Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-04-06
Woodrow Wilson
AS | KNOW HIM
BY JOSEPH P. TUMULTY.

sire to run the Whole Show him.
self-but simply to his lack of facil-
ity in knowing how to delegate work
on a large scale. In execution we.
all have a blind spot in some part
of our eye. President Wilson'S was
in his inability to use men; an in
ability, mind you, not a refusal. On
the contrary, when any one Of us
volunteered or insisted upon taking
responsibility off his shoulders he
was delighted. Throughout the peace
conference Mr.. Wilson never played
politics. I never witnessed an oca-
sion when 1 saw him act from I'M
worthy conception or motive. His
ideals were of the highest, and he
chung to them tenaciously and cour-
ageously. Many Of the so-caIled
Liberals" in England have 'assailed
Mr.. Wilson bitterly, because, as they
declare, he yielded too much to their
own premier, Mr.. Lloyd George, and
to Mr.. Clemenceau. But could he
have failed to defer to them on ques-
tions in which no vital principle was
involved? I well remember his dec
laration on the question whether the
allies should refuse, for a period of
five years during the time Of
Frances recuperation to promise
Germany reciprocal tariff provi-
sions. What Mr.. Wilson said to Mr..
Lloyd George and Mr.. Clemenceau
was this: Gentlemen, my experts
and I both regard the principle in
Volved as an unwise one. We be-
lieve it will come back to plague
you. But when I see how France
has suffered. how she has been dew
astated, her industries DESTROYED
who am to refuse to assent to this
provision, designed, wisely CT IN
wisely, to assist in lifting France
again to her feet?'
He Consulted His Experts
The question has often been asked.
whether the president freely con-
suited his experts on the other side.
or ignored them. The experience Of
the gentlemen who conferred with
him is the best refutation Of this
lnslnuation against the president.
Charles Homer Haskins, chief of the
division of western Europe, mem
Der of the American peace confer
ence, answers this question in these
words:
The president was anxious to
have the exact facts before him
there were a number of occa-
sions when he could not consult
with experts at a particular
moment, but, in general, the
president sought such advice,
although he naturally had to
use his own judgment whether
that advice was to be adopted in
any particular case.
Answering this Same Question nv
Douglas Wilson Johnson, chief of
the division of boundary geography,
and member of the peace confer
ence, says:
whenever we, in our capacity as
specialists, thought we had found
something that the president ought
TO know about, and believed we
could not get it across effectively in
any other manner, we could ask for
personal conference with him. He
was, or course, a very busy man,
because, unlike the experts who
usually. had only one problem to con-
slider, he had to do not only with
all the territorial problems, but in
addition with all the problems bear
ing on the League of Nations, the
economic problems and many other
aspects of the peace. DESPITE this
fact, I wish to state that, while I
repeatedly asked for personal con-
terences with the president on this
and certain other problems, he new
er failed to respond Immediately
with an appointment. He had a
private, wire, and on occasion he
would call us at the Crillon to make
appointments on his own initiative
or to secure papers, maps or other
documents that he needed in his
studies. L will not forget that in
one instance he called me on the tele.
phone late at night in my bedroom.
asking Tor some papers which I had
promised to supply him and which
had not reached him with sufficient
promptness. You can judge from
this that he kept closely in touch
with the problems he was called
upon to consider.
Another question that has been
asked was: Did the president have
an intimate knowledge of the com
pllcated questions that came hefore