The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1924-02-07

United States, and the frst Democrat
since jackson TO serve two successive
terms, Woodrow Wilson occupied the
presidency during eight years Of such
world unheasal and turmoil, that his
proper place in the history cannot be
assigned to him until his contempor-
aries are likewise assigned to their
inches.
Certainly, he ranks as one of the
great war presidents Of the American
republic, and. he exercised such an in
fluenee In world affairs as never be-
fore attached to his Office
Empires crunbled, thrones collapsed,
the nap Of the world was made over,
and under his administration the
country abandoned its policy Of isola-
ton and became an active participant
in werld affairs. In all of that he
took a powerful hand. No biographer
could attempt to assess him accurate
Iy, and in full, until the processes
which began in his day and with his
participation have, come to conclu-
sion.
Was Obscure Lawyer.
An obscure lawyer, by nature man
of letters, he became an educator ana
won his first attention from the pup
ITO rs president of Princeton UnsveE~
sltv, Then by the strange ways OF a
politieal system ne became governor
Of New Jersey and later, because the
voters OF the Republican party were
divided between Theodore Roosevelt
and William H. Taft he became pFesi~
dent Of the United States,
During hts eight years oE power he
travelled the gamut of human emo
tions. victory, defeat; courtship and
mavriage} responsibility for leading a
nation Into waY with the collateral re-
sponslbillty Of bringing it back again
ia the ways OF peaee} and finally u
daily struggle with death,
He had heard himself hailed by the
millions OF Europe as ''the God Of
peace" and heard his name Kissed by
the same milliona, Acclaimed at one
t},ne almost % new Messiah, he
heard himself exceriated and de-
nouneed as an autocrae and worse at
home and abroad, No other presi~
dent since Lincoln was 50 worshipped
and hateds no other president since
Roosevelt had such Friends and such
enemies, Through 1t all he preserved
an outward calm while the grim de-
stvoyer which lowered close about him
during the last moments of his occu-
pancy of the presidency followed him
relentlessly to the modest home where
he lived the ways Of a retired gentle
man 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 a peace which he sincerely
believed would be a lasting one and
although ne succeeded in getting Eu-
rope to accept it in large measure his
own country rejected it. And in the
fight he broke his health, wore him
self out, suffered a stroke of paralysis
which led to his death, and declared
through il all that he would have been
happy to give his life for the success
Of his efforts.
Was Precedent Smasher.
Woodrow Wilson was precedent
smasher from beginning to end. He
began by reviving the practice of
Washington and Jefferson in deliver
ing his messages to congress in per-
son; he finished by actually leaving
American soil and going to Europe,
His was the responsibility of-deciding
when country with a 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.
What ever an army of Boswells may
write, that will be the part in which
ne will be best remembered by COM
ing generations.
Born in Staunton, Va, December %,
1856, of Scotch-1r Irish parentage, he
was christened Thomas Woodrow Will
son and he was known IN early life
rs Tommy" After he was gradual
ed from Princeton in 1879 he was
known only as Woodrow Wilson. His
father. was the Rev. Joseph Ruggles
Wilson, Presbyterian clergyman, and
his mother was Jessie Woodrow.
Goes to Georgia as Child.
When ne was two years old the for
tunes of his father took the family TO
Augusta, Georgia, and later to Column
bia. s. c., where at the age of II
Thomas Woodrow Wilson entered
Davidson college, but left there soon
to go to Princeton. After gradua-
tion at Princeton he studied law at
the University of Virginia and in 1882
npng out his shingle in Atlanta, Ga.
Meantime he courted Ellen Louise
Arson, the daughter OF a Savannah
Presbyterian clergyman. They were
married in 1885 and had three daugh-
ters, Margaret, the eldest who did not
marry; Jessie, who became the wife
of Francis Bowes Sayre, and Eleanor,
who became the wife of William G.
McAdoo, secretary of the treasury
during her fathers administration
and later a 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 Hop
kins University at Baltimore for a
st-grsduate course in letters. While