WOODROW WILSON: A VALEDICTORY ESTIMATE

New Zealand Tablet, 23 June 1921, Page 11

WOODROW WILSON: A VALEDICTORY ESTIMATE

This week's retirement of Woodrow Wilson" into the tempered oblivion of ex-Presidency is an irresistible temp:ation to moralizers (says the Nation and the Athenaeum, London for March 5). What a sermon upon the vanity of luman wishes' For among the little list of men whom the tumultuous tide of the War lifted to a dizzy height of : ame and worship and then let down into the depths, &he ex-President holds a unique position. His case alone carries all the authentic marks of human tragedy, upon the highest plane. Other lesser figures intervened from time to time, soldiers or statesmen, bringing a momentary hope of victory or of pacific settlement which should release the world from' its long torture. But these hopes were too slender, the moral and material resources oh which they rested too exiguous, to command the world's confidence. Only when the words of the great President began to float across the Atlantic into ears deadened with the noise of battle, did we begin to believe that the Lord had raised up a new Prophet, with a Message of Salvation.. No man, we felt, standing in his own strength, would dare to utter these high political commandments. The inspiration of the great American democracy, the latest and the tallest child of liberty, lay in these words. America was not in the War when first they came. Indeed, it seemed at first as if the guarantee of her great mission rested in this aloofness. For only a disinterested nation can help justice to prevail in the day of judgment. This was undoubtedly the first concern of Woodrow Wil—to keep his nation out of the War in order to conserve the whole strength -va.nd authority of America for an early and an equitable settlement. Even before the War, it may rightly be claimed.that the President conceived for his country the moral leadership of the world. Take this striking passage from his Fourth of July address in 1914: "My,; dream is that as the years go on and the world knows more and more of America, it -will turn to America for those moral inspirations which lie at the basis of all freedom: that the world will never fear America unless it feels that it is engaged in some enterprise which is inconsistent with the rights of humanity:" N " • It is part of the tragedy of Woodrow Wlison that neither he nor any sincere American can to-day repeat these words. But no one who knows Mr. Wilson or his country can doubt that when he spoke them they were the passionate desire of his heart and the profound belief, of his mind. In this faith when the War came, and America as yet stood out, he solemnly dedicated her to the post of world-arbiter. There was nothing arrogant or at all excessive in this vision. t When Europe was weary of its War, broken in resources and perhaps contrite in spirit, to what other earthly .providence could it turn? Then would come the great moral opportunity for America. His country stood firmly and enthusiastically behind him in the autumn of 1916, and gave him the. full right to speak as he was speaking\ , f\ ■,:•■< If America could have stood out! America could not stand out. War blinds and maddens its;executants, and Germany's madness inevitably drew in America. This was the first step in the spiritual tragedv, for the entrance of America into the War, however politically necessary,

began; at once to waste the moral of her great mission of impartial peacemaker. It is a part explanation of the collapse of the President at Versailles that he failed adequately to realise that virtue had gone out of him as a necessary implication of American belligerency. > He had issued his Fourteen Points, the greatest and ,the truest application of the moral law to the collective conduct of nations ever enunciated by. any man in a position of authority. Was he deceived into a conviction that the inherent virtue of these moral truths must soften the hearts and convince the intellects of hardened, war-seared European statesmen? He was not without excuse for this belief. The Liberals of Europe had responded with joyful enthusiasm to this splendid expression of their hearts' desire. Even the accredited statesmen of the warring nations had done something more than lip-service. For they had formally adopted*.the Points and their exegesis, and had offered them to Germany as the basis l of the peace. Germany laid down her arms upon this express stipulation. The Word seemed already to have blossomed into the Deed. ''".' ' The perfidy of this betrayal has never yet been branded as it ought upon whatever substitute for conscience the Allied /representatives possess. How should Mr. Wilson have known that these diplomats merely saw in his principles a bait for Germany, and had no intention whatsoever of applying them to the conditions of peace which this successful trick placed them in a position to impose? It is true that Mr. Wilson was not an innocent professor, rushing suddenly into the arena of politics, a natural prey for the beasts- or gladiators that abound there. His acquaintance with American politicians, indeed with the special New Jersey brand, had been fairly long and intimate. • He knew something of the gulf which lay between profession and practice. Could he have supposed that the more elevated and responsible statesmen of Europe were prepared to stoop to fouler play than ever stained the annals of New Jersey? All Europe was staggering under the shock of the most devastating war that had ever been. Famine and bankruptcy and revolution threatened all the belligerents. Surely the sanity, if not the justice or magnanimity, of his Principles, must carry conviction to the statesmen of a Europe in such a plight! It was a gospel of sheer self-preservation he was preaching. Could they reject it? Well, they did. They built the Bad Peace upon the ruins or his Principles, and using them not as foundation stones, but as occasional, convenient stopgaps and ornaments in their gimcrack edifice. Why did he let them do it, or if he could not stop them, why did he consent? The answers to these ques-r tions have been tossed to and fro in a heated rejoinder for .the past two years, ygith. no conclusive result. Generally speaking, they fall into two classes, according to the stress laid on circumstances or on character. Friends and defenders insist that he yielded to something they call force majeure, which confronted him: at Paris,, and for which die was not prepared. ,The political philosopher and moralist was- drawn by the 'unexpected collapse of the -War. prematurely and without preparation into the Den of-Diplomacy, where he was lost among the barbed-wire entanglements which European "realists" had made ready for him. Having first dragged away from him his shield of ?( Open covenants openly arrived at," they plunged him into dark intricacies with which he could' not cone. .When he grew unduly restive, they threw]to him scraps of self- " determination, economic equality, and other, principles to keep him quiet and to divert him from the peace term* on to the supreme object of his personal devotion, to the League, of Nations. And in the end he came away with his name to a Peace Treaty which he thought to be consistent with his Fourteen Points, and the Covenant of a League which was his special contribution to the history of human progress. .'"'■'.?.■". , ■"■.'. In the face, of events since the Armistice, no clearthinking man now maintains either of these two claims. Some of his defenders, indeed, from the beginning threw oyer the virtue of , the Peace Treaty, holding the quite plausible view that Wilson,- like the good politician in all times and N all countries, bartered away the terms of Peace in return for,the Covenant, persuading himself that : with that instrument' all that was bad or impracticable in the .; Peace could .finally be remedied. '"' If so, he hardly

