The Washington times., 1925-04-06

friends and. not he who
stressed the phrase, HE
kept us out of war; in the
campaign of 1916. The Pres
ident talked in that cam
paign not so much of for
eign affairs as of domestic
issues, and Of the record OF
his achievement as a. liberal
President. BE knew well
how slender was the hope
of keeping America out OF
the world war. So he was
chary of the boast that he
had kept us out of war.
With all his might, indeed,
he was making a diplomatic
position for the United
States at home and abroad
so strong that our entrance,
when it came, would be in
Z righteous cause.
Until war actually came,
the President and his friends
hoped that they might keep
America out of the brawl;
but in 1916 the hope was
slight. The ruthless en-
croachments of Germany
upon the lives of American
citizens, an encroachment
unbelievably blind in the
light of all that happened
as a result of it, finally
forced the President to
abandon even the thread of
hope.
Patient Beyond Belief.
The tenor of his notes to
Germany before November,
1916, was patient beyond belief.
Perhaps his patience was found
ed upon the hope that the
United States might be the
great conciliator Of the world
peace without Americas SEXUAL
entrance into thaA war. The
President had his ride. If he
could have avoided war for
America and brought about q
peace without victory, at which
he limited; If he could have be-
come the mediator Of a sound
and permanent world peace,
his name would have been safe
In history.
And If that ambition was in
his heart, it was q pardonable
one. and none should gainsay
IL to him. AS the third year of
the war began, Wilson became
q magnified figure in the world;
somewhat because we were the
largest civilized group outside
of the conflict; but chiefly,
probably, because Wilson took
world leadership through his
notes to Germany and by his
patient pacifist philosophy; the
only hopeful philosophy for
sick humanity amid the carnage:
Fun Of Pacifists.
The world was full of pacifists.
oe course, during the war; but
at the end of. long chain OF
fortuitous circumstances reaching
back, heaven only knows how far
into the past, there sat in the
highest place of the most import
ant neutral nation in the world a
pacifist who was skilled debater.
We must remember how Tommy
Wilson, CT Princeton and of Johns
Hopkins, excelled as debater;
what extraordinary talent he had.
We must then recall his passage
at arms with the Princeton alumni,
with the forces of organized
wealth, in which he won; and win
ming. Host.
Also, we must not forget the
momeatous debate of the election
0f 1912, in which he went out
against the sturdy Roosevelt. And
as one year of the great war piled
on another, and as America was
slowly and tragically being drawn
into the vortex of war during three
terrible years, let US recollect, as
our chiefest pride, the fact that
our President, as a debatef, was
clarifying the issues OF that war
perhaps actually creating new
issue by his very insistence upon
them in his notes to the imperial
German government. He was, as
the months went by, making 1t
clearer and clearer to the world
beyond our borders how the ISSUE
stood. But even more important
than his influence abroad was his
slowly growing power at home.
He was uniting America while he
converted the world. The Dropa-
gandists of the allies could no.
clarity that issue. Clemenceau,
George, Orlando-perhaps because
they were so near to the combat
could not define its meaning in
terms that would convince the
world of the righteousness Of the
cause against the central powers.
This Wilson did. His talent as a
debater was his armor.
The everlasting sereis OF notes
which he wrote and wrote and
wtore, when impatient critics
were demanding deeds and mo-
words, wer" after all. more than