Evening star., 1924-02-04

sive terms, Woodrow Wilson occupied
the presidency during eight years of
such world upheaval and turmoil that
his proper splace in history cannot
be assigned to him until his con-
temporaries are likewise assigned to
their inches.
Certainly he ranks as one of the
great war Presidents of the Amer
lean republic and he exercised such
an influence in world affairs as never
before attached to his Office!
Empires crumbled. thrones col ,
lapsed. the map of the world was
made over and under his administra-
tion the country abandoned its policy
of isolation and became an active
participant In world affairs. In all
Of that he took a powerful hand. 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 conclusion.
An obscure lawyer. oy nature a
man of letters. he became an edu-
Gator and won his first attention from
University. Then by the strange
ways of a political system he became
Governor of New Jersey and later,
because the voters of the republican
Roosevelt and William II. Taft. he
became President of the United
States.
During his eight years of power he
travelled the gamut of human emo
tions; victory, defeat. courtship and
marriage, esponsibility for leading
a nation into war with the collateral
responsibility of bring it back again
to tho ways of peace. and. finally.
daily struggle with death.
Hailed and Kissed by World.
He had heard himself h..iled by the
millions of Europe as the god of
peace" and heard his name Kissed by
the same millions. Acclaimed at one
time almost as a new Messiah. he
heard himself eXcoriated and de-
nounced as an autocrat and worse at
home and abroad. No other Presiden mt
since Lincoln was so worshiped and
hated; no other President since
Roosevelt had such friends and such
enemies. Through 1t all he preserved
an outward calm. while the grim de-
stroyer which lowered close about
him during the last months of his
occupancy of the presidency, followed
him rele ntleSsly to the modest home
where he lived the ways of retired
gentleman and knocked at his door
After having borne the burdens or
Il war President, he undertook the
task of making peace which he
sincerely believed would be lasting
one. and, although he succeeded in
getting Europe to accept il in large
measure. his own country rejected it.
And in the fight he broke his health.
wore himself out. suffered a stroke
of paralysis. which led to his death.
and declared through 1t all that he
how har IN Or
life fer the success of his efforts.
Was Precedent Smasher.
Woodrow Wilson was a precedent
smasher from beginning to end. He
began by reviving the practice of
Washington and jefferson in deliv-
ering his messages to Congress in
person: he finished by actually leav-
ing American soil and going to Eu-
rope. His was the responsibility OF
deciding when n country with
people torn by conflicting sympathies
was ready to throw itself into the
great world war, and when the mo-
nent came he took the responsible
ity of throwing in the men and mil
lions which turned the scale to VIC
tory.
Whatever an army of BosweIls may
write. that will be the part in which
he will be best remembered by COM
irg generations.
Born in Staunton. Va, December
%, 1855, of Scotch Irish parentage
he was ohristened Thomas woodrow
Wilson. and he was known in early early
life as Tommy" After he was
graduated from Princeton in 1879 he
was known only IS Woodrow Wilson.
His father was the Rev Joseph Rug
giles Wilson. Presbyterian, clergy
man, and his mother was Jessie
Woodrow.
When he was Two years old the
fortunes of his father took the fam.
lumbia, S. G.. where At the age of
seventeen Thomas Woodrow Wilson
entered Davidson College. but left
there soon to SO TO Princeton. After
law at the University OF Virginia and
in 1882 hung out his shingle in At
lanta, Ga. Meantime he courted
Ellen Louise AXson, the daughter of
They were married in 1885 and had
three daughters. Margaret, the eld-
est, who dsd not marry; Jessie. who
became the wife of Francis Bowes
wife of William G. McAdoo, Secretary
of the Treasury during her fathers
administrations and later presidential
aspirant.
Mr.. Wilson once said that as a
young lawyer he wore out the rug
in his office walking around the desk
waiting for clients, so he abandoned
legal career and went to Johns
Hopkins University, at Baltimore. for
While there he published his first
book. Congressional Government"
study in American politics. 1t evoked
offers Of professorship at Bryn Mawr
at home and abroad. The young man
who wrote Of the defects of the
American political system in 1883
found himself to deal with them
catory tone of the tendency toward
autocracy in American Presidents, he
lived to hear himself called the great
est autocrat of them all and to see
a resolution declaring his office va,
cant on those grounds introduced and
tabled in the Senate.
Successfully, Mr.. Wilson became
professor of history and political
economy at Bryn Mawr and at Wes-
leyan University and later professor
of Jurisprudence and political econ
omy at Princeton, where, subsequent
ly, he was made head of that 1nstl-
tuition. Meanwhile. Prof Wilson mad
gained high reputation as a writer:
their production, were as follows:
1.-The State Elements of HISTORICAL
and Practical Politics" QsS9l, "Dl-
vision and Reunion" qSsSl, George
Washington" l1ss6),, "A History OF
the american feOple (15UIJ. OohSei
tutional Government in the United
States" (190s), Free Life" (1s1Sl:
when a Man Comes to Himself
(1915), "On Being Human" 11S!6),
IAN Old Master and Other Political
Essays" and Mere Literature and
Other Essays" were among his ear
lier writings. His state papers, notes
to belligerent governments and ad-
dresses to Congress. would fill many
volumes.
Given Honorary Degrees.
Tho hanorarv doOrao NJ doCt0r OF