose when that time came.
! He said that he did not believe that
he had been elected president to do as
he pleased. "If l were, it would have
been OF very much more interest" he
said.
Impressions Of public men as q class
were 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 a
warning that false information about
foreign affairs was more than likely to
lead to trouble.
The president remarked further:
Il 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 l have
to make speech. One Of the leading
faults Of you gentlemen of the press
Is your inordinate desire to hear other
men talk, to draw out upon all occa-
sions, whether they wish to be drawn
out or not l remember being In this
press club once before making many
unprecedented disclosures of myself
and then having you at your singular
instinct for publicity insist that give
1t away to everybody else.
Il was thinking as l was looking
forward to coming here this evening
Of that other occasion when / 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
then 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 l had then had
been deepened rather than weakened.
"You can imagine the strain upon
the feeling of any man who is trying
to interpret the spirit of his country
when he feels that spirit can not have
Its own way beyond a certain point
And one Of the greatest points Of
strain upon me, If l may be permitted
to point 1t out, was this:
There are two reasons why the
chief wish of Americans is for peace
One Is that they love peace and have
nothing to do with the present quarrel
and the other is that they believe the
present quarrel has carried those en-.
gagged In 1t so far that they can not
be held to ordinary standards of re.
sponslbility and therefore, as some
men have expressed it to me, since
the rest of the world is mad, why
should we not simply refuse to have
anything to do with the rest of the
world in the ordinary channels of &C
ton? Why not let the storm pass?
knowing that from both these two
points Of view the passion Of America
was for peace. was nevertheless
aware that America Is one of the ma
tions of the world, not only that but
one of the chief nations of the world
nation that grows morally more and
more influential even when she Is not
aware Of It; and that If she is to play
the part which she most covets, It is
necessary that she should act more or
less from the point of view of the rest
Of the world.
II have already given myself the
pleasure of telling you what has really
been in my heart, and not only has
been in my heart, but is in my heart
every day Of the week. II / did not 20
off at week-ends occasionally and
throw off as much of 1t as possible to
throw off this burden, could not
stand it. This week | went down the
Potomac and up the James, and sub
stituted history for politics, and there
was an infinite. sweet calm in some
OF those old places that reminded me
Of the records that we're mad, In the
days. that are past. ETC."