The Alaska daily empire., 1920-04-06
Posterity Likely To Give Wilson High Place
(w W. Jerman in Seattle Times)

(W W. Jeman in Seattle Tmes)
 People who have been quick to say President Wilson has lost his coveted high place in history be of the waning of his influence and popularity since the armistce signed, are bit too quick the trigger.
 i isn't for them, nor is it for the present gener ation all probability, to say what place he is to occupy permanently if any, among the great figures of the world Contemporary opinion is no opinion If it were neither Washington nor Lincoln would have the place he has in world thought
 When these men died there was very strong belief that they had been failures, and that their work would not stand the test of time. Washington openly charged with trying to establsh' a mon archy, and, next to Lincoln he was the most widely despsed who has been Presidnt Several influential daily newspapers following his death printed editorials in which they said his removal was the best thing that could have happened for the country, and that they hoped his like would not ap pear again
 Washington declined third term. The belief of people today is that he did it for patriotic reasons Maybe that is Students of history, however are quite inclined to say that if he had been candidate he might have been defeated He knew the temper of the country and doubtless had in mind to some extent when he said he would not run again.
 Lincoln like Washington came into his own after he had passed It is an interesting question whether abuse reached greater heights of cruelty and injustice in his than it did in Washingtons Both misunderstood, both misjudged. The majority of the people in their day supported them but very large and very aggressive minority held them up to ridicule and
 
 tysburg address has, not only literature but also as a summing up of the thought of the North re garding the Civil War, it is interesting to read the following editorial statement, published November 24 1863 five days after the delivery of the address, in The Patriot and Union of Harrisburg, Pa.
 "The President succeeded on this occasion be he acted without sense and without restraint in panorama that gotten up more for the bene fit of his party than for the glory of the nation and the honor of it's dead We pass over the silly re- marks of the President; for the credit of the nation are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall more be repeated thought of"
 That sounds good deal like some of the things that have appeared in the last year in such news papers The New York Sun and The New York Tribune about MT Wilson. It sounds good deal like of the things that have been, and are still being, said about him in private conversation by men in Washington and elsewhere.
 And yet, the abuse that has been heaped on him does either in volume intensity, with that which Washington and Lincoln had to with stand. Doubtless, the human mind is becoming little kinder, and will not indorse such tirades of criticism as politicians of an earlier day nduged in
 Men who have occupied the office of President have been placed in three welldefined groups by common consent. Washington and Lincoln are in class by themselves In service performed in ability the beginning from the end and and improve great opportunities to the utmost they stand alone They the patron saints not of any political party but of great people, which no longer permits par tisan bias to control its thought of them.
 There four Presidents who take rank just below these two-Jetferson, Jackson, Cleveland and Roosevelt. The first two the patron saints of the Democratic party but in larger sense they the pride of the whole country regardless of party Cleveland and Roosevelt more recent figures but that they belong in this secondary group there is of question, although there are alive who dispute it, especially in the of Cleveland.
 But again let it be said that contemporary opinion in such matters isn't worth the time it takes to press 1t. The future will pass independent judgment and that judgment will be final.
 These four Presidents great personalities Had a crisis such the Civil War the World War presented itself during the service of met. The country would have been in safe hands, although there would have been the fautfnding that has been the poor reward of President Wilson
 Without any doubt, Mir. Wilson expected to lift himself up to a position alongside Washington and Lincoln Whether in fact he had done that will not be known for good many years He dreamed dream like that which Tennyson dreamed in Locksey Hall, when, the thoughts of having "been widen ed with the process of the suns universal peace good will to reign through the operation of "a parliament of man, federation of the world" In proportion mankind having caught the vision are able in the coming years to reduce it to working basis, the Wilson star will rise again Thai they will be able to do that; indeed that they must do it, is not seriously denied by thoughtful men of the present hour.
 It will make no difference what we of today strut the stage, but if the play ends with any. thing like realization of the Wilson dream he will be recognized the chief actor He saw the vision not as 1t was by Tennyson, as an abstraction but concrete possibility, and he gave it life and form in a series of very great papers, No amount of criticism over petty things take this redit away from him.