No other American has made so much world history as Woodrow Wilson, who
retires at noon today from the office of President of the United
States. No other American has ever bulked so large in the affairs of
civilization or wielded so commanding an influence in shaping their
ends.
The great outstanding figure of the war, Mr. Wilson remains the great
outstanding figure of the peace. Broken in health and shattered in
body, Mr. Wilson is leaving the White House, but his spirit still
dominates the scene. It pervades every chancellery in Europe. It hovers
over every capital. Because Woodrow Wilson was President of the United
States during the most critical period of modern history international
relations have undergone their first far-reaching moral revolution.
Mr. Harding is assuming the duties of the Presidency, but the main
interest in Mr. Harding is still a reflected interest, which is
concerned chiefly with the efforts that his Administration may make to
adjust itself to the forces that Mr. Wilson has set in motion. Stripped
of all the paraphernalia of his office, Mr. Wilson, by virtue of his
achievements, remains the most potent single influence in the modern
world; yet after this eight years in the White House it may be doubted
if even the American people themselves know him better or understand
him better than they did the day he was first inaugurated.
Neither Mr. Wilson's friends nor his enemies have ever succeeded in
interpreting him or in explaining him, nor can any interpretation or
explanation be satisfactory which fails at the outset to recognize in
him the simplest and at the same time the most complex character in the
greatest drama ever played on the stage of human history. Even his
closest associates have never found it easy to reconcile a fervent
political democracy with an unbending intellectual aristocracy, or to
determine which of those characteristics was dominant in his day-to-day
decisions.
No man ever sat in the President's chair who was more genuinely a
democrat or held more tenaciously to his faith in democracy than
Woodrow Wilson, but no other man ever sat in the President's chair who
was so contemptuous of all intellect that was inferior to his own or so
impatient with its laggard processes.
_A President Who Dealt in Ideas_
Mr. Wilson was a President who dealt almost exclusively in ideas. He
cared little or nothing about political organization and rarely
consulted the managing politicians of his party. When they conferred
with him it was usually at their request and not at his request.
Patronage hardly entered into his calculations as an agency of
government. He disliked to be troubled about appointments, and when he
had filled an office he was likely to be indifferent as to the manner
in which that office was subsequently administered, unless his own
measures were antagonized or his policies obstructed.
No man was ever more impersonal in his attitude toward government, and
that very impersonality was the characteristic which most baffled the
American people. Mr. Wilson had a genius for the advocacy of great
principles, but he had no talent whatever for advocating himself, and
to a country that is accustomed to think in headlines about political
questions his subtlety of mind and his careful, precise style of
expression were quite as likely to be an obstacle to the communication
of thought as a medium for the communication of thought. That is how
such phrases as "too proud to fight" and "peace without victory" were
successfully wrested from their context by his critics and twisted into
a fantastic distortion of their true meaning.
Mr. Wilson was likewise totally deficient in the art of advertising,
and advertising is the very breath of American politics. He held
himself aloof from all these points of public contact. _The World's_
relations with him have certainly been as close and intimate as those
of any other newspaper; yet during the eight years in which Mr. Wilson
has been in the White House he never sought a favor from _The World_,
he never asked for support either for himself or any of his policies,
he never complained when he was criticised, he never offered to explain
himself or his attitude on any issue of government. In the troublesome
days of his Administration he often expressed his gratitude for
services that _The World_ had rendered in the interpretation of his
policies, but he never solicited such interpretation or took measures
to facilitate it. He was an eloquent pleader for the principles in
which he believed, but he had no faculty whatever for projecting
himself into the picture.
_The Experience of History_
Mr. Wilson's enemies are fond of calling him a theorist, but there is
little of the theorist about him, otherwise he could never have made
more constructive history than any other man of his generation. What
are commonly called theories in his case were the practical application
of the experience of history to the immediate problems of government,
and in the experience of history Mr. Wilson is an expert. With the
exception of James Madison, who was called "the Father of the
Constitution," Mr. Wilson is the most profound student of government
among all the Presidents, and he had what Madison conspicuously lacked,
which was the faculty to translate his knowledge of government into the
administration of government.
