PRESIDENT WILSON

Evening Star, Issue 16987, 8 March 1919, Page 11

PRESIDENT WILSON

THE MAN AS HE IS. (By "L.8.M." in the 'London.' Daily , Mail.')

No allied statesman during the war has attracted more widespread, attention than the profeasor-Prosident of our great Ally the United States of America.. His speeches havo introduced a new note into world politics. In him for the first time Democracy has become articulate. Strangely enough, there are few world statesmen whoso personality is so little known to the people of European countries. Thus one welcomes the more heartily an unpretentious little book (' President Wilson s .The Man and His Message,' by 0- Sheridan Jones, London : William Rider and Son, Limited._ Is 6d not) which gives a singularly intimate and arresting picture of the gi-e.it statesman. The camera gives an entirely wTong impression of the character of the President. He is not a good subject. The camera shows him calm and resolute, but fails to indicate the geniality which makes him such an engaging personality to all who know him. Tho public, seeing only his photograph, come to think of him as a professorial, dry-as-dust, stiffly decorous, austere. He himself has not hesitated to make capital out of this mistaken impression. On one oocasion he recited with glee from a platform the following Limerick :

"As a beauty I am not a star j There are others more handsome by far. But my face—l don't mind it, For I am behind it; The people in front got the jar." The* quotation is full of self-revelation. The- President has an ebullient sense of humor, an intensely keen eye for the ridiculous. And all that interests humanity interests him. A PASSION FOE WOBK. Work is a passion with him. Lucidity of expression is another. His main aim is speech-making is to make his meaning so crystal-clear that there can bo no possibility of mistake. He has a hatred of the ambiguous phrase. He feels that ho 3fl speaking for Democracy to Democracy. And. his philosophy of life is perhaps best expressed in his own aphorism : "I am for the average man. If I did not boliovo in him I should move out of Democracy." Epigrams come readily to him. Here are a few*—

"The way to stop financial ' joy-rid-ing ' is to arrest the chauffeur, not the automobile." " Publicity is the great antiseptic against the germs of some of the worst political methods." "A conservative man is a man who just sits and thinks, mostly sits." And here is one which throws a. whole flood of light upon his attitude during the very trying time which preceded Amorica's entry into the work! war : " You do not settle things quickly by taking what seems to be the quickest way to settle them." Reference has been made to his passion for work. Rapidity of execution is still another passion. His famous roply to the first communication from Austria, suggesting a Peace Conference, was written and delivered to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and communicated to tho Press, within less than half an hour of its receipt. He writes everything himself. An expert shorthand writer, his most important despatches are often written swiftly in this medium. He does not even scorn to be an expert typist. Many of his most important despatches have "been written by this mechanical means in tho still hours of the morning. DESCENT AND EARLY LIFE. The President, who will bo 62 years of age on the 28th of this month, is of ScotchIrish descent. His father—also a professor —was the son of on Ulster emigrant, who loft County Down in 1807 to obtain employment as a compositor yi Philadelphia, and who died a well-to-do newspaper proprietor. His mother was the daughter of a Scotch Presbyterian minister, and her earliest years were' spent in England. The President was not taught his alphabet until he was nino years of age, but once his education begain in earnest he soon made up the leeway. He went to Princeton University—of "which later he was to become president—in 1875. He graduated only 41st in a class of 122. The ordinary college routine had no great fascination for him.' "Ho devoted every energy of his mind to its furnishing and training as an authority on government, s the history of government, and leadership in public life. Chatham, Burke, Brougham, and Bagehofc were hi 3 first favorites— Burke first of all." In those days he was a passionate Freetrader. One of tho great Princeton prizes is offered for an extemporaneous debate. The subject in Wilson's day was ' Protection versus Freetrade.' He drew from a hat a slip which requirod him to speak in favor of Protection. It was too severe a test for liis conscience. He tore up the slip, refused to debate—and lost the prize. FROM LAW TO LITERATURE. When he had qualified as a lawyer ho started in practice with a partner in Atlanta, Georgia. As no clients came along | in 18 months tho partnership was dissolved. It was during this period that Wilson bogan to write. His first considerable work, ' A Study of Government by Committee,' achieved instant success. It enoouraged him to propose marriage to Helen Louise Axon, whom he had known from babyhood. That was in 1885. H<j» left Princeton as a student in 1879. Twenty-two years later he returned to be its president. There, as everywhere else, he was a reformer. He strove to make the university a place in which to work, not to idle. His methods aroused bitter antagonism. He was accused of being a revolutionary. He left the university owing to his refusal lo accept a largo money gift wherewith to erect palatial buildings. He would not bo a party to the acceptance of gifts which would take the education policy of the university out of tho hands of tho faculty and put it in tho hands of those who gave the money. The epieodo which closed his academic career opened the door to jwlitics. He was dhosen to be Democratic candidate for the Governorship of New Jersey. All the "bosses" opposed him; but his speeches, denounced as visionary, gripped the people, and ho turned a minority of 82,000 votes into a majority of 49,000. His brilliant success as Governor of New Jersey placed him well in the running for the Presidency. A clamor arose for him from all parts of the Union. " People of all parties began to speak of him as a new leader who Wfts to usher in an era of clean administration and puro government. But he was regarded by tlio party managers as a dangerous man." STo stone was left unturned to defeat him, but he was triumphantly returned after a campaign of unprecedenffl 1 bitterness. AN ACCESSIBLE PRESIDENT.

Before Wilson went to the White House it was the hardest matter to get an interview with the President of the United States. The entrances were jealously guarded, and people of importance were filtered through apartment aft«r apartment until finally they reached the presence—not of the President himself, but of his secretary. After this, if their importance was sufficient, they managed to get audience of the President. Even then the visit was largely one of ceremony. But President Wilson changed all this. Before the war, anyone who had any real business in hand had direct access to his secretary, Mr Tumulty, in whose discretion it was to arrange interviews with the President himself. These are carried out with time-table-exactness. Mr Wilson is an ideal listener. His reply is instant and satisfying. " There was not an irrelevant word," said one visitor, coming away ; "ho listened like a Judge,' and answered instantly, speaking precisely to the subject I had raised, and not to some other subject." Newspaper men slip in and out of Mr Tumulty's office to "keep in touch," The whole place runs as smoothly as a highlyorganised business concern. * There is only one kind of visitor whom the President will not see—the "pie hunter," the man who wants some job from the Administration. For him the President has no time at all.