Part 40 (1/2)

With warned) WOODROW WILSON

Nor did the little things of life escape hi letter to Attorney General Gregory:

The White House, Washi+ngton, 1 October, 1918

MY DEAR GREGORY:

The enclosed letter fro by a rather pitiful old Ger after the flowers around the club house at the Virginia Golf Course Iit to you to ask if there is any legitimate way in which the poor old fellow could be released from his present restrictions

In haste,

Faithfully yours, (Signed) WOODROW WILSON

[Illustration: An evidence of the tender-heartedness which Mr Tumulty claims for the President

(Transcriber's note: contains a reproduction of the above-quoted letter)]

I recall a day when he sat at his typewriter in the White House, preparing the speech he was to deliver at Hodgensville, Kentucky, in connection with the for cabin birthplace of Lincoln When he completed this speech, which I consider one of his most notable public addresses--perhaps in literary form, his best-- he turned to me and asked me if I had any comment to make upon it I read it very carefully I then said to hiht be called a self-revelation of Woodrow Wilson” The lines that I had in raphies of Lincoln; I have sought out with the greatest interest the many intimate stories that are told of him, the narratives of nearby friends, the sketches at close quarters, in which those who had the privilege of being associated with him have tried to depict for us the very man himself ”in his habit as he lived”; but I have nowhere found a real intiet the impression in my narrative or reminiscence that the writer had in fact penetrated to the heart of his mystery, or that anyspirit had no real faet the impression that it never spoke out in complete self-revelation, and that it could not reveal itself complete to any one It was a very lonely spirit that looked out froy brows, and co with theenial efforts at comradeshi+p, it dwelt apart, saw its visions of duty where no man looked on There is a very holy and very terrible isolation for the conscience of every man who seeks to read the destiny in the affairs for others as well as for himself, for a nation as well as for individuals That privacy no man can intrude upon That lonely search of the spirit for the right perhaps no overnave every ounce of his energy and his great intellectual power No President in the whole history of Aht and day, with unco strictly to the pressing needs of the nation, punctiliously reat or small Indeed, no ht less of vacations for the purpose of rest and recuperation

There are three interesting e covered by Presidents Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson These maps show the states traversed by each of the Presidents Great black ses show the trail covered by President Roosevelt, which included every state in the Union, and equally large black marks show the territory covered by President Taft, but only a thin line shows the peregrinations and wanderings of President Wilson The dynamic, forceful personality of Mr Roosevelt, which radiated energy, charorous, lovable personality of Mr Taft, put the staid, si personality of the New Jersey President, Mr Wilson, at a tree Into the at personalities of Mr Roosevelt and Mr Taft the personality of Mr Wilson did not easily fit, and he realized it, when he said to me one day, ”Tumulty, you s of politics I do not want to be displayed before the public, and if I tried it, I should do it badly”

Without attereat achievements of former Presidents of the United States, particularly Roosevelt, it is only fair to say that, co the situations which confronted the of his incuenial Irishman once said to me, ”hell broke loose when Wilson took hold” Every unusual thing, every extraordinary thing, see of the Dayton flood, which occurred in the early days of the Wilson Administration, down to the moment when he laid down the reins of office, it seemed as if the world in which we lived was at the point of revolution Unusual, unprecedented, and res that required all the patience, indoe, and tenacity of the President to hold them steady

The Mexican situation, left on our door-step, was one of the great burdens that he carried during his adht for the revision of the tariff, the establishment of the Federal Reserve Systeramme of domestic reform which emanated from the brain of Woodrow Wilson, and then in the midst of it all came the European war, the necessity for neutrality, the criticism which was heaped upon the President for every unusual happening which his critics seemed to think called for intervention of the United States in this great cataclysood- fellowshi+p that had characterized the good old days in which Mr Roosevelt served as President

And yet nowith thethe Federal Reserve Act in collaboration with Senator Glass, he was constantly in touch with theand Currency Committee, in an endeavour to e of this iislation

Constant dey and of the sly and without a protest No rest, no recreation, no vacation intervened Every e to a great fight, as, for instance, the tariff, the currency, the rural credits, and the Panaer or passion ever showed itself in the President, and I am reminded of a little incident that happened at the White House during one of those conferences with the newspapertime afterward, took place in the Executive offices At the time of this particular conference, the President's first wife lay seriously ill at the White House, and stories were carried in the various newspapers exaggerating the nature of her illness, so from this or fro in the newspapers there were also articles that his daughter, Margaret, was engaged to marry this man or that man The President cahold of the back of the chair, as if to strengthen himself for what he had to say, he looked squarely at the newspaper entle I have read the stories that have appeared in certain newspapers of the country, containing outrageous statehter I realize that as President of the United States you have a perfect right to say anything you damn please about me, for I am a man and I can defend myself I know that while I am President it will be my portion to receive all kinds of unfair criticism, and I would be a poor sport if I could not stand up under it; but there are soentlemen, that I will not tolerate

You must let my family alone, for they are not public property I acquit every man in this room of responsibility for these stories I know that you have had nothing to do with theh I ahter has no brother to defend her, but she has me, and I want to say to you that if these stories ever appear again I will leave the White House and thrash the man who dares to utter them”

A little letter came to my notice in which the President replies to an old friend in Massachusetts who had asked him to attempt to interpret himself:

MY DEAR FRIEND:

You have placed an i myself to you All I can say in answer to your inquiry is that I have a sincere desire to serve, to be of so the condition of the average reeable, and coe my heart of selfish motives It will only be knohen I am dead whether or not I have succeeded

Sincerely your friend, WOODROW WILSON

CHAPTER XLV

THE SAN FRANCISCO CONVENTION