When Mr. Wilson was elected President he had reached the conclusion
which most unprejudiced students of American government eventually
arrive at--that the system of checks and balances is unworkable in
practice and that the legislative and executive branches cannot be in
fact coordinate, independent departments. Other Presidents have acted
on that hypothesis without daring to admit it, and endeavored to
control Congress by patronage and by threats. Mr. Wilson without any
formality established himself as the leader of his party in Congress,
Premier as well as President, and the originator of the party's program
of legislation.
Senators and Representatives denounced him as an autocrat and a
dictator. Congress was described as the President's rubber stamp, but
Mr. Wilson established something that more nearly resembled responsible
government than anything that had gone before, and Congress under his
direct leadership made a record for constructive legislation for which
there is no parallel. It was due to this kind of leadership that such
measures as the Federal Reserve Banking Law were enacted, which later
proved to be the one bulwark between the American people and a
financial panic of tragic proportions.
But Mr. Wilson's domestic policies in spite of their magnitude have
been obscured by his foreign policies. Had there been no war, these
policies in themselves would have given to the Wilson Administration a
place in American history higher than that of any other since the Civil
War. What some of his predecessors talked about doing he did, and he
accomplished it by the process of making himself the responsible leader
of his party in Congress--a process that is simple enough but capable
of fulfillment only in the hands of a man with an extraordinary
capacity for imposing his will on his associates. Mr. Wilson's control
over Congress for six years was once described as the most impressive
triumph of mind over matter known to American politics.
_Mr. Wilson's Foreign Policies_
When we begin the consideration of Mr. Wilson's foreign policies we are
entering one of the most remarkable chapters in all history, and one
which will require the perspective of history for a true judgment.
The first step in the development of these foreign policies came in Mr.
Wilson's refusal to recognize Huerta, who had participated in the plot
to murder President Madero and made himself the dictator of Mexico by
reason of this assassination. The crime was committed during Mr. Taft's
Administration. When Mr. Wilson came into office he served notice that
there would be no recognition of Huerta and no recognition of any
Mexican Government which was not established by due process of law.
What was plainly in Mr. Wilson's mind was a determination to end
political assassination in Latin America as a profitable industry, and
compel recognition, to some extent at least, of democratic principles
and constitutional forms. On this issue he had to face the intense
opposition of all the financial interests in the United States which
had Mexican holdings, and a consolidated European opposition as well.
Every dollar of foreign money invested in Mexico was confident that
what Mexico needed most was such a dictatorship as that of Huerta or
American intervention. Mr. Wilson's problem was to get rid of Huerta
without involving the United States in war, and then by steady pressure
bring about the establishment of a responsible government that rested
on something at least resembling the consent of the governed. Only a
statesman of high ideals would ever have attempted it, and only a
statesman of almost infinite patience would have been able to adhere to
the task that Mr. Wilson set for himself.
Mexico is not yet a closed incident, but Mr. Wilson's policy has been
vindicated in principle. For the first time since Mr. Roosevelt shocked
the moral sense and aroused the political resentment of all the
Latin-American states by the rape of Panama, faith in the integrity and
friendship of the United States has been restored among the other
nations of the Western Hemisphere.
Of equal or even greater ethical importance was Mr. Wilson's insistence
on the repeal of the Panama Canal Tolls Act, which discriminated in
favor of American ships in spite of the plain provisions of the
Hay-Pauncefote treaty. This was the more creditable on Mr. Wilson's
part because he himself had been tricked during the campaign into
giving his support to this measure. When he began to perceive the
diplomatic consequences of this treaty violation Mr. Wilson reversed
himself and demanded that Congress reverse itself. Had he done
otherwise, the American people would have had scant opportunity to
protest against the German perfidy which turned a treaty into "a scrap
of paper."
