The Redwood gazette., 1917-06-06
AS w. WHITE SEES WILSON.

The great man who has come
out Of these times is Woodrow
Wilson. If democracy-wh which is
but another name for Christian
Observation-Disclosures a long for
ward stride in humanity out of
this world crisis, more than to
anyone individual in the world
credit should fall to Woodrow
Wilson.
He has risen to big opportun-
ity in a big way. He has used
his ten talents with splendid
stewardship.
A year ago, two years ago,
three years ago when the war
cloud descended upon the world,
President Wilson seemed to be
the one impossible man for a
war administration in the coun-
try. His talent for phrases; his
inconclusive patience; his belief
in vague spiritual forces, as op-
posed to concrete physical facts;
his disposition to settle things
with RHETORICAL these things
seemed to make him the school
master at the tournament, gro
tesque, half pathetic and weary
ing to a degree.
So Americas hard-headed be-
levers in action, and action, and
always stin more action in crisis,
chafed and fumed under the Will
son leadership. It seemed trag-
ically inadequate, madly quixo-
tic.
But the passing years have
brought events to a place where
that leadership seems to be the
exact kind of leadership needed.
For under the presidents lead
ership the whole world is rally
ing to the democratic idea. This
does not mean the immediate
coming of the millennium. 1t
does not mean that the world is
suddenly to be made over. It
does not mean that self-interest
is to be banished from affairs,
international, national and per-
sonal.
But it does not mean that,
because of Presidents Wilson's
last great utterance on Germany,
mankind is considering serious
| " whether or not there is a
God in Isreal, whether or not
things spiritual have not vital
actual place in human affairs,
whether or not justice is to be
neglected and God to be mocked
| in this earth. The words of
President Wilson have done for
democracy, for the spirit of JUS
tice in the world, more than
tons of ammunition and acres of
fighting men.
And because of the power OF
those words in the world be-
yond our borders, the presidents
leadership here has been con-
siderably strengthened. The
strength Of that leadership is
seen in the passage of the army
bill through congress with al
most unanimous vote.
Here was a new thing. Here
was proposition unpopular and
probably ''un-American,' as we
read our traditions a year ago.
Here was a plan to change the
relation of every able-bodied
man in America to his govern
ment; to sink the individual in
to the social unit. The plan to
conscript men turns a sharp but
necessary corner in our Ameri-
can progress.
| No other leader now living
could have put it through the
/ American congress SO quickly,
SO quietly, SO little battered by
politics, as President Wilson has
put it through congress since
congress convened.
| He is indeed a wonderful man.
| His talents are not strongly
marked. He is a man Of small
enthusiasms and Of no personal
following. He has not charm
ing or lovable personality to
draw men to him and to hold
them in his service with hoops
of steel. Yet he has by force
lof sheer intellect drawn Ameri-
i ca about him in the leadership
of a world combat for democ-
raey as no other American lead
er has drawn America about him
.lfOr years.