The Washington times., 1925-04-20

naQ from wilson thirty minutes
of the gayest, blithest, sanest talk
they had heard in months. He
must have made a mighty effort
to rise as he did.
He gibed Fall about trying to
get war with Mexico to pro-
tect his local interests. He played
gayly with Hitchcock in talk
about the reservations, and gen.
orally embroidered the occasion
with persiflage and repartee.
No doubt was left in the senator
ial min0Y when these men re-
turned to their colleagues.
World Was Shut Off.
Nevertheless, after the stroke
which fell In October, the world
practically was shut off from
woodrow Wilson. All his life he
had been afflicted with a mild
narcissus complex, desiring to
see himself In everything, his
views, his faith, the facts as he
knew them.
This complex did not hold him
completely, but 1t stood in the
wings of his consciousness al
ways too ready to act. And when
the public was shut away from
him, he knew nothing of the
truth about public sentiment IN
the country.
Tumulty saw his chief rarely
with Mrs. Wilson standing at the
head Of the bed to shake her head
when Tumulty preached q. subject
that might irritate the President.
It was easier for those about him
to hold to his face the mirror OF
his own conception OF public opin-
ion than to irritate him with
the story OF a gradual. inevitable
change in the American attitude
to the League Of Nations.
It was q statesrnan's job to
convince Woodrow Wilson that
the jingoism which follows war
had alienated the people from the
generous pacifist President OF
man who could have told him, he
had put away when he banished
House,. The autumn Of 1919,
deepened into winter, and his
friends outside saw with fear and
CONSERVATION that the President
was determined stubbornly to face
the incoming Congress with an
immovables determination that the
treaty should stand or fall as it
was. But he called no counsel
about him and saw few visitors.
Sick in Mind and Heart.
Moreover, he was desperately
sick, sick in mind, and per-
haps in heart. Each day he could
consider few letters, but only a
few. Lansing was dismissed. The
President did not even sign or
formulate the letter OF dismissal:
merely consented to it. He had
appointed Lansing in the kindness
Of his heart with no special politi-
cal reason and. without much con-
sideration.
The President knew he would
be his own Secretary OF State, as
he had been under Bryan, and
! to him letting Lansing so was
much like changing doormen in
the State Department, a casual
thing.
The few decisions which were
checked UP to him every day by
s Mrs. Wilson or Admiral Grayscn,
4 he made quickly and. under the
circumstances, well, but he had
no strength for more. One day,
in the spring of 1920, Senator
Hitchcock came to. him to dis
cuss obiiQueIy and tentatively as
he must, the situation in the Sem
ate. Hitchcock was the Demo
cratic leader In charge of the
treaty and the covenant Of the
League of Nations. He saw the
face OF a broken man, withered
and weary, on the pillow. The
old exuberance was gone, even
In semblance.
Refused to Compromise.
Hitchcock explained as gently
as he could that some concessions
might tempt the Republican Sen
ators to accept the treaty; elab'
Grating deity. without wearying
the sick man. jyst what conces-
sions Hitchcock thought should
be made. Then he said:
''Mr. President, perhaps ->tns
time has come to extend to Lodge
and his followers the olive branch
in the interests OF an equitable
settlement"
The sick man closed his eyes,
shut his mouth, and was silent
for moment. Then he replied
in the deadly voice which closed
the episode:
LET Lodge extend the olive
branch"
The winter wore away. Demo
cratic leadership in Congress had
not been fostered under Wilson.
He was the premier, the legisla-
tive leader as well as the Presi-
dent. He was, indeed, more
premier than, President, and de-
voted more energy and keener
interest to Congress than he did
to his executive work, which
often irked him. So his party in
Congress, and particularly in the
Senate, was without strong leader
ship. When the fight upon the
treaty and the covenant came.
no friendly hand was at the
wheel. The treaty and the cove
nant drifted on the rocks.
Defeat Seemed Certain.
It was apparent in the early
winter of 1919 and 20 that, I'M
less the President accepted the
mild reservations urged by the
Republicans, the covenant would
be defeated. A strong group OF
his friends, some Of them men
who stood by him during his
Princeton days, all Of them men
who had been with him during
his whole political career, signed
a letter asking him to accept
these reservations. He refused.
In March, 1920, the covenant
was defeated. but il was merely a