The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-05
KEPT KEEN EYE UPON FORTUNES
 OF HIS PARTY
Woodrow Wilson Looked
 To See His Principles Vindicated At Polls

WASHINGTON, Feb. i.-(By Asso- ciated Press. )-What, will be the political effect of the passing of former President Wilson is a question that only time can answer.
 From his place of retirement he has kept keen eye on the fortunes of the party over which he once exercised not only undisputed leadership, but almost dictortorial control. He told his friends that he looked to 1924 as a year of vindication at the polls for the democratic principles that went into eclipse in 1920, but he never re- vealed to anyone how far he might be prepared to go in reasserting his vlaim to a place in party councils. It is certain thereo was no truth in widely circulated reports that the former President planned to again be- come a candidate for the nominA ton. 1 And if he had any preference amQng those who are seeking to inherit his mantle of leadership, he kept it from some of his closest friends.
 He did plan, however. to mnke a very definite effort to align his party behind the policies that he believed to his dying day to constitute the para mount issues before the country and the world. He expected to place be. fore the democratic convention in con- crete form a declaration of principles whose adoption, to his mind, would signalize a reconsecration to the funda- mentals of democracy. Not only in regard to foreign affairs but in domes- tic questions as we'll, he was preparing to lay before his party the fruits of his long months retirement and re | flection.
 | Died Believer In League To the last he never wavered in his belief in the League of Nations that he did so much to complete, but it must remain one of the problems of history whether in his declining days there was any softening of the deter mined stand he had taken against a compromise in the form of American ] participation. In most his public ut terances was reaffirmination of his contempt for those who had blocked the way of his proposals in the Senate, but in the last illness he appeared to put out of his thoughts entirely all the public questions that for so long had been the meat and bread of the keen intellect.
 His plan to place his policies square ly before his party and ask for a decision was long in maturing during ! the months of waiting for the oppor. tunity he saw in the offing. But be- fore he died he had made up his mind and the very few confidants to whom he imparted his intentions knew that once Woodrow Wilson had reached a determination nothing but the hand of death could stop him from putting it into execution.
 Power of Will Unbroken For his power of will remained un- broken to the end.-as militant as it was in the days of his dominant lead ership; as determined as it was in l916, when he threatened to pack his grip and go to St. Louis unless the convention in session there to renomin- ate him agreed to accept the kind of plank he wanted regarding the Ger man Americans as virile as it was in 1920 when he conferred in his sick room with the newly nominated dem ocratic candidate and astonished and sorely disappointed his enemies by making thorough presentation of his views followed a few hours later by an announcement by Governor Cox that he and Wilson were in complete accord.
 Once he had put declaration of principles before the national conyen- tion the former president expected to call on the party leaders to nominate man who could stand four square on such platform. But if he had any desire to actually select the candidate the name of the man he favored must remain locked forever in the tomb.