Evening star., 1933-12-28
WILSON FETEF|NDS
DOCTRINE IGNORED
Many Praise His Courage
and Will, but None Backs
His League Policy.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

Woodrow Wilson will be glorif1ed to-
day by the Democrats. His praises will
be sung on the occaSi ID Of what would
have been his sevent,'- -venth birth
day. But there are few among the
Democratic leaders of today-and one
cannot exclude President Roosevelt
who really believe in wisconsin.
The War President still remains a
lone figure in history. He led his
party, but his party did not and does
not follow his teachings Franklin D.
Roosevelt in his pre-convention cam
paign of 1882 tossed aside the League
of Nations and has never in his public
utteranceS since uttered a word of
friendliness toward American partiCi-
patton therein-even in modified
covenant
Mr.. Wilson believed that the peace
of the world could be secured only by
international cooperation. He fought
with all might against nationallsm,
political or economic. Today both
political and economic nationallsm are
the watchwords of Americas foreign
policy indeed they have been adopted
by all the principal powers. And not
a few of them blame Americas aggres-
sive and independent position as the
main reason for their own adoption OF
nationalistic policies.
Few True to Doctrines.
But whatever the cause, the fact re-
mains that there are few leaders who
still remain true to the doctrines of
Woodrow Wilson. Alone perhaps of all
those who speak about it at all is Cor
dell Hull, Secretary Of State, who is
Just as much a believer in wisconsin
today as he was 20 years ago. Mr..
Hull breaches international co-opera-
tion and good will and elimination OF
trade barriers. To the extent that Mr..
Roosevelt does not publicly disagree. 1t
may be inferred that he is not hostile
to the suggestions of his Secretary OF
State. but it's a long way between in
ternational cooperation as Mr.. Wilson
visualized it and the concrete proposals
for elimination of trade warfare which
Secretary Hull cautiously expounds.
Mr.. Roosevelt's deviation from the
Wilson doctrines was all the more sur
prising to his friends because he had
championed the cause of the League of
Nations in the 1920 campaign But
when in 1882, William Randolph Hearst
demanded to know whether Mr.. RooSe-
welt would throw off the woodrow Will
son imprint and express himself against
American entry into the League, then
the Governor concurred with the Hearst
viewpoint of international policy. At the
same moment Senator Hiram johnson,
one of the leaders of the fight against
Wilson, became friendlier to the Roose-
welt cause and finally supported him for
the presidency.
League Sentiment Weak.
Everywhere the friends of Woodrow
Wilson are honoring him today, but
there are not among them many who
would outSpokenly favor American
membership in the League of Nations:
There are some, no doubt, who feel
that a modified covenant such as is
being proposed by Premier Mussolini
might make American entry easier.
But on the whole the identification of
nations appears today to be remote.
Mr.. Wilson had hoped that on
structure of good will and international
cooperation many of the tangled and
perpleXing economic problems OF the
postwar period would be settled. In
stead there has been constant pickering
and haggling, until today even the
sacred obligations Of contract are re-
pudiated by governments with all the
ease, and abandon that historic rules
of humane warfare were disregarded
by the belligerents in wartime.
The world is series Of isolated units,
each trying to gain an advantage at
the expense of the other. The idea OF
an economic unit in which there will be
cooperation to bring back employment
and purchasing power is pot yet in the
consciousness of any of the important
countries. This trend away from inter-
national unity and toward economic
IL l..
believed in the League of Nations.
Many of its friends, who, like Franklin
Roosevelt, deserted the leagues side be-
cause they claimed it had changed its
character from the Wilson concept, were
really saying that the Republican party's