Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-05-10
WILSON TO RANK HIGH
IN HISTORY, LAWRENCE
DECLARES In CONCLUSION

displeasure that Mr.. Wilson's posi-
ton had become public. Mrs. Wilson
demanded to know of Secretary
Tumulty if the author had access
to the presidents cables from Paris.
The information to the author had
ever, but from Paris, yet the signifi
canoe of the action lay in the APP
parent disinclinaton to give up the
third term idea, especially at a time
when other candidates were seeking
the Democratic nomination.
The San Francisco convention was
disappointment to Woodrow Will
son in many ways. The convention
failed to give Mr.. Wilson even a
complimentary nomination. Nor did
his friends think it wise to announce
that he had sent a light-Wines-and-
beer plank to the convention for
adoption. He had vetoed the Volstead
act and felt that its modification
would not be a violation of the
eighteenth amendment. Mr.. Wilson
beoueathed to his friends a com
plete platform for the 1924 cam
paign. but ait this writing it has not
been made public.
Mr.. Wilson'S last days in the
White House were in seclusiOn. He
never came to his offices. He sat
in a wheel char on the south portico
or in the grounds and received few
callers. One of the unexplained in
cidents of the last year was his
failure to receive Lord Grey, Brit
aims distinguished statesman, who
had been secretary for foreign af-
fairs in 1914 and who was in Wash
ingtOn as a special ambassador in
the hope of reaching some under
standing with the United States
about her entry into the League of
Nations. Mr.. Wilson never gave
him an audience. He resented the
fact that Lord Grey had received, at
the British embassy, several Re
publican members Of the United
States senate including Mr.. Wilson's
chief opponent, Senator Henry
Cabot Lodge, and had discussed the
situation with them. Lord Grey was
of opinion that the Lodge reserVa-
ton would in the main satisfy the
allied powers. When he returned
to Great Britain, he wrote q letter.
made public in the London Times,
president was not make any
action.
Passed Up Opportunity.
Some of those who had Mr. Will
sons ear during the seclusion insist
that they urged him to accept the
Lodge reservations. There is no
way to determine the strength of
CT M Wilson
accepted the 1920 defeat with sto-
cism. He could have revived the
Versailles treaty and released the
members of his party to accept the
Ladge reservations after the cleo
ton but though a few newspapers
urged editorially for such a step the
advice went unheeded and the new
president, Mr.. Harding, declared UNI
equiVocally against the Lea que of
Nations with or without reserva-
tons
Not a word of criticism came pub
licly from Mr.. Wilson of the acts
of President Harding or President
Coolidge. 1t was Woodrow Wilson'S
pointed way of showing the world,
as he phrase dit, chow an ex-presi.
dent could behave for he did not
forget the shafts aimed at him by
Theodore Roosevelt in the trying
days of the war. Except for a few
implied references to American !
foreign policy, Mr.. Wilson was
singularly silent after leaving the !
White House and not until Novem- |
Der IL, 1928. on the anniversary of |
the armistice, just few months be- |
fore he died, did he make any eX-
tended criticism of Americas fail |
ure to join the League of Nations. |
Here again he mentioned no in |
diViduals but based his speech on a
broad principle of international CO.
operation.
The last few months were APP |
pier for Woodrow Wilson than the |
preceding years of silence. He |
sensed a turn in public opinion in
his direction. He talked hopefully |
with his chosen visitors on the pros |
poets for the 1924 campaign. He
made no commitment as to candi |
dates. He was eager to gossip with |
the few who came to see him. Nor |
man II. Davis, undersecretary Of |
state during the last year of Mr.. /
Wilson's administration, was fire. |
quent visitor al the $50 street home |
as was Bernard NJ BarJch, who, |
perhaps, was as close if not closer !
than anyone to Mr. Wilson in his |
final Gays, with the possible eXcep- |
ton Of Admiral Grayson and mem |
bers of the family. Both Mr.. Baruch |
and Mr.. Davis were experts on rep |
arations and European problems |
generally and brought authentic in
formation or expert analysis of the |
trend of world affairs in which, of |
course, Mr.. Wilson retained an I'M |
diminished interest to the end.
Occasionally old Princeton friends |
came to see the broken statesman. |
Some of them, together with pOlit |
icaI associates, gave Mr.. Wilson a |
new automobile on his last birthday |
December rs, 1928. A group OF
friends also had purchased for him
the mortgage on the IS" street |
home as Mr. Wilson cid not leave |
the White House a rich man in the |
usual sense of the word.
On the few occasions when Mr.. !
Wilson was visible to the public he |
showed he was failing in health. |
When the members of the Demo- |
cratic national committee were re
ceived a month before he died, he I
looked withered and exhausted. An |
attack of indigestion contributed the |
fatal impetus and he dicd on Feb
ruary 5. 1924.
Ranks as Great Man
Woodrow Wilson will stand in all |
history as great man. His ma
pOleOnic struggle for a triumph of |
idealism over materialism and pro-
49,