Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-12-18


row Wilson sought to give the TWEEN
tieth century d faith to inspire it
and to Justify the sacrifice of mil
lions of lives in the great war, and
if there was failure it was human
ity's failure DIR. Edwin A. Alder
man, president of the University of
Virginia, declared at joint congress
sional memorial services for the war
president held today in the chamber
of the house Of representatives.
'"To make him, the one undaunted
advocate of those hopes, the scape-
goat of world collapse" DR.. Alder
man said, ia to visit upon him in
justice SO cruel that it must perish
of its own reason"
Speaking in the place where Will
son delivered the address that car
ried his country Into the world CON
flict, the University of Virginia
president declared he could not en-
visage Wilson as a failure as he
came back from the Paris peace
conference bearing the covenant of
the League of Nations and the "im-
perfect" treaty of Versailles.
Pictured as COnquerOr
"I envisage him rather as a vic
tor and conqueror as he returned to
America" he said, untouched by
sordidness or dishonor, unsurpassed
in moral devotion, and offering to
his country leadership in the broad
est and Worthiest cause in all the
story of human struggle for bet
ter life"
Dr. Alderman said it was not for
him to undertake the task of APP
portioning with nice justice the
responsibility for the cauldron of
heat and 'sWeltering venom of dead
lock and indecision, of craftsmanship
and passion. in which for weary
months this largest question of mod
ern times boiled and dubbed"
"Other ages will make that SOL
emn appraisement," he added. 81
may be permitted the reflection that
something less of malice in the
hearts of his enemies and something
more of compromise in his own
heart, and something more of politi-
cal genius and firm purpose in the
hearts of those who kept the faith,
and there might have been another
world.
at is commonly said that the
historic rank of Woodrow Wilson is
wrapped up in the destiny of the
covenant; that if it fails, his rank
will be merely that of one more
Mt i1-it Julo oh,
his grasp, and if it succeeds his
apotheosis in history is secure. find
the formula too glib and automatic
for the forces and ideas it presumes
to envelop.
Idea Keeps Name Alive
"Apotheosis and Immortality are
Weighty words that ill-fit our poor
flesh, so foredoomed to the iniquity
of earthly oblivion; but surely the
fame Of Woodrow Wilson does not
rest upon an instrument the orderly
growth of which into final useful
ness may so change its structure
and modify it's form as to cause it
to become another and an even bet
ter instrument. 1t depends upon an
uncOnquerable idea, so greatly con-
ceiVed and set forth, that it must
continue to grow into newer and
finer form, and his fame must grow
with it into whatever bright renown
it may attain.
THE world use to be full of peo-,
pie busy in discerning, imagining
and cataloging the faults of Wood
row Wilson. DoGmatist and hermit,
rhetorician and pacifist, egocentric
and migrate, dreamer and drifter,
were some of the milder coinages of
his more civil and restrained enc
mics. Well, he had his faults. Some
of them were protective devices to
conserve physical strength, and 9TH
ers lay buried deep in the impulses
of his blood; but inhibitions born of
pride and courage and high ambi-
tons are such as nations learn to
forget and to forgive, and even to
love and cherish. Posterity is in
curious about the minor faults CT
it's heroes.
His cOuntrymen do not tattle
about Washington blazing pro-
family at Monmouth, but see his
stately figure riding into the storm
q battle beneath the tattered flag
C. a new nation he would fain bring
into the world. They do not whis-
ger about LincoIn's choice Of COM
panions or his taste in anecdotes or
lis cunning in politics; but they read
incised on white marble walls the
sacred poems which his literary gen
Jus has left to posterity; behold him
IL the night watches correcting his
mistakes and using even his hui
n'iIity as a sword with which to
carve out the victory Of his cause.
And so it will be with Woodrow Will
son in the long perspective Of the
years.
His ambition to serve his coun.
try was as intense as Cromwells.
/. was not easy for him to forget or
to forgive. The pride of righteous
ness sometimes froze the more genial
CLIECantS Of biz