Part 38 (2/2)
For a moment he stood still, in his eyes the expression of one who reo and sacred Then he seehts back to the present, and I saw him walk slowly toward the door of the Cabinet Room, place one hand on the knob, with the other brush his handkerchief across his eyes I saw hiain as he opened the door, and I heard him say in quiet, steady tones, ”I hope you will pardon the interruption, gentleainst Woodrow Wilson in the early days of his adht
The gentlemen who uttered these unkind criticise he hts in which he had participated in his career, both at Princeton University, where he served as president, and as governor of New Jersey, in challenging the ”old guard” of both parties to mortal coht to enacte which he displayed in fighting the tariff barons and ha procuring the enacte hethe financial control of the country and bringing about the Federal Reserve Act, which now has the whole-hearted approval of the business world in A by powerful interests
I do not wish to make an invidious comparison between Woodrow Wilson and his predecessors in the White House, but if one will examine the political history of this country, he will find that very few Presidents had ever succeeded, because of the powerful interests they were co upon the statute books any legislation that could control the moneyed interests of the country The reform of the tariff and the currency had been the rocks upon which many administrations had met disaster
Nearly every adviser about Woodrow Wilson, even those who had had experience in the capital of the nation, warned hi the tariff, but that his efforts would fail if he attempted to pass a bill that would establish currency refor to stand in the way of the establish of the greatest war in the history of the world would have been ie and his persistency that provided the first unifor which the United States has ever had
If Woodrow Wilson had accoe of this Federal Reserve Act, he would have been entitled to the gratitude of the nation This Act supplied the country with an elastic currency controlled by the A phenomena of disaster which the Republican party could neither control nor explain--are now but a e of one bank failure every twenty-one days for a period of nearly forty years After the passage of the Federal Reserve system there were, in 1915, four bank failures; in 1916 and 1917, three bank failures; in 1918, one bank failure; and in 1919, no bank failures at all
Woodrow Wilson is not a showy fighter, but he is a tenacious and a courageous one
A little story ca alike the cal quality of Woodrow Wilson The incident happened while he was a student at the University of Virginia It appears that soot into a fight with the circusat ”wash hall,”
as they ter the brutality and unfairness of the circus people and there was much excitement It was then moved that all the boys present should proceed to the circus and give proper battle, to vindicate the honour of the college
Just before the motion was put a slim, black-haired, solemn youth arose fro up the aisle, requested a hearing He stated that perhaps he was being forward, because he was a ”first-year”to be heard; that he felt that the action of the circus men deserved the severest condemnation; that it was a natural impulse to want to punish cowardly acts and to ”clean up” the show; but that it was lawlessness they were about to engage in; that it would bring disgrace on the college, as well as on the state and the Southland; more than this, many of the shoould be aro, soht be , said, ”However, if o as a body, or if a single o with him”
Was not his attitude in this incident characteristic of his dealing with Germany? He was patient with Germany and stood unmoved under the bitterest criticiser a virtue, he went into the war in the most ruthless way and punished Gerh seas
I recall ed, as now certain of his ene hiether disappeared by the recital by one of his friends tothe Princeton Trustees that arose over the now-fa the Princeton professor with this old friend one day and I said to him that I suspected that Wall Street interests were back of his candidacy for the governorshi+p My friend said, ”Tu There is no unwholesome interest or influence back of Wilson I tell you he is a fine fellow and if he is elected governor, he will be a free ht over the Proctor gift It will be recalled that Mr Proctor bequeathed to Princeton University a large suift that had to do with the policy or internal control of the University The gift was made at a time when Princeton was in sore need of funds President Wilson, in a prolonged fight, bitterly waged by some who had been his close personal friends, persuaded the Board of Trustees to vote, by a narrow reat educational institution could not afford to have its internal policies dictated by purchase on the part of a rich man By his position he alienated from his leadershi+p many of the wealthy, influential Princeton aluer Eastern cities, but he stood like a rock on the principle that the educational policy of a college ed at the bidding of wealthy benefactors This was a convincing answer to my attack upon the Princeton professor
This saiven free play onour intiht, at a tiht made to rectify mistakes in the matter of Panama tolls would destroy his political future
