The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1918-02-22
UNUSUAL COMPLIMENT
TO PRESIDENT WILSON

| HicdileS Oh FTebiueHC WILSON, Tor tne
purpose Of getting relief for certain
young men Of their church, is as
strong an endorsement of both the
character and efficiency of the Chief
Executive as we have seen lately:
Texas, Feb. 1, 1918.
Dear Sister Abbott:
Your letter of Jan. % was duly
( forwarded and reached me here to-
day. | am sincerely sorry that !, in
a measure, inexperienced what il
was you expected from me in regard
| to our trip to Washington. When I
discovered that Brother Goux was
going to send you letter and a copy
OF the resolutions, l concluded that
that would probably be all you would
want. | now realize that it is more
particularly our personal experience
in meeting with President Wilson and
Secretary Baker. So l win endeavor
to redeem myself by giving you lit
tie account of our visit at the nations
Capital.
We reached Washington on the
Monday following the Pittsburg Con-
.vention and at once got to work inter-
viewing senator's and men in author
ity, with view of getting some in
fluence with those near the President
and securing an appointment with
him. We very soon discovered, how
ever, that the only way for us to get
to see President Wilson was to go
right to the point and see his secre-
tary, Mr.. Joseph Tumulty, which we
did. Mr.. Tumulty looked at our Gre
dentials and passed them on to an Of
fetal, and we were told that we would
be notified.
On account of Brother Brenneisen's
membership in the Old Colony Club
we were able to make our headquar-
tiers there and thus have some one
to receive every message and tele-
gram that might come.
Wednesday afternoon message
came for Brother DR.. Atwood Smith,
informing him, as Chairman of the
Committee, that an interview had
been arranged for us for o'clock
Friday evening, Jan. IL. So little
before 5 o'clock on the appointed eve
ming we proceeded to the White House
and after little waiting were usher
ed into the presence of Americas
Chief Executive.
My personal impression of Mr.. Will
son is, first of all, that he is perfect
gentleman and receives one with true
courtesy. His manner is quiet-in no
way Hurried or excited, and he would
hardly impress one as having practi-
t1N xxF L
shoulders; in fact, he would rather
give the impression that he had no.
thing else to do but receive US and
thus kill little time. Another thing
very noticeable about this man of
prominence is that he is far better
looking than any picture would indi-
cate. He has very pleasing person
atty, and he is by no means the cold
blooded machine that many believe
him to be.
+ He listened patiently while the res
olution was read to him and seeming
ly noted every point that was made.
At the conclusion of the reading he
asked"whether these young men who
had conscientious objections would not
be willing to engage in work of re-
constructive nature, such as Red Cross
work, or anything that was not de-
cidedly of war or war-preparatory
ntaure. We told him that in every
case this was an individual matter as
to what the conscience should deter
mine they might do. But although
many of these young men would be
willing to engage in reconstructive
work, they feared that they would be
pressed into other work, as has been
the case, we believe, in England. And
furthermore, in order to do this they
would have to don the uniform and
take the oath as soldiers; and this
they would not do.
We then pointed out that these
young men would suffer any indignity,
even unto death itself, before they
would go against their conscientious
scruples, emphasizing the fact that
they knew that their eternal destiny
would be affected by their decision in
this matter. This was the only point
where the President seemed to show
much feeling; for he said very quick
ly, 1--WE have no desire to heap indig-
mites upon these men," We replied
that we appreciated the fact that that
was his position in the matter and that
was the correct Interpretation of the
law; but that nevertheless these men
were being subjected to ipdignities.
He then said that that was very I'M
fortunate, and while he did not say SO
he intimated that the courts
which had passed these sentences up
on the brethren had exceeded their au-
thority, rather through ignorance than
malice. He promised 20 give the mat
ter his personal attention, taking a |
copy of the resolution and putting it |
with some other papers that were ev-
identity marked for quick action.
We came away very much gratifed
with the reception accorded us, and
the President was kind enough to ar
range an interview for us with Sec
rotary Baker. So we at once went ov-
er to the War Department and were
admitted into the Secretary's private
office and repeated the program there,
reading the resolution to the Secretary
of War as we had read it to the Pres
dent. His expressions and questions
we're much in line with what the Pres