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

f6eme Of the third instGILment of
William Allen Whites book,
'sWoodrow Wilson," presented By
The Times today.
The fourth tnstallment of this
series will appear in this paper
neEt Monday.
In starting a commentary on
the careers of Woodrow Wilson
and Theodore Roosevelt and In
noting where the wide circles
of their lives intersected and
why, it is interesting to observe
that from Wilson's boyhood
home in Columbia, South Caro-
lima, an intriguing legend has
sprung.
Wilson'S parents, Joseph and
Janet his wife, lie in the Pres
! byterian churchyard at Column
bia under two modest stones.
The town seems to have been
the place of their hearts de-
sire. Near them rests their
daughter, Mrs. George Howe,
wife of local physician. 1t
is a lovely spot, this church
yard, set after the old South
ern fashion in the midst of
the town where friends who
lived in the Lord may rest in
the Lord together. If the
South was not bred in the
bone of these Wilson's, surely
T ii got into their blood.
And here is a curious thing:
Even today in Columbia, where
the Wilson parents lie in the
churchyard, in the home of the
MacMasterS where the Wilson's
visited as "in-law" kin through
the Presidents sister, they tell
how Theodore Ro0sevelt's mother,
coming back to visit in the South
at the close of the civil war, came
and sobbed out her sorrow at her
isolation in the North during the
war; where her husband, Presi-
dent Roosevelt's father, forbade
the boys and girls-young Theo-
dore among them-to discuss The
war at home for fear of hurting
their mother. And in return for
this chivalry she brought up her
children loyal unionists, through
her heart was with her fathers
people and the lost cause.
Distanfly Related.
There is an Interesting in-law"
relation between the RooseVelts and
the Wilson's that hinges in this
MacMasters home in Columbia. Mrs.
George Howe, whose son married
Aanie Josephine Wilson, was an
aunt Of Theodore Roosevelt's
mother.
The two immortals, Theodore and
Woodrow, sitting upon an Elysian
cloud trying to figure out the exact
nature of their kinship, may be
pre of the minor sources of de-
fght to the angels. Only in the
5outh would such a remote and
elicious blood tradition be happily
preserved.
The South must have got into
Woodrow Wilson's heart rather
eepIy For he returns to It occa-
ionally in his journeying up and
own the earth with certain visit
u delight. In his address before
he University of North Carolina
1909, when he spoke Of Lee, he
aid:
att is all very well to talk Of
aetachment of view, and OF the
h. in STiFif
IN purpose, but a boy never gets
over his boyhood, and never can
change those subtle influences
which have become a part of him,
that were bred in him when he
was a child. So l am obliged to
aay, again and again. that the
only place in the country, the
only place in the world where
nothing has to be explained to
me. is in the South. Sometimes,
after long periods of absence, !
forget how natural it is to be in
the South, and then the moment
I come and see old friends again
and discover a country full OF
"reminiscences which connect me
with my parents and with all the
old memories, know again the
region to which I naturally be-
long"
Probably no other American ever
learned SO much politics in twenty
two months as Woodrow Wilson
learned from the Irish Of New Jer-
aey between September, 1910, and
\ fhe spring Of 1912. He had seemed
hnot 10 be playing a practical game.
As governor. by way Of function
ing premier. he was inclined to
turn most Of his patronage over TO
Joe Tumulty and James kerney,
! hts private secretary and the edi-'
y tor Of the newspaper which was
advocating his cause, who were ap-
/ nailed, but flattered and delighted
with the responsibility.
VicariOus Learning.
He appeared to care little about
the things that interested organ
fzed party men. Yet he did know
what interested them. He did
know what motives controlled them.
Ali that he had read as student.
as teacher, as writer came back
20 him and stood him in great
stead. He was. of course. academ-
&c. but the vicariOus experience one
gets from the library was vitalized
In him by two years Of vigorous
struggle in as active and as dirty
politics as America at the time
could afford; a struggle in which
he was, of course, human and
sometimes foolish, but upright,
clean, and without reproach.
II he had Travelled the road that
other politicians used in coming to