Evening star., 1924-03-26

panied him on practically all OF his
trips, but saw no more Of him than did
the other correspondents. When he was
inaugurated / realized that anything
! like personal relations with Mr.. Wilson
while | was engaged in the task OF
writing impartial reports might be mis-
understood. Although there were fire.
quent charges that Mr.. Wilson inspired
my articles, especially when l left the
! Associated Press in 1916 TO become
d special correspondent, the truth is l
saw him alone much less than did
some other men in the newspaper busi-
ness, and l never received from him
in private conversation any stories
which could be used In the news
papers at the time
Nevertheless. the author obtained
| from other sources several items of
news of sensational character and
published them ahead of competitors
and found no difficulty in rejecting the
Presidents views without even seeing
| him. Any newspaper correspondent
! who has been in Washington through
several administrations realizes the
| futility of depending on the President
getting il instead from the many men
who see him from day to day, including
| members of the cabinet, Congress and
! callers generally.
Not Wilson's "MOut h piece.o
| Although Mr.. Wilson occasionally sent
me personal messages of regard and i'm
| posed in me sufficient confidence on two
occasions to ask that l undertake deli
| cate missions which related TO our
negotiations with foreign governments,
, was never in any sense his mouth
! piece" or his "spok esman" in the
press. Some editorial writers fell
! into the habit of designating me as
such during the war because of the
belief on their part that accurate re-
! Election of the views of the White
| House was due to inspiration by the
Executive himself. The latter status
would have involved no Journalistic
| enterprise and would have meant
writing in a vein pleasing only to
| Mr.. Wilson.
| My own writings. on the other
hand. were frequently distasteful TO
the President. Indeed, the Washing
ton correspondent who allows friend
! ships or antagonisms to influence his
! dispatches betrays the trust imposed
| in him by his newspaper and its
readers. The general public expects
/ fair-minded Interpretation of the
/ facts without regard to whether an
! individual or party is helped or hurt
| by the disclosure.
| Mr.. Wilson resented particularly
an article written by the author just
/ before the President sailed for
| Europe. pointing out that he was at
the climax of his career and that
serious disaffection existed inside the
! democratic party which. II not cured,
might lead TO defeat in 1920. Reports
of the Presidents displeasure were
| carried to me, but when ] talked with
! him in Paris. and later in Rome, he
was cordial. On the western trip in
September. 1919. ! found him person
ally friendly. l had become SO in
terested in the details of the Shan =
tung controversy that ] spent a whole
! day making digest of the pro and
con of it together with some views
on the subject which 1 had acquired
by Independent study, and was graft
| fed to find that he thought enough
of the memorandum to incorporate
the argument almost verbatim sn
some of his last speeches on the
Pacific coast