Perth Amboy evening news., 1924-12-15
HONOR MEMORY
Of Mr.. WILSON
Congress PauseS Round of
Activity to Pay Tribute
to War President
FAITH TO INSPIRE US
Says DR.. Alderman, Head of
University of Virginia at
Joint Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15.-Wood-
row Wilson sought to give the
twentieth century faith to inspire
it and TO justify the sacrifi e of mil
lions of lives in the great war, and
If there was failure it was humanity
failure, Dr. Edwin a. Alderman,
president of the University of Nir-
ginia, declared at joint congressional
memorial services for the war presi-
dent held today in the chamber OF
House of representatives.
ITO make him, the one undaunted
advocate of those hopes. the seape-
goat of a world collapse" DR.. Alder
man said, us to visit upon his in
justice so cruel thar il must perish
of its own reason.
Speaking in the plaas where Viii
son delivered the address that car
ried his country into the world con-
flict, the University of Virginia pres
ident declared he could not enFisage
Wilson as failure as he came back
from the Paris peace conference
bearing the covenant of the League
of Nations and the imperfect
Treaty of Versailles.
II envisage him rather as a victor
and eonqueror as he returned 10
America he said untouched by
sordidness or dishonor, unsurpassed
in moral devotion, and Offering to
his country leadership IN the broad
est and worthiest case in all the
story of human struggle for a better
lie"
Dr. Alderman said it was not for
him to undertake the task of appor-
tioning with nice justice the re-
II n of hGpt
and .swehered venom of deadlock
and indecision, of partisanship and
passion, in which for weary months
this largest question of modern times
boiled and bubbled."
"Other ages will make that solemn
appraisement," he added. II may be
permitted the reflection that some
thing less of malice in the hearts of
his enemies, and something more OF
compromise in his own heart, and
something more of political genius
and firm purpose in the hearts of
those who kept the faith, and there
might have been another world.
TT is commonly said that the his
toric rank of Woodrow Wilson is
wrapped up in the destiny of the
covenant: that it it fails, his rank
will be merely that of one more ra-
diant spirit whose reach exceeded
his grasp, and if it succeeds his
apothesis in history is secure. L
find the formula too glib and auto
matte for the forces and ideas it pre-
sumes to envelope.
"Apothesis and Immortality are
weighty words that i'll fit our poor
flesh, so foredoomed to the iniquity
of earthly oblivion; but surely the
face 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 1t to be-
come another and an even better IN
strument. 1t depends upon an un-
conquerable idea, so greatly coneelV-
ed and set forth, that 1t must con-
tinue 10 grow into newer and inner
form and his fame must grow with,
it into whatever bright renown 1t
may attain.
'The world used to be full of peo-
pie busy discerning, imagining. and
cataloguing the faults of Woodrow
Wilson. dSgmatist and hermit. rhet-
orician and pacifist, egocentric and
migrate, dreamer and drifter were
some of the milder coinages of his
more civil and restrained enemies.
Well he had his faults. Some of
them were protective devices to con-
serve physical strength. and others
lay buried deep in the impulses in
his blood; but inhibitions born of
pride and courage and high ambition
are such as nations learn to forget
and to forgive, and even to love and
cherish. Posterity is incurious
about the minor faults of its heroes.
His countrymen do not tattle
about Washington's blazing profan-
ity at Monmouth, but see his stately
figure riding into the storm of battle
beneath the tattered flag of a new
nation he would fain bring into the
world. They did NOT whisper about
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