contemplated the policy of treachery towards the League which , the Supreme Council was prepared to practise. Others, again, drawing nearer to the truth, dwell upon the damaging blow struck to the moral and political authority of Wilson by the elections of 1918, both in America and in Great Britain. America was clearly deserting Mr., Wilson. His enemies complain that it was his own fault for reverting from pure and full Americanism to the game of party politics. But while no one can accurately assess the damage of this indiscretion, it would be wrong to conclude that it was wholly or mainly responsible for the evaporation of American idealism. The storm of warpassion which seized the American people would in any case have robbed Mr. Wilson of any strong popular support for his healing principles, and have thrown him on his own resources at Paris. America has no right to upbraid Europe for the Bad Peace. America under any other representative than Wilson was eager for a peace of revenge. But none of these considerations gives a fully- satisfactory explanation of what must be regarded in final analysis as a moral and personal tragedy. That Mr. Wilson raised his banner of political idealism with passionate sincerity of purpose, no one lias a right to question. But it by no means follows that he is, therefore, to be regarded as merely a victim of adverse circumstances and of popular betrayal. This is surely not the depth of the tragedy. Every real tragedy is a soul's tragedy, every great failure'an inner failure. One of his most helpful biographers puts the critical issue in March, 1919, as follows: "Wilson had at that time three sources of influence in the world: he could refuse, as President of the United States, to accept the Treaty when finished; he could cease approving the grants of hundreds of millions of credit to European Governments; and he could announce that, in his opinion, the moral forces of the world should not approve the proposed settlement." Had he staked his personality and future career-upon the use of all three influences, it seems at least possible that he might have there and then prevailed, Or, if he had failed for the moment and retired, shaking the European dust from his shoes, the flaming virtue of his action would have rekindled the political idealism of America and once more rallied to his leadership the sane and' liberal forces of the European peoples. But no full or fair consideration can fail to give weight to the physical collapse of the President, due to the terrible and prolonged strain of activities of mind and body which the performance of his high office involved. Nor is this exterior aspect of the personal tragedy truly separable from the inward struggle and the-consciousness of the failure to which it was contributory. Health and physical vigor are essential to that type of mental and spiritual energy needed to stand the buffets of evil circumstances and base antagonisms; and to struggle on to a victorious end, alone, with the consciousness of desertion and malice in one's own household, requires a toughness of nature and an unflagging power of will only possible to one whose body is contributing its full share to support the strain on heart and head. The sober verdict of history, taking account of all these material factors, will certainly recover a juster and a higher estimate of Woodrow Wilson and his work than prevails just now, when the world lies prostrate and helpless in the trough of its misfortunes and misdeeds. Rating him' by the measure of his aspirations and his efforts, rather than by the present success which it is no man's to command, it will account him the only great redeeming personality which .these years of the returning tide of barbarism has left stranded on the shores of Christendom.

THE IRISH WILL BE THERE. One day the great Creator took a little bit of sand, * He placed it in the ocean where it grew a beauteous land; The Angels were in raptures at this Emerald Isle so fair. While the joyful news through Heaven spread, the Irish Will bo there. When Caesar with his legions conquered Gauli and Britain too, He thought he ruled the world till this Island came in view ; Then speaking to his army with a truly frightened air, Said he, “We’d better turn back, the Irish will be there.” A mighty host of greedy Danes beheld with covetous eyes The Island with its riches, sure ’twould make a goodly prize; < But when they wanted profits far beyond their rightful share, At Clontarf Brian cleared them out, the Irishmen were there. Long ages before England had a fleet to rule the seas, Another fleet, more noble, spread its pennants to the breeze ; The Captain, brave Columbus, was often joined in prayer By a hardy member of his crew, an Irishman was there. When Washington at Valley Forge was pressed with perils ■great, When the future of our Nation lay on the knees of fate; When of trials and of troubles he had a heavy share, He proudly said, “We’ll conquer yet, the Irish will be there.” We know from history’s pages, from our monuments so grand, From the record of our warfare both on sea and land, That our fathers died for Freedom, deny it if ye dare! For when’er the bugle sounded, brave Irishmen were there. In the not far distant future which is known to God alone, Out of a sea of sorrow a new Ireland will have grown; She’ll have peaceful trade and commerce, she’ll have blessings rich and rare; She’ll have ships and schools and scholars, the Irish will be there. Should you enter Afric’s jungle where the grass is ten feet high, Should you visit South Sea Islands where the zephyrs gently sigh; Should you reach the Polar regions where the ground is white and bare, You’ll find a Celt is running things, the Irishmen are there. On the Day of General Judgment all nations large and small' Must assemble in the Valley to be judged true one and all; You’ll see the best and bravest on the right side of the Chair, With St. Patrick their leader, yes, the Irish will be there. — Rev. Luke L. Plunkett, S.J., in the Cork Examiner.