Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-02-04

made over. and under his admins
tration the country abandoned it's
policy of isolation and became an
active participant in world affairs.
III all Of that he took Il powerful
land. No biographer could attempt
to assess him accurately, and in full,
until the processes which began in
his day and with his participation
have come to a conclusion.
An obscure lawyer. by nature a
man of letters, he became an cdu-
Gator and Won his first attention
from the public as president of
Princeton University. Then by the
strange ways of political system
he became Governor of New Jersey
AMI later. because the voters of the
republican party were divided be
tween Theodore Roosevelt and Will
liam II. Taft he became president
of the United States.
During his eight years of power
he travelled the gamut of human
emotions; victory, defeat: courtship
and marriage: responsibility for
leading nation into war with the
collateral responsibility Of bringing
it back again to the ways of peace:
and finally a dAily struggle with
death.
ne Iidu HiHlSSII IdlfeO UN
the millions of Europe as the God
of peace and heard his name Missed
by the Same millions. Acclaimed at
one time almost as Il now Messiah
he heard himself eXcoriated and de-
nounced as an autocrat and worse
ut home and abroad. No other
President since Lincoln was so wor-
shipped and hated: no other presi-
dent since Roosevelt had such
friends and such enemies. Through
It all he preserved an outward calm
while the grim destroyer which
lowered close about him during the
last months OF his occupancy of the
presidency. followed him relentless
ly to the modest home where lie lived
the ways of n retired gentleman and
knocked at his door every day until
it was at last opened.
After having borne the burdens Of
war president, he undertook the
task of making q peach which he
sincerely believed would he n lasting
one and although he succeeded in
getting Europe to accept il in large
measure his own country rejected Il.
And in the fight he broke his health,
wore himself out, suffered d stroke
of paralysis which led to his death,
and declared through it all that he
would have been happy to give his
life for the success of his efforts
Woodrow Wilson was n precedent
smasher from beginning to end. He
began by reviving the practice of
Washington and jefferson in deliver
ing his messages 10 Congress in per-
son: he finished by actually leaving
American soil and going to Europe.
His was the responsibility of decid-
ing when a country with q people
torn by conflicting sympathies was
ready to throw itself into the great
world war. and when the moment
came he took the responsibility of
throwing in the men and millions.
which turned the scale to victory.
Whatever an army of Boswelis
may write, that will be the part in
which he will be best remembered
by coming generations.
Born in, Staunton, Va, December
%. 1856, of Scotch Irish parentage,
he was christened Thomas Woodrow
Wilson and he was known in early
life as Tommy" After he graduated
from Princeton in 1879 he was known
only as Woodrow Wilson. His faith
or was the Rev. Joseph Ruggles Will
son, n Presbyterian clergyman. and
his mother. was Jessie Woodrow
When be was two years old the for
tunes of his father took the family 10
Augusta, Georgia, and later to Column