He was always a fair fighter and a gentleed in Many unkind and untrue things were said about Woodrow Wilson froe that has never been e of untruthfulness or ”hitting below the belt” No one in the country during his eight years at the White House ever charged hi an untrue statement No politician or statesh many have complained that he would not make promises
In the ive a pro office upon willing candidates I have known him on many occasions to make up his mind for months in advance to appoint a certain man and yet he would not say so to histoto do is to keep your mind open until you are bound to act Then you have freedoed with bad faith”
One reason for the charge ratitude” was that he steadfastly refused to barter public offices for political support He is by instinct, as well as by conviction, utterly opposed to the ”spoils systeovernment the people's business to be conducted as such and not as a e of political favours Nor can those who failed to get from him what they fancied their political services earned, complain truthfully that they were deceived by hi that he shared their own opinion of their deserts Frequently they had explicit warning to the contrary There was the case of Jientlemen paid the president of Princeton University an unsolicited call to suggest that he be candidate for the Deovernorshi+p of New Jersey, Mr Wilson, after thanking the directness asked, ”Gentlemen, why do you want me as the candidate?” They replied, because they believed he could be elected and they wanted a Deovernor He asked why they believed he could be elected, he who had never held any public office They answered that the people of New Jersey would have confidence in him
”Precisely,” said Mr Wilson; ”they will have confidence in me because they will believe that I aht distress to New Jersey, because they are tired of political bargain and sale, because they want their governovernentleestion, I must be what the people think I a but their interests There s tied to your proposal I cannot consider it an obligation of returned personal favours to any individual Wein the interest of the people of New Jersey and in the interest of nobody else” If the self-constituted coht this , they had only themselves to thank for their subsequent predicament They found he meant exactly what he said
There has never been a public overnovern those ambitious to trade public office for private benefits Mr Wilson could no more pay for political support from public offices than he could pay for it from the public treasury He abhors all for nepotism
He not only would not appoint kinsmen to office; he would discountenance their appoint friends to have his brother, Mr Joseph R Wilson, Jr, who had rendered a substantial service to the 1912 can by his effective work as a trained journalist, elected secretary of the United States Senate, saying that his brother in this position would inevitably be ht a spy on the Senate to report matters to the President His son-in-law, Mr Francis B Sayre, is by profession a student of international law, a professor of the subject in Harvard University, and as such was employed by Colonel House on the research committee preparatory to the Paris Conference Mr Sayre assuo to Paris, but the President set his personal veto on this, saying that it would not do for the President's son-in-law to be on a list of those ere going abroad at the public expense When Mr Sayre asked if he could not go and pay his own expenses, the President replied, ”No, because it would not be believed that you had really paid your own expenses” Mr
Sayre, respecting the President's views, did not press the claim
If it has appeared that the President has sometimes ”leaned backward” in theseconviction that politicians have leaned too far forward in using public office for private rewards, a bad system tohich the President's attitude may be stated in Hamlet's iether!”
My experiences with him, where one could witness the full play of the Scotch and Irish strains in him, came particularly in the matter of the numerous pardon cases and the applications for Executive Orders, placing this man or that woman under the classified civil service The latter were only issued in rare instances and always over the protest of the Civil Service Coreat heartache or faave the most sympathetic consideration
I ren an Executive Order in behalf of a poor woued with him for a time he turned to me and said, ”Every unfortunate person in distress seems to coet the best of s upon any basis of syned It was a thing urged against hin, that he held the record for the number of Executive Orders issued by him
His Scotch nature would also assert itself onwith the President at the White House one sued in the discussion of an article which appeared that azines of the country In this article Woodrow Wilson was portrayed as a great intellectualto me, he said, ”Tumulty, have you read that article? What do you think of it?” I said that I thought in ree with you at all,” he said ”It is no cohly developed intellectual machine Good God, there is more in me than that!” He then said, rather sadly, ”Well, I want people to love me, but I suppose they never will” He then asked ?” I replied, ”No, my dear Governor, I think you are one of the warmest hearted men I ever met”