Show FIVE MINUTE CHATS ABOUT OUR presidents i t by JAMES MORGAN WILSONS FIRST TERM 1914 aug 6 death of mrs wilson 1915 dee dec 18 the president married mrs edith boiling gait 1916 re electta A F TER woodrow wilson had been attaching AFTER teaching in the classroom for a quarter of a century that the president ought to be more like a prime minister Inister In trying to operate cooperate co with other human beings than a mere department hailing congress from some isolated island of authority the opportunity came to him to put his theory in practice when congress met in extra session a month after his inauguration lie he walked in and delivered his big message in person reviving a custom which jefferson had stopped only because he happened to have bate a poor voice and was an awkward speaker president wilson adopted the aitt attitude of a sort of member at large of both houses sauntering unheralded teto the seldom used presidents Vs room which adjoins the senate chamber whenever vh enever he had any special business gilld talking things over in the open the president succeeded not by 11 rousing a personal loyalty to himself but by the force of his ideas 1 I have had bad a majority on the floor but he be admitted never a majority in the linkroom lon kroom here are arc the outstanding items in the peace record of the wilson administration tariff revision the first income 1 tax the federal reserve act the federal trade commission the clayton trust law 80 30 arbitration treaties the seamans act the farm loan the repeal of panama tolls the shipping act the child labor law the purchase of the danish west indies and federal aid tor for good roads the federal reserve law Is potentially as great a piece of constructive legislation as any that has been enacted in this country we were absolutely without a financial system and the money of the nation was in the irresponsible control of a few big banks in new york every attempt to remedy this situation had failed because private financial interests naturally wished to keep their control of 0 the money the aldrich aidrich bill in the taft administration proposed to give the sanction of law to this private domination but congress refused to pass it the federal reserve act simply reversed the aldrich plan and gave the nation through the government the control of its own money president wilson was the relentless driving force that pushed through the federal reserve bill and the rest of the legislative program the electric spark was omitted from president willows wilsons Wil sons composition and ad this omission denied him a flowing communication with his fellows a natural limitation which aag was hafif confirmed irm ed by the life he had led until he was I 1 suddenly sudden lr thrust into the hurly burly P politics 0 president wilson has been a lonely figure in the white house he came IL r 4 afif P mrs woodrow to the presidency a stran stranger ger to pia pal bho men linen and no president can maka new friends blends real friends his reelection election re was one of the big surprises of our presidential elections for several hours after the polls closed he appeared to have been badly beaten eaten ti and hughes went to bed with the assurance assur anca that he was wag president elect after all tho the great industrial states abich had bad decided the elections in the past except ohio had sent la in reports of republican victories the tide was turned by the far west which had awen almost forgotten in tile alie reckoning lint but here the conservative interests hod had less influence at last the returns from remote hamlets in the sierras gave cave california to the president by less than plurality ll 11 he lial lost all but two of the northern 1 chates east of the blisso missouri url and yet won by carry carrying ipg all but two of the states west of that river where tho the women voters are supposed to have laillet lail led to hilra because he kept us out t f the war WILSON AND THE WAR 1817 1917 feb 3 president wilson broke off diplomatic relations with germany on her renewal of ruthless ma april 2 read his war message to congress 1918 jan IS 18 laid before the senate his 14 points nov 11 the armistice signed with the german revolutionary government S b 0 S lie stood at the clerks desk in athe AS the hall of the house of senta tives on the evening of april 2 ai 1917 president wilson wits was the central centra figu figure re in one one of the great moments of world history not only his own people but mankind stopped to listen the president had been reelected elected re only five months before because he kept us out of the war alas the war would not keep out of the united states the war tok on new fury with the resumption of ruthless which germany had modified the year before at our demand the president thereupon handed the german ambassador his passports and next nest he proposed that we should arm our merchant ships the filibustering sen een 4 1 r 4 A X 1 I 1 m t av wilson and his first grandchild ate falling failing to give him this authority he proceeded himself to arm them but shipping vanished from the sen sea with its hidden terror and at last he called the newly elected congress in extraordinary session to receive a comma nl cation concerning grave matters of national policy no other president in the whole course of his service has had bad to make so many momentous decisions as woodrow wilson allson has had lo 10 matse in th he solitude of his stud study at the will what ire house M in those anxious alfon days before th the assembling of congress se he could not divide tle the burden of such a heavy beavy responsibility he be had to bear it alone and without a precedent to guide him should we give a fether trial to to armed neutrality or we enter eater upon ail ah in independent depe anderl i t ii naval aval ibar warfare against the submarine menace to our shipping or should we back the allies with money and supplies but leave them to do the fighting or should we ne join forces with them unreservedly edly contrary to the historic polley policy of america to go it alone those alternatives were in ever every y mind in that bewildering period and the president had to choose between them in framing the policy to be submitted to congress ile iio made the holder bolder choice of going into fulp partnership with the entente allies pooling with them all our resources our man power our money power and our producing power the troad abroad plan which lie he unfolded ind which congress quickly approved fissured assured in advance the success of the great unparalleled undertaking and lie pushed it through to victory with grim unrelenting persistence amerl americans generally aily assumed at the start and the british government agreed n ith them that we should not have to send a great army to europe it if indeed tiny any at all but when it became an ail imperative necessity to go at double quick to the relief of the broken line in france the foundation was so well laid that wo we rose to the uni un foreseen emergency building up in a year and a halt half an army of and ferrying soldiers across the atlantic the brains of the country all the talents were mobilized for the war merchants and scientists bankers and railroad men labor leaders and clergymen each being charged with the task for which his training fitted him it Is 13 a race between wilson and hindenburg nin denburg said lloyd george wilen when the big german drive su surprised the entente and smashed through its front in the spring of 1018 1918 will whoever won the war hindenburg lost that race the rest the presidents journeys to europe the treaty and the battle over it are history still in the making many years must pass before that extraordinary chap chapter terin in th the story estory of the presidency will be finished and may be told in the spirit of historical impartiality impartial I 1 ty I 1 copyright 1920 by y jc mes morean |