Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-02-05
BY DAVID LAWRENCE
Uc&scd Wire Service TO The Journal
(CpuVr;ght 1921


WASHINGTON, Feb. S.-The
hour Of surrehder-a word which in
his days of power he never recog
nized-haS come to Woodrow Will
son.
And with it there wells up stimuli
taneousIy in the hearts or the people
everywhere a sadness born of ADM
ration for the stOicism of a states
man who fought till the last for the
ideals in which he believed.
Il would rather fail" he used to
say, lin a cause that [ know some
day viii triumph than to win Il
cause that L know some day will
fail"
1t was his philosophy of battle.
To posterity he looked always for
vindicat ton. He never understood
the word compromise" Even N
his breakdown after the famous
western trip, when it seemed as if
the Versailles covenant of the
League of Nations was beaten in
t.Ie senate, he scorned defeat.
Senator Hitchcock, Democratic
chairman of the foreign relations
committee, who was in charge OF
the fight for the League of Nations
treaty, asked for an engagement.
Il suppose he is coming to talk
compromise" commented Mr.. VIII.
son, as he granted the engagement,
but he listened without surrender.
Couldn't Barter Principle
All the world may say Woodrow
Wilson should have compromised
and that today he would have had
America Il member of the league
with reservations But to Woodrow
Wilson it was an enduring principle
- he could not barter what he
thought was fundamental to the
peace Of the world. And he looked
on ever since, waiting patiently for
the turn in the tidG-a turn that
years of agitation may or may not
bring but at the hour of his passing
from the stage of life America re-
mains outside the league he worked
so ardentlY to establish.
Tragic may he the atmosphere,
sorrow may be felt by his friends
and foes alike that he did not retain
the physical vigor to continue his
fight, praise for his courage-all this
may be the comment of the outside
world but not a word of Ilty or
pathos did the Wilsonian temporal
ment want. His was the spirit of Il
crusader. His was the tenacity of
a soldier in hand-to-hand fight He
never gave an inch. For years he
was ready for death. He went forth
on his western trip against the ad-
vice of his physicians but with Il
smile of disregard for life itself. He
used to say he would gladly give his
fo l1n of 10 q nf
Nations. The remaining years of
his life were meant to him only for
the accomplishment of the greatest
ideal of ALA world organization for
peace
Scared by the war, racled in
nerves. never forgetting the aWfili-
rasS Of the combat in which he felt
aIWaYs d personal responsibility, he
never could drive out of his mind
the thoughts of the hundred thou
sand American boys who died, as he
thought, for an ideal and of the
hundreds of thousands who came
home wounded and MANNED in the
service of the flag.
"ro make the world safe for de-
mocracy" was Mr.. Wilson's war
slogan. To his critics it became an
empty phrase. But the idea of d
war to end war never left Woodrow
Wilson.
Trusted All Nations
Long after the American people
began to turn their minds to domes-
tic concerns and the material side
Of reconstruction, the broodings of
Mr.. Wilson over the breakdown of
moral force continued. He was ar
britrary in his views about Il for
tnIIla fNl, MNrlI nnanH hHn:I11Sa he