Part 41 (2/2)

The loneliest place in the country on election night is the White House Office, especially when the tide of opinion throughout the country is running strongly against you I have noticed the difference in the atratulate and to rejoice when you are winning and the few loyal ones that reht of defeat It takes a stout heart to withstand the atht

The first reports fro, and there was no spot in the country where we could look for hope and consolation In the early hours of the evening I sent whatever few optiet to the President, so that at least he would not feel the full weight of the blow on election night His intimate friends had told me that they feared the effect of defeat upon his health; but these fears were groundless and never disturbed ht and I was sure that while he would feel the defeat deeply and that it would go to his heart, its effect would only be teard was justified for in my talk with him the day after the election no bitterness was evident He said, ”They have disgraced us in the eyes of the world The people of America have repudiated a fruitful leadershi+p for a barren independence Of course, I am disappointed by the results of the election for I felt sure that a great progra peace to the world would arouse Aiven to it It is a difficult thing, however, to lead a nation so variously constituted as ours quickly to accept a prograue of Nations The enemies of this enterprise cleverly aroused every racial passion and prejudice, and by poisonous propaganda ernaut which was intended to crush and destroy instead of saving and bringing peace to the world The people will have to learn now by bitter experience just what they have lost There will, of course, be a depression in business for the isolation which Ae which always in the end means a loss of business The people will soon witness the tragedy of disappointment and then they will turn upon those who made that disappointment possible”

[Illustration:

THE WHITE HOUSE, WAshi+NGTON

20 October 1920

My Dear Governor:

Of course nothing will be done in the Root ; but I feel it my duty to advise you that nearly all the reports froood are to the effect that unless you will intervene and take a n, the Administration will be repudiated at the election

There is a slight drift towards cox, but unless you take advantage of it and speed it up, there is very little hope

The President

The White House, Washi+ngton

(Manuscript: Of course I will help I was under the i But I will do it at ht on the cox can]

When I inti run prove a blessing, he rebukedof the partisan side of this thing It is the country and its future that I aain the leadershi+p of the world We have lost it, and soon ill be witnessing the tragedy of it all”

After this statement to me with reference to the result of the election, he read to me a letter from his old friend, John Sharp Williams, United States senator from Mississippi, a letter which did much to bolster and hearten hi days of his life in the White House The letter follows:

DEAR MR PRESIDENT:

God didn't create the world in one act I never expected that ould win in the United States the first battle in the caue of nations to keep the peace of the world Our people were too ”set”

by our past history and by the _apparent_ voice of the Fathers in an opposite course, a course of isolation This course was hitherto the best for acco the very purpose we ly contrary course We in the war in earnest We in it Never fear, the stars in their courses are fighting with us The League is on its feet, learning to walk, Senate coteries willy-nilly

As for the vials of envy and hatred which have been es, aided by deot them, abetted by yellow journals, etc, these lines of Byron can console you:

”There were two cats in Kilkenny They fit and fit until of cats there weren't any”

This is almost a prophecy of ill happen noeen Borah, Johnson & Co and Root, Taft & Co, with poor Lodge er peace outside their horizon

They have been kept united by hatred of you, by certain foreign encouragements, and by fear of the De, the s fire of differences will break forth into flame Conserve your health Cultivate a cynical patience _Give the fools of themselves, throw in a keynote veto--not often-- never when you can give them the benefit of the doubt and with it responsibility They have neither the coherence nor the brains to handle the situation Events ork their further confusion, events in Europe God still reigns The people can learn, though not quickly

With regards, (Signed) JOHN SHARP WILLIAMS

One would think that after the election the President would show a slackening of interest in the affairs of the nation; that having been repudiated by a solerow indifferent and listless to the administrative affairs that came to his desk On the contrary, so far as his interest in affairs was concerned, one co in contact with hiht of March 3rd would get the i unusual had happened and that his ters to which he paid particular attention at this tiene V Debs The day that the recommendation for pardon arrived at the White House, he looked it over and examined it carefully, and said: ”I will never consent to the pardon of this man I know that in certain quarters of the country there is a popular demand for the pardon of Debs, but it shall never be accomplished with my consent Were I to consent to it, I should never be able to look into the faces of the mothers of this country who sent their boys to the other side While the flower of A out its blood to vindicate the cause of civilization, this , and denouncing theht to exercise his freedoress of the United States declared war, silence on his part would have been the proper course to pursue I know there will be a great deal of denunciation ofthis pardon They will say I am cold-blooded and indifferent, but it will make no impression on me This man was a traitor to his country and he will never be pardoned during my administration”