The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1921-03-16

ways the schoolmaster's point Of view.
In common with most men OF in
tellectual vigor, he appreciated the
transcendent value OF a phrase. He
made great, phrases. His temperament
was so rigidly intellectual so aloof
from the storm and stress OF human
relationship, that he undervalued the
whole emotional category of human
nature, SO that his phrases sprang fire.
quently from a false perspective and
twere often unfortunate. This maladroit
intellectual twist prompted him, when
the nation was thrilled with horror at
the Lusitania sinking, to choose that
moment Of all moments for publicly
declaring that there was such thing
as being too proud to fight, and to fol-
low the invasion of Belgium with an
admiration to the people to be neutral
even in their thought Therefore he
failed to react with full sympathy to
the great currents that moved the
hearts of men.
Nevertheless, he was marching at
the head of his people when they
followed the finest enthusiasm OF their
history. He stepped easily and ade-
quately into the leadership of the
world. He fired the universal heart
with a ringing challenge. He stood for
moment on Pisgah. He saw the Wis
ion of the world, and all the wonder
that would be.
Ii was at that point he made the
catastrophe error of his career. At a
moment when the country was still in
the fire enthusiasm of its great adven-
ture, when the forces of right were
irresistibly sweeping to victory, he
shocked his people by partisan ap-
peal for the election of partisan Con-
gress. 1t was a mistake gastly in its
consequences to the prestige of the
man who stood at the head of the
world. History will ultimately record
that it was mistake done in honest
singleness of purpose, far removed in
deed from any thought of personal
gain, but it was appalling in its re-
suit 1t marked him in the world con-
ference as the leader of faction ra-
Their than as the embodied hope OF
humanity, and inevitably forced him
into a position on which we think
history will record its severest Judge
ment, that of preventing the ratifica-
ton of the League of Nations 1t
made the fight over amendments and
reervations take the centre of the
stage. 1t made the President the one
man responsible for preventing rati-
hcation, fact that will survive and
be remembered long after the reserva
tons are forgotten.
So far as human judgment may
forecast the long future, the place of
Woodrow Wilson in history will be
high. The tumut and the shouting
dies; the captains and the kings de-
part. Still stands his contribution in
articulating a great world impulse to-
ward the things that make for justice
and righteousness on earth. His fail
ure was in futile attempt to compass
that impulse within particular
scheme of world salvation. The para
dox of it is that, singularly embody-
ing as he did that impulse, he failed
to comprehend either its grandeur or
its vast potentially. 1t was an impulse
reflected in the rising of mighty
nation to redress the wrong balance
of the world. The President dwarfted
it by attempting to harness it to a
league of diplomats sitting around a
table. From an idealist he became a
doctrinaire
His consolation is that in the long
judgement of history it is the articula-
ton of the impulse that will be re-
membered. In the story of the centur-
les it will be written that for few
months he was the foremost man of
all the world, and that those few
months were the time of which man
kind has perhaps most reason to be
proud
William Mckillip, a merchant of
HoI1;Jays h,rr Da,,, 10. -oso:.oI .