The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1925-03-02
WHITES WOODROW WILSON,"

Lready to go overseas. He was
turned back almost at the dock
with cruel discourtesy. Probably
the activity Of General Wood IN
the establishment of training
camps in 1915, before the President
was ready to reveal his preparedness
policy and to enter upon a pre-
paredness campaign in his debates
with the Kaiser, furnished the
needed excuse in the woodrow
heart forN the ruthless sacklng OF
General Wood.
Later the President told the
editor of the Springfield RepuDh-
can that he had a request from
General Pershing that General
Wood be kept in America. wilson
gathered around him men OF the
soft approach; gentle-voiced men
who knew much and masSaged 1t
into the Wilson consciousness with
honey4d words rather than with
battering emphasis. But the Presi-
dent conducted the war. HIS
methods, his advisers, the whole
atmosphere of Washington during
the war was an offense to those
whose ways were more direct.
whose temperament was more
Prussian, whose Impatience often
blurred their judgment.
+. r.. Leads Attack.
Colonel Roosevelt. representing
a profoundly opposite type from
the President. felt 1t his duty to
lead the attack upon the Presi-
dents conduct of the war. SO a
great clamor arose in the land.
That there was waste, no one can
question; war is waste. That there
was dishonesty is but a bubble.
For when a nation gives itself to
wholesale murder, it must not for
get that peculation is the neces.
sary complement of carnage.
After it was all over and when
Wilson formally laid the treaty
before the United States at the
meeting of the Foreign Relations
Committee at the White House IN
June. 1919, the final commentary
Of the varying characteristics be-
tween the clustering gentlemen
from Sag Harbor and Wilson was
only too evident.
have been a time and a place tor
Cancellation and concession, be-
\ came only q slaughterhouse OF
what small good will there was
between the President and ms
senatorial enemies.
He told the Senate COMMITTEES
that he had never seen the secret
treaties, when as q matter OF fact
there is documentary evidence to
the contrary. He was not lying
in either case. He was confused
before what he regarded as in.
Justice, thwarted in what he con-
sidered the execution of Divine
purpose He could not throw
down his bat and leave the field;
he had to stand, agitated, ireful,
nervous.
UnIeashed His Malice.
And his single-track mind did
not carry his memory straight.
His cause did not sustain him.
That it was attacked unjustly by
pettifogging or by Ignorance
aroused and unleashed all the
devils Of malice which he common.
ly kept chained in his heart. And
while they barked out in biting
sarcasm and impotent rage, his
cause disintegrated into quarrel.
AS a debater at long range, with
his books at hand and all his I'M
pedimenta of war around him, he
was a valiant knight. AS speak
err dealing with great principles,
before the masses, he had no equal
In his time.
Roosevelt was nearer his equal
than any other contemporary. But
at close quarters Roosevelt's sense
Of hunTor, his capacity to staod
beside himself and grin at his OWL
antics, thereby correcting them
was his saving grace. That
grace comes to a man only when
he has served a boys apprentice
ship in the jungle cornbats If his
race; an apprenticeship which
Tommy Wilson skipped. So in per-
sonal quarrels, Woodrow Wilson
failed. In his contest for the rati
fication Of the treats which would
have entered America into the
League Of Nations. President vii
son had to follow the curve Of his
life, even as Roosevelt had to fol
low his curve when he met The
friends Of Taft in Chicago.
Wilson's intolerance for opposi
ton often made him raZe a great
cause into a private quarrel! RoOse
Welt had some Titanic sense OF
drama which enabled him to dig
nifty a petty quarrel into great
cause.
Copyright. 1925. by the Bell syndi-
cate, Inc).
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