When Germany, at the beginning of August, 1914, declared war
successively on Russia, France and Belgium, thereby bringing Great
Britain into the most stupendous conflict of all the centuries, Mr.
Wilson did what every President has done when other nations have gone
to war. He issued a proclamation of neutrality. He then went further,
however, than any of his predecessors had done and urged the American
people to be not only neutral in deed but "impartial in thought." Mr.
Wilson has been severely criticised for this appeal. The more violent
pro-Germans and the more violent pro-French and pro-British regarded it
as a personal insult and an attempt on the part of the President to
stifle what they were pleased to regard as their conscience.
Mr. Wilson asked the American people to be impartial in thought because
he knew as a historian the danger that threatened if the country were
to be divided into two hostile camps, the one blindly and unreasoningly
applauding every act of the Germans and the other blindly and
unreasoningly applauding every act of the Allies. In the early years of
his life the Republic was all but wrecked by the emotional and
political excesses of the pro-French Americans and the pro-British
Americans in the war that followed the French Revolution. The warning
against a passionate attachment to the interests of other nations which
is embodied in Washington's Farewell Address was the first President's
solemn admonition against the evils of a divided allegiance. Mr. Wilson
had no desire to see the country drift into a similar situation in
which American rights, American interests and American prestige would
all be sacrificed to gratify the American adherents of the various
European belligerents. Moreover, he understood far better than his
critics that issues would soon arise between the belligerents and the
United States which would require on the part of the American people
that impartiality of thought that is demanded of the just and upright
judge. He knew that the American people might ultimately become the
final arbiters of the issues of the conflict.
The United States was the only great nation outside the sphere of
conflict. It was the only great nation that had no secret diplomatic
understandings with either set of belligerents. It was the only great
nation that was in a position to uphold the processes of international
law and to use its good offices as a mediator when the opportunity
arose.
For two years Mr. Wilson genuinely believed that it would be possible
for the United States to fulfill this mission, and he never fully lost
hope until that day in January, 1917, when the German Government
wantonly wrecked all the informal peace negotiations that were then in
progress and decided to stake the fate of the empire on a single throw
of the U-boat dice.
_A United Country First_
Mr. Wilson perceived quite as quickly and quite as early as anybody the
possibility that the United States would be drawn into the war, but he
perceived also what most of his critics failed to perceive, that the
immediate danger of the country was not war but a divided people. While
he was engaging in framing the first Lusitania note he discussed the
situation with one of his callers at the White House in words that have
since proved prophetic:
I do not know whether the German Government intends to keep faith
with the United States or not. It is my personal opinion that
Germany has no such intention, but I am less concerned about the
ultimate intentions of Germany than about the attitude of the
American people, who are already divided into three groups: those
who are strongly pro-German, those who are strongly pro-Ally, and
the vast majority who expect me to find a way to keep the United
States out of war. I do not want war, yet I do not know that I can
keep the country out of the war. That depends on Germany, and I
have no control over Germany. _But I intend to handle this
situation in such a manner that every American citizen will know
that the United States Government has done everything it could to
prevent war. Then if war comes we shall have a united country, and
with a united country there need be no fear about the result._
Mr. Wilson's policy from that day to April 2, 1917, must be read in the
light of those words. He plunged forthwith into that extraordinary
debate with the German Government over the submarine issue--the most
momentous debate ever held--but he was only incidentally addressing
himself to the rulers of Germany. He was talking to the conscience of
the civilized world, but primarily to the conscience of the United
States, explaining, clarifying, elucidating the issue. His reluctance
to countenance any extensive measures of preparedness was the product
of a definite resolution not to give Germany and her American
supporters an opportunity to declare that the United States, while
these issues were pending, was arming for war against the Imperial
Government.
