The Omaha morning bee., 1925-02-08
Woodrow Wilson's
Career After War
= Told by Secretary
Pathetic Picture Of Ex-Presi
dent, Broken in Body,
Alert in Mind, Is
Drawn.

" itbHt aEt oHtls
voice sank back into his throat as
had known it to do many times since
his Illness when an emotion con-
trolled him. He could only whisper
his message of good will.
| saw him again--the last time
in his private home in Washington,
where I called one afternoon to pay
my respects to him and Mrs. Wilson.
lie came into the room followed by
servant. who took his cane while Mr..
Wilson greeted me with handshake
and was then helped to ease his Grip
pied body into chair. ] was greved
to find him little improved in body,
but he was much revived in spirits
and facial appearance.
He talked OF domestic conditions
and. thinking to put sick man in
humor, | commented upon the grow.
ing change in sentiment for tho
things which he and his party had
been but recently defeated, now that
the country had a basis Of compari-
son. He was as quick as ever with
the rebuke-"but the distress of the
country Is nothing to crow over" he
said. The conversation turned upon
the general corrupting influences OF
partisan politics and the lack of prin-
ciple of some large newspapers, upon
Vie latter of which he was forcefully
eloquent; after which l took my de-
parture.
1T has been n pleasure to see you
again, my dear fellow" he said. And,
Swem," he called as I crossed to the
door, present my compliments to all
the crooks you meet and tell them my
opinion of them'
Not Thinking Machine.
Mr.. Wilson was never given credit
for the genuine humanity of him.
have always found 1t hard to i'm,
press an observer who saw him only
in public of the humanness of the
man. With those about him, to
whose society he had accustomed
himself, he always mingled freely
and absolutely without restraint, but
in public he seemed the professor or
the president. Undoubtedly there
was dignity about him that was
suggestive more of erudition than of
DPFSOIdDly-
He gave the impression continually
of trying to break through this natu-
raj reserve. He was a bit resentful
of the popular opinion of him as
cold, logical, thinking machine.
II am not thinking machine" he
once exclaimed to me. Il wish l
We're; life would not be so complex.
ef 40 t,-tyit
TO do my best with human equip
ment."
The intellectual side Of him was
perhaps most dominant, and I think
he consciously repressed the warm,
human instincts of his Irish strain.
hut they We're always present and
frequently could not be downed l
have known him to hold court-martial
sses on his desk, delaying action on
them. for no other reason that that
he hesitated to pass judgment until
he could, regardless of the recon-
mendations of the officers submitting
the cases to him, go over them defali
by detail himself before signing away
the freedom of a fellow man.
C0mmutes Woman's Hanging.
Just before the end of his term of
office a case arose that gave him a
great deal of anxious consideration. A
young woman had been convicted of
n capital crime in the District of Co
lumbia and was sentenced to hang.
Never had a woman been hanged in
Tho District, and a great deal of SEN
timent was aroused looking toward
the commutation of the sentence to
life Imprisonment. There were no
good grounds for committing the sen
tence except those of natural reluc-
tance to see the woman hanged.
Those who were interested in the
case made the mistake of bringing
the matter to the president not so
much for the exercise of executive