Tensas gazette., 1917-03-16
WOODROW WILSON.

y
pleted his first term as President of
the United States.
No other four years except those of
Lincoln have been so eventful, and no
other four years except those of Lin
coin have made so much history of
first Importance.
One may like Mr.. Wilson or dislike
him, approve his policies or detest
them, but nobody can deny him a
place among the masterful Presidents
who have stamped their genius for all
time upon the government of the
United States. The courses of Amer
lean history have been changed might
lily by the fact that Woodrow Wilson
was President, and because he has
been President the processes of Amer
lean Government will never again be
quite what they were in the past.
Whatever the verdict of history may
be upon the various policies of the
Wilson Administration, no difficulty
will be experienced in fixing the re-
sponsibility. Since March 4, 1913, Mr.
Wilson has been the Government of
the United States i'm as great degree
as Jefferson or Jackson and i'm even a
greater degree than Washington or
Lincoln.
Mr.. Taft was never President during
his four years in the White House; the
Republican Party was President. Mr..
Roosevelt was President part of the
time during his two terms; the Re-
publican Old Guard was President part
OF the time, and there were glorious
intervals in which Wall Street reigned
supreme, after the manner of Fred
erick the Great, who did what he
pleased and allowed his subjects to say
what they pleased Mr.. Roosevelt play
ing the role of the garroulous but
obedient populace.
The President of the United States
during the last four years has been
Woodrow Wilson, and no other-not
the Democratic Party, not Wall Street,
not the Cabinet, nor Congress, but
d Woodrow Wilson and he alone. What
is good is his, and what is bad is his.
Never for moment has any other
mind and purposes than his controlled
the policies of his Administration. He
has yielded to nobody. He has COM
promised with nobody except the
American people. Abused and viii
fled as few Presidents have ever been,
denounced by his enemies alternately
as a weakling and despot, a coward
and dictator, he has gone his way if
not serenely at least with sure and
certain step.
His critics are fond of pretending
that they cannot understand what he
is trying to do, but no doubts assail
him. He knows what he wants to do
and how he wants to do it. When he
cannot reach his goal by one path he
abruptly changes his course and fol-
lows another path, but always with an |
eye single to the goal itself.
No other President ever so COM
pletely controlled Congress or made
80 little ostensible effort to control |
Congress. He has shaped legislation |
by none of the old and familiar de-
vices. Nobody has been bribed by |
patronage to support his policies and |
measures, nor has anybody been pun
ished by the Withholding of patronage
for opposing the Administration.
There has been no denunciation of |
Congress or of individual members of /
Congress. Yet on every important
issue, no matter how violent the op-
position, the President has managed
to have his way. He has ruled by the
sheer force of ability-because his is
the biggest brain and his the broadest
vision in Washington. His victories
over a sullen and reluctant Congress
has been veritable triumphs of mind
over matter.
Even his bitterest enemies are COM
PEELED to acknowledge this extraordi-
nary intellectual power. When Mr..
Roosevelt INDUCED i'm his outbursts of
foam and fury at the general reluct-
ance of the American people to plunge
blindly into war he could give no
reason for this state OF public opinion
except that President Wilson had
"chloroformed the conscience of the
country" In other words, 1OO, ,OOO, 900
people had been so hypnotized by the
President that they thought only what
he wanted them to think, believed only
what he wanted them to believe and
did only what he wanted them to do.
A superman, indeed, if this be true-a
sup-rman above all other supermen in
history; yet it is not true. Mr.. Will
sons influence over public opinion lies
In the ability to understand it, and give
it adequate expression, not in the abil-
ity to dictate nations sentiments.
Nevertheless Mr.. Wilson has exer-
cised a greater influence over the DO
litical thought of the American people
over the political thought of the
whole world, for that matter-than
any other man of his generation. He
has become in way the universal
spokesman of democracy and a uni
versal leader of democracy. When
Europe speculates as to what the