The Washington herald., 1921-03-13
Wilson Says He Will Not
Write. His Personal Memoirs
Robert Lansing, R. S. Baker and George
Creel Will Give a More Intimate
Story Of His Administration.

nifty Of great events can allow the
occasion to pass without rejecting
| upon the end Of the public career
of Woodrow Wilson. To the ade-
quate and thoughtful consideration
Of Wilson's personality and his re-
IAtion to the time he lived In.
scholars will give years of labor.
One point which will undoubtedly
emerge from these researches Is the
fact that during the Peace Confer
ence Wilson was not a well man.
The formal records say II was on
September 2s, 1918. that Wilson fell
sick. That, however, Is merely the
day his illness became sensationally
apparent.
Everybody knows that any sick
ness. and especially the kind of
sickness that struck Wilson down.
has its beginnings long before the
collapse that attracts public attsn-
ton. In the case of Wilson the period
when.y Il will-be found. the begin
nings Of. his illness showed their
eftects ON the quality Of his acts
was more than q year before-dur-
ing August. 1913.
In the opinion of the best judges
his Russian notes of that month
showed the first recession from that
accuracy Of thinking and clarity Of
expression which raised his docu-
ments far beyond any other utter
ances of statesmanship during the
war.
1t is true that a month later he
delivered one of the several speeches
which formed the high spots in the
acknowledged superiority Of his ut
terances. 1t IL also true that still
another month later, In October.
1918. was the time Of the superbly
directed correspondence with Ger
many leading up to the armistice.
Most Uawise Act.
But also II was in this same
month that Wilson fell into the lapse
which he himself thought was the
most unwise act of his career-the
request to the country to elect q
partisan Democratic Congress.
The latter part Of october, 1913,
and November, when Wilson made
his decision to go In person to the
Peace Conference, was well known
at the time to those close to the
situation to be period when the
state Of the Presidents health i'm
paired the value of his decisions.
That he was not a we'll man
throughout the Peace Conference
was we'll known to everybody who
had contact with him.
That the impairment of his health
affected the quality. Of the tremen-
dous decisions he was compelled TO
make from hour to hour was not
obvious to those who only see the
obvious; but It was somberiy ap-
parent to every one with thought
enough to understand that no man
can be Ill in health without being
also below his best in thought. That
mems judgments are affected by the
state of their physical health is one
of the commonest Of facts. but is
also one of the facts most common
ly ignored.
Looked All Worn 0ut.
Ray Stannard Baker, who was
one of Wilson's closest intimates at
the peace conference. recorded the
progressive deterioration in the
Presidents health.
More than once" he writes,
-there in Paris. going up in the
evening to see the President, 7
found him looking utterly worn out,
exhausted, often one side Of his face
twitching with nervousness. No SOL
der ever went into battle with
more enthusiasm, more Inspiration,
more devotion to q sacred cause
than the President had when he
came to Paris, But day after day
in those months we saw him grow
ing grayer and .grayer, grimmer and
grimmer, with the fighting lines
deepening In his face" -
The sentimental saw the physical
sickness only as q personal tragedy,
but the more penetrating saw what
went with 1.-THE falling on from
the highest efficiency Of Thought
and decision. which always can
have, and in this case did have con.
sequences wider than personal.
Private Reesrlsi kept.
Later on. as the diaries kept at
the peace conference and the pri-
vate letters from Paris 70 America
become available for the historian.
the factor of Wilson's Impaired
health will have greater and rreat-
er emphasis. Many such records
made privately at the time will
later be public.
I know one writer who, in his
letfers from Paris to his family,
frequently spoke Of the wish that
Wilson might have breathing spell
OF few weeks or months In which
to get back to his best, and the fear.
later unhappily justined. that what
was then. merely an excessive Ia
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