The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-02-02

"schooIm aster'' at HIM as reproach.
Particularly in his speeches, which
most people Judged as too methodical
and academic, they recognized the
pedagogue. But the very thing that
has been used as a. weapon against
him has with time become his great
est power.
His sentences are as IL chiseied OUT
Of metal the product Of long years of
tircless schooling. This is marked by
an extraordinarily fortunate selection
Of words He speaks freely, easily,
with assurance dignity and emphasis,
but WITHOUT that vocal pathos which,
=, NJ II, ':.,twsy III 10, >, ~,
about the orator vibrate.
But it is precisely his methodical
effectiveness which in the course OF
time has become the medium for max
ing understood among his own people
his ideas with great clarity and trans
parency.
ALI the broad masses OF the world
WAC have today the opportunity to
listen at his feet, as il were, of this
teacher of greatest and big-hearted
humanitarian sentiment can grasp
him, thanks to that very quality of
clearnees OF speech. and become his
This thorough going metamorphosis
of the sentiments toward and opin .
ions OF Wilson is at present under
way.
Do we Swiss know wilson, How
often has he been pictured to us err
roneously and unjustly as the repre-
sentative of the almighty dollar.
| How many OF us are forced, in such
vital issues, to see through foreige
! II. AtHt.r L. Il
so little has been done to facilitate
! independent Judgment
And SO il came hat VIC Swiss have
had to suffer II that one of the great
| est and most important men of this
( age was pictured TO us AZ a puppet OF
/ plutocracy, despite the fact that this
mind OF abstract principles has been
| nowhere more bitterly hated, more
sincerely feared and more violently
| fought than In Wall street. where the
omnipotence of gold holds sway
/ Even before his election the presi.
! dent made his attitude on that score
thoroughly known. He broke off old
ties OF Friendship lest in his pohtica
| career he might stand under ths
shadow Of some sinister influence oi
money power. And in his earnest
cabinet sat men who had been fought
by those quarters as bitterly as HI
himself.
Or is it a fact. as has been charged
| that Wilson after his election, or ever
during the war. made special conces
sions o the poverbiai money instfnc'
! Of the American? Was IL not he who
with courage and force publicly de
/ Tended the war tax, Il tax which ever
/ the man in the street did not esca pc
and which Is capable of hitting the
huge profits of the war industries
! with an assessment Of 80 per cent?
The whole national American life
public and private--was gravely al
fected by this tax. especially with re
| gard TO transpor tation. Scarcely ;
ticket is bought in America that II
not doubiy taxed Not even the the
alter ticket escape this measure.
! rits the club life. the automobile
sport and the comforts of luxury or
long railway Journeys.
I Or has he omitted to denounce anf
damn the enriching of few by th'
war? This shadow side OF AemricaI
life he brilliantly illuminated III hi
speech TO representatives of the Rec
Cross in New York.
But ali these measures have no
made Wilson unpopular. On the con
trary, they have brought him ever
nearer to his fellow countrymen. Hi
one-time enemies in Wall street hav'
become his Strongest partisans