The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1921-02-27

defame his character and assail hi:
policies; his friends and partisans
'laud his achievements and acclaim
him immortal. Meanwhile the rabble
the mob--always eager to turn upor
and destrby its idol-cries Down
with him." Cruelty him!"-and SC
he passes, for the mob is irresistible
its sentence inexorable!
Only yesterday | found in the col
umn of daily paper such divergent
views of Wilson as the following: A
very distinguished person and candi-
date for high office spoke of Wilson
as "the greatest President the Uni
ted States has had up to this hour, y
and Of his administration as "the
greatest in American history" Ano-
Their, political prisoner and one of
Mr.. Wilson'S bitterest enemies. many
times candidate for his party for
President, speaks of the President as
''the most pitiful character in his
tory" adding that "no man in public
life in American history ever retired
so thoroughly discredited, so scath-
ingly rebuked, so overwhelmingly
,impeached and repudiated as Wood
row Wilson" This latter is typical
Of countless utterances of like temper
all aimed at the same high target,
Such utterances only express the
anti-Wilson mania-for it is not less
than that-which has swept over the
country in recent months. 1t has been
propagated by such adversely extreme
journals as Harvey's Weekly, a re-
dictionary political organ, and The
New Republic, radical, aggressive,
and non conformist. Yet both organs
have found common ground in their
hatred of Wilson, and they exhaust
the language of insult and contempt
to describe him. In mOney-mad New
York, in culture-minded Boston, in
practical minded Chicago, in the fash
ionable clubs of men and women the
country over, in Socialists and Com
munists' meetings, and in proletariat
assemblies everywhere, there is this
common hatred that defes reason
and repudiates anything that approx
imates defense of Wilson. So
mighty has been the current of this
anti Wilson mania, that many even
of his friends have found it easier
to withhold their defense rather than
attempt to battle upstream against
this resistless current. Such is the
judgement of his contemporaries
of perhaps the greater number, at
least, of his contemporaries. But
Mr.. Wilson knows history too we'll to
be much perturbed by contemporary
estimates. He has written too mucl,
history to be much concerned witt
what men think of him while he is
making history.
No man was hater more by his
contemporaries than was Washing
ton, though it comes as shock to
us today to discover it. 1t would be
supposed that Washington had so
far won the gratitude and admiration
Of his fellows as to be enshrined for
ever in their affection and venera-
ton, and yet the newspapers attack
ed him with relentless viciousness and
brutality, much as they have I'M
restrainedly attacked Wilson in oui
own time. And as for Lincoln
where in our history can we match
the sneers, the contempt, the abuse
that logged his footsteps down tC
the very day of his assassination
Washington, the creator of ma
ton, and Lincoln, its savior-botf
abused and despised, spat upon ant
reviled and the latter slain! Ye'
how has history judged them? The!
are American immortals; indeed,
may almost say, the American i'm
mOrtals.
Will the sober judgment of histor!
grant Wilson a place with Washing
ton and Lincoln? My prophecy is
YES. Woodrow Wilson will loon
larger as the advancing decades Civ
perspective. When viewed in tn
light of twenty-five years hence,
he will fill our age, he will be its out
standing character, he viii appea
colossal. History measures results
it cares little for instrumentalities
1t is impartial in its judgement. |
asks what things were done, and the
says simply "rhis man did them"
AS Washington nodded natior
and Lincoln saved it, so Wilson pro
mulgated a nations ideal into tn
life of the world, in an endeavor t
glorify the nation in the achievement
of peace and of an order in whic
there could be no recurrence of wal
4 l..