Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-01-05
Woodrow Wilson
AS | KNOW HIM
BY JOSEPH P. TUMULTY.

Utah, Washington, South Da-
kota and North Dakota.
With best Wishes, 1 am,
Cordially and sincerely yours,
J. P. TUMULTY,
Secretary to the President.
Colonel George Harvey,
Hotel Chamberlain,
Old Point Comfort, Virginia.
The St. Louis Convention
While the Democratic convention
was in session at st. Louis, the
president remained in the White
House, keeping in close touch by
direct telephone communication
with affairs there.
What at first appeared to be an
and rather spiritless con-
vention was quickly turned into q
most enthusiastic and fervent one
by the notable speeches of Cover
nor Glynn, of New York, temper
airy chairfWan of the convention and
Senator Ollie M. James, of Ken
lucky, the permanent chairman.
The keynote speech delivered by
Governor Glynn contained this
dStense of the presidents
policy of neutrality:
This policy. may not satisfy
those who revel in destruction
and find pleasure in despair. 1t
may not satisfy the fire-eater
or the swashbuckler, but it does
satisfy those who worship at the
altar of the god Of peace. 1t
does satisfy the mothers of the
land at whose hearth and fire
side no jingoistic war has
placed an empty chair. 1t does
satisfy the daughters of the
land from whom buster and
brag has sent no loving broth
err to the dissolution of the
grave. 1t does satisfy the faith
ers of this land and the sons Of
this land who will fight for our
flag, and die for our flag when
reason primes the rifle, when
honor draws the sword, when
justice breathes a blessing on
the standards they uphold.
And Senator James In a mastery
grafton paid this splendid tribute
to Woodrow Wilson:
Four years ago they sneering-
ly called Woodrow Wilson the
school teacher; then his classes
were assembled within the mar
row walls of Princeton college.
They were the young men of
America. Today he is the world
teacher, his class is made up
of kings, kaisers, cars, princes
and potentates. The confines
of the schoolroom circle the
lection Of American life and Of
~ H.irr tc int
tional law. The saving Of neu-
trail life, the freedom of the seas,
and without orphaning a single
American child, without widow
ing single American mother,
without firing a single gun,
without the shedding of a sim
gle drop of blood, he has wrung
from the most militant spirit
that ever brooded above a bat
tlefield, an acknowledgment Of
American rights and an agree
ment to American demands.
These eloquent utterances pre-
pared the way for the great slogan
of the 1916 campaign, "He kept US
out of war.
Not Wilson'S Own Slogan
The president himself never used
that slogan, however. From the
first declaration of hos;iGties IL Eu-
rope he realized the preca"lous po-
sition of the United States and the
possibility that whether we would
or not, we might be swept into the
conflict. AS early as August, 1914, he
expressed his anxious apprehension
that something might occur or the
high seas which wouil make our
neutrality impossible" He enphat-
ically believed at that time that
Americas neutrality would best
serve the interests of the world; he
respected the American tradition of
non-interference in European quar-
rels; with his almost mystic ability
to assess and understand the opinion
of the people of the country at large
he knew that the American people
did not want war; in his comparative
seclusion he read the mind of Amer
lea clearer than dill the mixers"
of the Pullman smoking compart'
ments who mistooG tire clan:or for
intervention among certain classes
along the north Atlantic seaboard
for the voice Of America at large;
while the German rape of Belgium
stirred his passionate indignation. he
knew that there was no "actioo'
means by which the Unitci States
could sop it, that we could not JIM
mediatelv transport armies 70 the
theatar of war, and that public Opin-
ion, es Jeciatly ir. the west and south,
was ret prepared for active inter-
vention; and in addition TO all this
he was genuinely, not merely pro.
iOp fn .,fY
But with all this he. realizing the
magnitude of the way, had already
glimpse1 it's wider significance,
which caused him to say later shat
"This is the last war Of it's kind,
or Of any kind that involves the
world, trat the United States can
keep o!lt of. The business Of neu'
trality is over" lie saw that if the
war snould continue long, as 1t
promised to do, ollr participation
might G inevitable. end the Ameri-
can tradition ofAsolatiOn forever de-
stroyed by circumstances beyond hui
man co ltrol.. WiCh patience mingled
with firrnness he ttol his difficult
path, doing aid heNaolld to keep us
from Getting involved without sac
rificiEg fundamactal principles of
human and national rights, hut he
neither believed nor pretended to be-
lieve tEai he could give guarantees
for tic future. Nor dI'l aay of those
who were Closest to him make rash
promises. Tor instance, the cabinet
officers who actively participated in
the campaign We're careful to say
in their speeches thai lie had lone
all that a president could honorably
do to keep us out Of war and thar
he could be depended upon to con
tinue III the future th2 same course
so long as it should prove Eunlaa.y
possible for peace" was not mere.
ly a wIrG on his lips, Uut Il passion
in his heart. but that neither he
nor any other mortal could 'look
into tie seeds of time" and say
what would be and what would not
be- The event was on the knees of
the gods. Those who spoke with