Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-02-17
As ONE WOMAN SEES IT
Woodrow Wilson 40 Acquaintance,
Friend, Political Thinker, Political
Leader and Figure In History,
and q Hint Of the Man
BY SARAH d. LOWRIE

son Foundation Fund told me that he had
been approached by more than one Of his
friends and a group OF his mere acquaint.
ances, all Of whom came to entreat him not
to give his name to the enterprise, whatever
money he might choose to give to the fund.
I asked him what grounds they gave for
their advice and he said, Different grounds,
yet the same grounds They all felt that
politically Wilson was ''better dead" and
that the League Of Nations was a failure,
and that to seem to praise him OF. 1t gave
one look Of sidesteppins the real results
just because the President was an invalid
and could no longer DO fought on equal
grounds.
1 asked him what reply he had made and
n h. said. "The same reply to every one OF
He felt that the way America came into
the war and the way she used her great
propaganda to bring about cessation Of the
war were distinct and epochal acts not
hitherto attempted by any nation, and he
felt that the expression OF Americas mind
and heart in the crisis had been voiced by
Woodrow Wilson. und to the limit of his
Wilson, and that being the case-and ac.
knowledged at the time by all the country
and acclaimed ut the time by the Allies and
the foes alikc-the world owed Woodrow
men owed him honor and u place among her
great patriots. and by delaying to show that
honor they we're placing themselves in a
false position before that world.
For" said he. Europeans and AsIatics
are only too ready to believe that our god
son failed In the great coup upon which he
had stakcd his reputation as the leader Of
his country, all that he did and all that he
had helped his country to do in the past was
obliterated and shamefacedly forgotten"
TIE WENT m To sav that. Though be WAS
IL Republican, he was first Of all an
American, and as an American he wished
before all his little world to publicly express
his gratitude to the man who had guided
the country through the most perilOus days
had stood before the world for his country
as no man has done before Lincoln's day
or since.
asked him II he liked Woodrow Wilson.
He said as an acquaintance, yes: as
friend, no; as political thinker. yes; as
political leader. no; as great man in a
great place, yes; as figure to be loved in
history, no.
He went on to point out that to his think
ing Wilson'S illness aono and the way 1t
was allowed to make the rift greater be.
them nearer illustrated the fundamental
cause Of his final failure. When he began
to break in Paris and little by little lose his
prestige, 1t was natural that the world
should put It down to his overweening
egotism in trusting too much to his own
single handed power to get his fourteen
points intact out Of tho. mazes OF cross
purposes.
But when he actually collapsed physi.
cally and his illness was guessed for what
it was. had he been any one OF his pred,
eccssors, even tho rugged, self contained
Cleveland, the country would have been i'm:
mensely drawn to him. and rightly So, and
have diagnosed what they had called blind
egoism as the well-known symptoms OF an
already i'll body.
His failures would have sunk into insig-
nicance in the tragedy of his illness and
incapacity to hold his great standard ever
again In the thick Of the fight for great
ideas.
But instead he removed himself further
and further from the hearts of his fellow
citizens, and for fear perhaps of only get.
ting their pity he had stunned their per-
sonal sympathy, and by constant and re-
iteratcd report officially sent out that he was
better or that he was as well as ever drew
never broken until an all too garrulous re.
porter was hailed in and allowed to tell the
world that the affairs Of the country were
in the hands of the private secretary and
the Lady of the White House, while an
enigmatic invalid with difficulty signed his
name.
What could have been a great climax Of
as remarkable career as the world has
ever known was allowed to peter out into
an anticlimax that has stunned this gen.
Grafton into kind of Stupor when his name
Is mentioned, a stupor of mechanical vi
tuperaton or mechanical vindication.
WHEN this generation has gone on its
w way, the next, who never felt the anti
climax, will neither vindicate nor vituper-
ate his name. They will very simply and
honestly honor his naine and admire his
,ul ypnEn III rio of hiS foilura For
they will know, what some of us are wish
full to ignore, that the League of Nations
is no more failure than John the Baptist
was a failure-it was forerunner.
The Washington Conference could never
have been even organized, much less the sue
cess that it has proved. without that fore.
runner. And the Washington Conference is
only the beginning of the new era that vii.
son more than any man of his day and
generation helped to :!, usher IN;
in this day and generation can get a true
focus on him? lie himself, even in his hey
day, sometimes ignored, sometimes charmed
his onlookcrs AS though he both forgot or
remembered them mechanically, rs one would
open or shut door:
And yet. once when he paused to do
charming thing for one was swept by ad.
mration and appreciation of what I felt
that it signifed OF his real personality.
L
Il of the eager efforts of some 800 coun-
trymen in and about little Adirondack viii
lage to follow out his counsel and plant
gardens as an act of patriotism. They were
guides, carpenters lumberjacks. hunters.
hotel men-anything but aiicrs of the soil.
But they had known him before he was
President, and what he said went with them.
The news Of their effort reached him on the
evening Of July 80, 1917 during some talk
at dinner, let us say. lie wrote on his own
Typewriter on the evening of July 81 note
OF appreciation to the villagers to be read
at their town entertainment on the following
night: 40
THE news of July - has given me real
there how admire and am cheered by their
II wish / had time for long letter, but
Won will know how much is in these few
lines.
with best wishes.
"Cordially and sincerely yours.