Norwich bulletin., 1920-06-15
Five Minutes a Day
 With Our Presidents
Copyright 1s2o-5y James Morgan

1s5d-Dec. 2s, Woodrow Wilson born
 at Stanton. Va.
 1S19-Graduated at Princeton.
 1Ss2-Graduated from Law School,
 University ofeVirginia.
 18S2-S-Attorney in Atlanta, Ga.
 1S83-5-Graduate-st student at Johns
 Hopkins University,
 18s5-Married Ellen Louise Axsen of
 Savannah, Ga.
 1SS5-S-Assoeiate Professor at Bvrn
 1Iawr.
 1sS8-s0-Professor at Wesleyan Uni-
 versity in Connecticut.
 18sO-1Se2-Professor at Princeton.
 1902-l6-President of Princeton
 l911-1S-Goyernor of New Jersey.
 191S-Mareh 4, Inaugurated a7h
 President, aged 56.
 Neither Woodrow Wilson nor his ad- mlnistratien has yet passed into history, whose judgment on them it would be folly to try to foretell. Nevertheless, much of the record of this presidency is made up and closed and may summarized at least, although it is perhaps foolhardy to ven ture into the flames of passions that blind men alike to the merits and demerits of almost every president while he remains the central figure of partisan strife "A statesman is politician who is dead" sad Thomas B. Reed.
 The presidency is a looking glass in which we may see reflected the changes in the social conditions, thought manners tastes and in the dream of the country With the rise of democracy, Jefferson was the first president with unpowdered hair. A succession of log-eabin presidents. which opened with Jackson and closed with Garfield, reflected the appearance and the disappearance of our frontier. The Civil war is registered in the very faces of the presidential gallery, which were clean-shaven until the advent of Lincoln and the four solder-presidents | that came after him, all of whom were bearded like the pard." Then came the era of business men, with three out of l six of our latest chief magistrates wear | ing the unstatesmanliks Hlustache. In the 80 years that We remained large | ly an agricultural country, all our presi- 1 dents, with a solitary exception Were | farmers sons. With the growth of our l urban population all of the presidents in the past 50 years, save one, were town 1 born.
 1 While college diploma remained the | privilege of class, our democracy efter preferred to follow uneducated or self educated leaders. Now that higher edu. cation is in process of characterization | all but two of the presidents elected since Lincoln have been college graduates.
 In this age of ours, when men are go 1 ing to school to learn business and farm 1 ing and all manner of vacations, it wal | natural that there should appear in th. l White House man like Woodrow Wil son, who had learned politics in the class room rather than in the wardroom. Tn, eighth of our Virginia-born presidents 1 in reality he is not a Virginian but tn, son of an Ohio clergyman and of al English 'Hother-was student or teache of the science or rather the art of govern ing for 30 years before he held a poiitica office.
 That fact was left out of their reckon ing by the democratic bosses of corrupt machine-ruled New Jersey when the, summoned the president of Princeton uni versity from the golf links one afternoon in the fall of 1910 to receive the nonaina tion for governor. When this suppose novice in politics declared, as he founder ed through what he had to own up wa his first political speech, that if electe governor he would govern. the politician nudged one another and laughed in thei sleeves at the idea of professor tryin to run their machine. They laughed ou loud when they saw him actually sit dow
 in the governors chair and begin to pia |
 . Of all things, it was a book which h : himself had written in his youthfu school days merely as thesis for his Pl D. at Johns Hopkins. The young gradu ] ate-student made the discovery that ou : constitutions created a vacuum which tn | bosses had rushed in to fill. In Europe, the executive and the leei. lature are one and the same thing; her they are separate, with no one authorize . to direct or lead the entire governmen Consequently the headless affair Washington and in every state capft; E had fallen under an unauthorized, irrs : sponsihle bessism of one kind or anothe Wherefore the author centended that
 governor or president, as the only offiei; I known and responsible to all the peopi 5 should lead, not leaving the job to son 2 hidden party machine OF managing pol D tician, who in turn would be in the seer. D control of private interests s When at last the theerist had a chant : to try out his theory on the New Jerse government To it worked like a char Laboring together, Governor Wilson ar the legislature made over in two crowde years the election. corporation, publ
 utility and labor laws of a most reactio, r ary state.
 t Alas, popular leadership is neither s science nor an art that can be taught ol !. of a book. It can be acquired only in fe lowship with the people, and Woodro