Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-03-03

nal rightness and truth In common feeling.
When he warred with Big Jim Nugent and
Big Jim Smith he was often In corners. Then
he would go out and, in his own phrase,
tell the people about IT," When he went
to Washington he followed the same rule.
And in the course of time, when he found
himself confronted with kaisers and chan
cellors, prime ministers and generalissimos.
he tried the experiment that almost gave him
fixed place among the immortals. He
began to tell the people Of the whole world.
lie did it with fortitudc and courage. and he
put truth in terms so simple and noble that
It could be understood in any language.
Whatever one may think about Mr. Will
sons policies. no one can doubt the COM
plcte sincerity OF his heart. Yet he Is going
out of Office in a storm OF unfrendly criti-
cism. Debs snarls insults from his Jail.
The people who like to be known as intel.
iectual radicals are searching their souls for
sounds in which to express their distrust and
their dislike and their Establishments. The
average conservative is convinced that the
President has been at heart n Bolshcvist.
The Bolshevists and their more temperate
friends have already written Mr.. Wilson
down MS the mishticst and most cold bloodcd
tool OF reactlonary interest that ever ap-
pcared in the world.
Because prices went up and because they
went down because we didn't get into the
war earlier and because we got into it after
while; because the German indcmntics
were large and because they we're not larger;
because Ireland Is not FREQ and the Irish
people nre passionatcly at war with things
they hate; because we do not intervene as
we'll as because we tried to intervene by
slow and indirect method because we didn't
let Germany win and because we let her win
for years; because the mind that dominated
the country for time was radical and be-
cause 1t was conservative, Mr.. Wilson, ap
preaching the end Of his term, suffered the
deepest humiliation that the voters could
visit on him in the days OF his weariness
and his infinite pain.
All this merely goes TO show that it takes
all sorts OF people to make a world and that
any one who attempts to do the world a
service or to think and feel for it does so at
his peril That Is the meaning that most
historians nrc likely to read into the record
Oh lue pTCscHl
How wise was the President in the days
Of his greatest power? Who knows now?
It is argued by q good many extremely wise
men who have gained knowledge out of the
fires Of hard experience that n traditional
course is often the wise one. Mr.. Wilson
accepted no rule because it was traditional.
He has had a manner of rescnting tradition.
And he has suffered by it.
Perhaps, after all, it was Wilson the
revolutionary philosopher and not Wilson
the leader of the Democratic party who
suddenly appealed for a unanimous Demo
cratic vote in the congressional elections Of
1918. 1t was and is hard for q great many
people to believe that the President was
actually disinterestcd on that occasion. But
in the light Of after events it may appear
that he had purpose not wholly related to
the fortunes Of his party. He was dead
locked then with what some one has called
"thc dark powers of the world In Paris.
The fate Of his scheme and. for all any one
may know, the fate Of the civilized world,
was in the balance.
Mr.. Wilson was playing against enormous
odds. Europe was filled then. rs it is filed
now, with powerful groups who do not want
a League of Nations, or even the prospect
Of a settled peace or the abandonment of
military imperialism. These people feared
America And, what is more, they feared
their own people for the first time In their
lives. Mr.. Wilson had established commu
nication with these various peoples and it
was the desire Of his opponents to see his
prestige shaken. He had been saying all
along that he spoke for the American people.
lie approached a national election with the
knowledge that in every parliamentary sys-
TEN familiar to Europe defeat for the party
means the reputation of It's leader.
So he fell into an error that astounded the
country, enrascd all Republicans and af-
fronted large groups Of his friends and sup
porters. His appeal was a departure from
che rules OF tradition and the rules Of taste
and the rules Of fair play. 1t was not an.
swercd. lie should have known that 1t would
defeat its own purpose. That is what it did.
And at that instant the power and influence
Of the American group at Versailles began
to decline.
Mr.. Wilson was advertised 10 the peoples
of Europe as a man who had been repudated
by his own people.
Tho fashionable thing TO say now is thnt
Wilson is a tragic figure. 1t may get
appear that the people who insistently mis-.
understood him are far more tragic than hr.
II Is said that he was leading the nation
into q blind road, into n trap from which it
could emerge only as the ally of forces that
breed war and that are seemingly ready to
begin new wars. That is not a fair state
ment, since no one can know what the be.
hnvlor Of Europeans would have been had
the American delegation achieved the ends
they sought Mt Versailles,
When the allied governments began to see
Iittle hope Of security through accepted world
understandings, they turned about to sceI:
safety and protection and advantage by the
old fashioned methods, the only methods then
at their disposal.
The Senate group, which sincerely feels