The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-30
WOODROW MlL LsoN ENERGIES

WOODROW WILSON ENERGIES
 If Woodrow Wilson's fame and ia vor with the American people declined towards the close of his administra- ton, 1t Is just as surely mounting again to a zenith of public acclaim perhaps not before attained by him It begins to look very much as If the turning against Wilson was not so much personal as against the manner in which Wilson recalled the horror of war from which the people had just emerged. Now that the public nerves are becoming quieter the people have begun to look upon Wilson as the great martyr to an ideal which was too advanced for the majority of his fel- low countrymen. Now they are con- ing to realize that the nation has had no real guidance since his hand left the helm, and that we are actually drifting, as far as our world relation ships are concerned. The people are beginning to appreciate the value of definite course and definite goal, as against policy of deliberate drift ing which may eventually bring us upon the rocks. Our foreign policy needs both a compass and a rudder, two essential features of the equip ment of the ship of state which the Republicans threw overheard because they hated the hand that formerly rested upon these instruments. It is 8 fact that the only reliable and permanent element of interna- tional statesmanship is that backbone outline of international policy which Wilson gave us. He set forth a fun damental and incontrovertible prin- ctple for mankind. It is so essential to future international relations that no nation has been able to get entirely away from 1t. Every world policy that has been since outlined is either modelled upon the Wilsonian principle of international conduct or else is a weaker shadow of that principle. The world court, the disarmament confer ence, the British plan for economic in quiry into Germany's situation, and all the other expedients by their very similarity attest the paternity of the Wilsonian principles even while de- nying the principles themselves.
 That something of Wilson's imper- ishable greatness Is permeating the public consciousness is apparent in many ways. For example, a corre- spondent of the New York Times re- marks:
 i Observations concerning ap-
 plause in the movies when Wood
 row Wilson's picture is shown ac-
 cord with what I have heard
 many people remark.
 l was myself witness of just
 such a demonstration recently in
 a movie house in Cleveland, Ohio.
 Various cerebrities' pictures were shown, and finally Wilson's. There was a crash of applause, real heart-prompted exclamation
 that contrasted sharply with the merely respectful hand-clapping
 
 lures. In front of me sat two of the tribe of "the movie takers" elderly, well-gowned ladies, who had disturbed all near them by their chatter. l forgave them, however, when their remarks fol lowing the outburst gave me light
 upon the popular attitude toward Wilson.
 Said one, "Why is 1t that Will
 sons picture always brings down
 the house?"
 Her companion replied, q / guess 1t is because the people are finding out that Wilson was right, / after all"
 f There it isl We hear more and
 more, "Wilson's coming into his
 own again" That this is true is
 a vindication of American intel
 lect. It all revives the hopes of those who have faith in American
 ideals, who believe that our na-
 tion, to endure, must live by the
 spirit. When all shall have been
 done and said, it will be seen that
 there never lived in America
 braver champion of that. spirit
 than Woodrow Wilson, "who
 never turned his bacl"-except
 upon corrupt politicians.
 As the mists that enshoud the noun tain peaks in winter dissolve away un- der the summer sun and reveal the distant summits in all their majesty, so that peak of human greatness, Woodrow Wilson, is again being re- vealed as the mists that have ob- scured the public vision are rolled back under the enlightenment that the passagetof time has brought. Wood row Wilson has been a great man all along, but the people failed to com- prehend it.
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 CRAIG NOT IN CONTEMPT
 Although Comptroller Charles c. Craig of New York City is serving his term in jail imposed by Federal Judge Mayer, it is quite clear that the su- preme court refused his appeal only because of a technical impropriety in the way the appeal was presented, and Justice Holmes indicated very plainly