When Mr. Wilson began this debate he knew something which his critics
did not know and which for reasons of state he did not choose to tell
them. Weeks before the destruction of the Lusitania two-thirds of the
German General Staff were in favor of war with the United States as a
military measure in the interest of Germany. They were under the spell
of Tirpitz. They believed that the submarine could do all that the
Grand Admiral said it could do. They argued that inasmuch as the Allies
were borrowing money in the United States, obtaining food from the
United States and purchasing great quantities of munitions in the
United States Germany, by restricting submarine warfare in answer to
American protests, was paying an excessive price for what was in effect
a fictitious neutrality. In their opinion the United States as a
neutral was already doing more for the Allies than it could do as an
active belligerent if free scope were given to the U-boats. The
American Navy, they said, could be safely disregarded, because with
Germany already blockaded by the British Navy, and the German Grand
Fleet penned in, the addition of the American Navy, or a dozen navies
for that matter, would make little difference in respect to the actual
facts of sea power. On the other hand there was not enough shipping
available to feed the Allies and enable the United States to send an
army to Europe. If the United States tried to provide troops, the
British would starve. If the United States could not send troops,
Germany would be just as well off with the United States in the war as
out of the war, and would have the priceless additional advantage of
being able to employ her submarines as she saw fit, regardless of the
technicalities of international law.
In the fall of 1916 Mr. Wilson decided definitely that the relations
between the United States and Germany were approaching a climax. If the
war continued much longer the United States would inevitably be drawn
in. There was no prospect of a decision. The belligerent armies were
deadlocked. Unwilling to wait longer for events, Mr. Wilson made up his
mind that he would demand from each side a statement of its aims and
objects and compel each side to plead its own cause before the court of
the public opinion of the world. This was done on December 18, 1916, in
a joint note which was so cold and dispassionate in its terms that its
import was hardly understood.
_With Clean Hands_
The President said that the aims and objects of the war on both sides
"as stated in general terms to their own people and the world" seemed
to be "virtually the same," and he asked for a bill of particulars.
Instantly there was wild turmoil and recrimination on the part of the
Allies and their friends in the United States.
The President had declared, they said, that the Germans and the Allies
were fighting for the same thing. Mr. Wilson had expressed no opinion
of his own one way or the other and the obvious discovery was soon made
in London and Paris that the President had given to the Allies the
opportunity which they needed of officially differentiating their war
aims from those of the Germans. The German Government missed its
opportunity completely, and by their own answer to the President's note
the Allies succeeded in consolidating their moral positions, which was
something they had never previously been able to do in spite of all
their propaganda.
Informal peace negotiations were still in progress, although conducted
in secret and carefully screened from the knowledge of all peoples
involved in the conflict. On January 22, 1917, Mr. Wilson made his last
attempt at mediation in the "peace without victory" address to the
Senate in which he defined what he regarded as the fundamental
conditions of a permanent peace. Most of the basic principles of this
address were afterward incorporated into the Fourteen Points. Here
again Mr. Wilson was the victim of his own precision of language and of
the settled policy of his critics of reading into his public utterances
almost everything except what he actually said. He himself has insisted
on giving his own interpretation of "peace without victory," and this
interpretation was instantly rejected by the super-patriots who
regarded themselves as the sole custodians of all the issues of the war.
[Illustration: (C) _Underwood & Underwood_
1919: On the bridge of the _George Washington_ on
the return from the Peace Conference]
_The President and the Treaty_
_President Wilson sails for Europe, December 4, 1918._
_Visits to England, France and Italy, December-January, 1918-19._
_Peace Conference opened, January 18, 1919._
_League Covenant adopted, February 14, 1919._
_President Wilson's trip home, February 24-March 5, 1919._
_The treaty signed, June 28, 1919._
_Submission to the Senate, July 10, 1919._
_The President's speaking tour, September 3-26, 1919._
_Adoption of the Lodge reservations, November 16, 1919._
_Final defeat of the treaty in the Senate, March 20, 1920._
[Illustration: (C) _Edmonston_
February 15, 1921: Mr. Wilson's latest photograph--made
at a meeting of the Cabinet]