The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-13
NEW CUSTOM IS INSTITUTED BY
 MRS, WILSON Presidents Wives Now Civ en Honors Once Only
 Due of Royalty.
BENEFIT BY VISIT
 OF OUR FIRST LADY
Established a Precedent That Gives Them Suit
 able Place.

Mime. Poincare, wife of the Presi- dent of France, is benefitting by the precedent created last Winter by Mrs. Woodrow Wilson. For King Albert, Queen Elizabeth and the Belgian Nation have addressed to Mme. Poin- care a special invitation to accom- pany her husband on the occasion of his state visit to Brussels
 Until now the wives of the chief magistrates of the French republic have always been left at home when their husbands were called upon to visit foreign courts. Indeed, there was no place for her in French of ficia1 precedence, ceremonial and pro- tocole. u was not until Raymond Poincare became President that he insisted that when foreign sovereigns visited Paris with their consorts, his wife should participate in their wei come on their arrival, and should drive in state through the streets Of the capital, with the Queen or the Empress as the case might be.
 When Nicholas II and his Czarina visited Paris during the Presidency of Felix F'aure the latter went alone to receive them and drove them through Paris, with his imperial guests facing him, Mime. Faure being conspicuous by her absence.
 President Pc-ncare absolutely de- clined to permit his wife to be public Iy sighted in this fashion. But h. did not see his way to demanding that she should be included in his in vitations to foreign courts, and in the IS months which elapsed between his election to the Presidency and the outbreak of the great war he went to London, to Petrograd, to Rome, to Madrid, to Brussels, The Hague, Co., penhagen, Christiania and Stockholm alone, leaving Mme. Poincare at home-for the very simple reason that she had not been asked. It was held at monarchial courts that. whereas sovereign honors were due to Presidents of republics, there was no provision for any official rank, pre- cedence of recognition of the wives of Presidents.
 When, however, Mrs Woodrow Wilson arrived in Europe with her husband in December last, the French protocole. or State Department of ceremonies, which is all the more strict because it is Republican, felt it necessary to create a new one by ac- cordinE to Mrs. Woodrow Wilson tho same sovereign honors as those be-
 
 The French policy in this connec- ton was confirmed by the court and Government in Great Britain, where the wife of the President of the United States was welcomed with precisely the same distinction and honors as If she had been a Queen or an Empress of royal birth, instead of the wife of the elected President of a republic She was received at the railroad station in London by Queen Mary, who put her on her procession through the streets of the British metropolis. In fact, Mrs. Wilson was treated in London, Brus- sels, Rome and Paris just like a lady of sovereign rank, save that the Wo- men, on being presented to her, did not make the curtsey that is reserved strictly for royal personages.
 Now that Mrs. Wilson has thus es- tablished precedent in Europe for sovereign honors to be paid to the wives of Presidents of republics there will no longer be any question 1 about leaving their ladies at home when their husbands go off on state visits, and Mime. Poincare's share in the welcome accorded to the Chief Magistrate of France on the occasion of his visit to Brussels by the crown, the Government and the people Of Belgium serve to call attention to | the new order of things.-Marquise | de Fontenoy, in Baltimore Amert- | can.