The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-10-21
HARVARD OVERSEER
lPILL0RIES WILSON
Wl8liam Roscoe Thayer Says
President Suffers From
Incurable EgOmania.
LEAGUE STAND UNwIsE
Great Adventure in Idealism'
Cannot Be Made to Con-
form With Facts.

AOAhA W AtAh - NNN1'
President Wilson is scathingly at
tackled by William Roscoe Thayer, over
seer of Harvard University and pub
licist, in an article entitled 1.-THE Cam
paign and The Issues"
Referring to the attempt of the Demo-
Gratis to make the League OF Nations
the issue in the closing days of the
campaign, Mr.. Thayer says the league
is a great adventure in ideallsm. and,
IL you can persuade the people that you
are an idealist, you don't have 10 stick
to facts
Mr.. Thayer says that a statesman
has ideals, but knows that to realize
them he must deal with actual human
nature and bend and modify 1t, so far
as he can, toward his ideal. AS for
Woodrow Wilson, He suffered from
an incurable disease. egomania, which
prevents its victims from being states
men. Every important act of his public
life can be interpreted by this ego
mania One of its results is that 1t
makes the egomaniac callous % both
veracity and consistency"
During the first three years of the
great war, Mr.. Thayer says. the Presi-
dents friendly feeling toward Ger
many and the Germans increased rather
than decreased"
Mr. Thayer takes former President
Eliot of Harvard to task for his ''un-
bridled eulogy" OF President Wilson in
a current magazine.
Menace of wisconsin.
Referring to the fact that Gov. Cox
announced that he would carry out the
Wilson policies, Mr. Thayer continues:
IF you elect him tCoxl. therefore,
fellow citizens. you will vote to perpet-
uate wisconsin, the most abhorrent,
evil growth in America since slavery
was abolished. You vote also to elect
Mr.. Cox as the Tammany nominee. The
last sterling Democratic President was
nominated and elected not by but
against the wishes Of Tammany.
"a third reason for opposing Gov.
Cox is that he is not up to the standard
of the Presidential candidates OF either
OF the great parties whom the American
people have put in nomination since
1850"
Quoting the Biblical phrase. aye shall
know them by their fruits Mr. Thayer
asks: Judged by this criterion, what
remains of Woodrow Wilson sufficient to
hang a shred of hero worship on?''
Coming to the peace negotiations.
where President Wilson went to Paris
to represent the United States, Mr..
Thayer says that the represen tatives of
others Powers could take time for
thought by saying they must consult
their governments. and adds
But Mr. Wilson could not and did
not say this. He was the American
Government, and what he said was
naturally accepted by the foreigners as
the official American decision. l. Etat
c'est MOL I am the State said Louis
XIV, the chief despot of his time. My
voice is the voice of America Wood
row Wilson implied when he spoke at
the congress, and he had already made
himself the chief despot that America
has ever tolerated.
"A man must be marvellous expert
In morality who can glorify this deceit
of President Wilson as the expression OF
a Messlanic nature"
After discussing the bringing back of
the treaty and the opposition that has
developed. Mr.. Thayer goes on: 1T does
not require egomania as vgilant. sharp
visioned and restless as his to perceive
that unless he wins this point (Article
Ky his reputation now and throughout
history will be ruined"
Defends Fighting Senators.
In regard to the sharp criticism of
the Senators who opposed the league
covenant by the President, Mr.. Thayer
goes on to say:
"The attempt to bring the Senators
into such odium that we have even heard
suggestions that the Senate should be
abolished, is quite In keeping with the
rest OF Wilson's conspiracy to denature
and devitallze the American Constitu-
ton. The purpose Of the founders OF
that Constitution was TO preserve free
government by cnecks and balances, and
II intended that the Senate should act as
a check upon an overweening President
or a revolutionary House of Representa-
tives Mr.. Wilson being a man who
chafes at all checks, whether human or
divine, which interfere with his purposes,
found the Senate An inconvenlent barrier
and accordingly he set about making II
unpopular and hateful by flouting and
scorning and dsregarding II, and by
fpreading the insinuation that this body
OF wicked men alone stood between the
realization OF the noblest ideal In history
his, woodrow Wilson's. ideal---and the
perpetuation of a society In which war
and horror and chaos flourished without
restraint. ] venture to predict, however
that the time will come, and that before
long, when the Senators who have stood
out with patriotism mistaken and with
courage undaunted against Wilson's plot
10 surrender the sovereignty of the
UnlIeQ EIaIcS III ATtlClt ~. VI Tic CONt-
nant of the League of Nations will re-
, ceive the just gratitude OF the nation.
Nave of Contradictions.
president Wilson insists that his
Article X aims at no surrender of our
national sovereignty. But he has made
so many contradictory statements about
the articles or clauses in the covenant
that, instead OF accepting any interpre-
tation of his as final. we can only infer
that he regards truth herself as being
unworthy OF respect or even OF heed as
n she were n member OF his Cabinet.
The Inconsistency which stamped his
utterances and his actions during the
war, was not accidental: II sprang nat
uraiiy from the innate deceit OF his char
acter. Tho thing TO astonlsh us is not
that Wilson did or said these things. but
that any part OF the American people
condoned them. Here was the man who
preached that we must make the world
safe for democracy, but who did more
TO destroy the democracy OF the United
States than any other President has
done Thanks TO the pretence that the
war Justified his taking over extraordl-
nary powers into his own hands. he
assumed a power greater than that OF
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