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Yet this is what Mr. Wilson did. Again and again he said to his people that they were to cross the seas in their strength not as the avenger but as the protector, not to profit but to spend, not to compete but to serve, not to conquer but to restore. Time after time he told them they should hope for nothing except sacrifice, they could expect nothing except suffering, their only consolation must be the approval of their own consciences; that alone must be their guerdon. They were to lay down their lives for countries of which they had never heard, for nations for whom they never cared, for peoples who meant little to them, fighting about matters that touched them not at all; and this they were to do so that peoples whose keepers they were not might enjoy the liberty that was theirs. They were to do battle under the banner of renunciation, their oriflamme was to be the crusader's cross of humility and generosity. It was the maddest thing ever proposed by a serious statesman, a thing so mad that men believed the President in his visionary idealism was cooling enthusiasm and stifling a glorious fervor that needed only encouragement to glow like molten metal in the furnace of patriotism.

Yet Mr. Wilson persisted. He preached his theme with variations, but it was always the same theme; always the leitmotif was disinterestedness, fealty to the right, the duty of America free to bring freedom to the oppressed and the enslaved. If it was idealism Mr. Wilson lifted men to his own exaltation. If at first he

spoke over the heads of the multitude they grew in spiritual stature and reached his own level, on their faces a new light shining. He quickened the spirit, he made men ask what was this morality of which he continually spoke; he made men search their hearts and ask themselves how true it was that America by her birthright of freedom held freedom in trust for the oppressed and was now under solemn pledge to redeem her trust. To the war-weary peoples of the Allied countries his words were an elixir. It brought to them not only new life but a new hope. They could not falter now, for the most powerful of all nations was marching her legions that mankind might be saved, willing to die that justice might live.

These speeches of Mr. Wilson were attuned to a world-wide audience; wherever there were men, there was his audience. He was never didactic, seldom argumentative; he was homiletical, hortative, the preacher taking as his text the simple virtues, morality, justice, right; assuming as of course his congregation believed in their canons and needed only to have them expounded for their faith to remain unshaken. He never ceased to appeal, and yet to his audience he seemed less to appeal than to point the way which men for their own salvation must travel.

On the body of a young American soldier dead on the battlefield of France, a correspondent reports, was found a card with these words: "America stands for freedom and justice and is always ready to give the

lives of her citizens that all the world may be freed from tyranny and live in peace and happiness."

The words were printed by hand. They were undated and unsigned. Who wrote them no one will know. There on the battlefield of France they were the echo of the President's words. They were the effect of the President's preaching. They had made one man know his soul. They answered the question: "Why is America fighting?"

CHAPTER XII

HISTORY AND THE VERDICT

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In the foregoing pages an attempt has been made to interpret Mr. Wilson as he has revealed himself through those things by which it is possible for the world to assess the character and motives of their governors his speeches, writings and actions, which are the elements forming his policy; and by his policy alone can a statesman be judged. Yet there are certain aspects of his character which a man does not always reveal in what he says or writes; sometimes he consciously tries to conceal them, sometimes he is not conscious of them, and this lacuna can be bridged by the observations of men who have been given the opportunity to form a correct judgment. Briefly, in conclusion, these sidelights will supplement the interpretation.

In the gossip of Washington, and gossip is not to be sneered at when it is taken for what it is worth; not the veracities of history, but the lightly formed impressions of the events of the day, more than once it has been said with fervor the country was indeed fortunate that Mr. Wilson was not "temper

amental"; that in a time of crisis there sat in the White House a quiet, retiring, almost emotionless man, too impassive to be in danger of doing a hasty or ill-considered action.

"Temperamental" is a vague and inexact term, but taking it at its current meaning, it perhaps better fits Mr. Wilson than any other word, which shows how popular opinion is formed and how easily it can be mistaken. He is a man of extreme temperament, but he has trained himself to self-control. He is naturally a reticent man, and reticence is a habit that grows. He is the antithesis of what is popularly known as a "good mixer." Some men there are with the good fortune to be at home in any company, who fit in easily in any circle. Mr. Wilson cannot, and never could. It is not only that he is shy, as has before been mentioned, which is a barrier to good fellowship, but he is naturally a serious man, although he does not take himself too seriously, which has made him somewhat impatient of the trivial; but he knows how to relax and to balance the serious things of life with the light. He can laugh at a limerick and enjoy a vaudeville performance at the right time; and with him there is a time for all things. He is a meditative man. Habits once formed are not easily broken. He early formed the habit of thinking and studentship, and when he came to the White House he did not change. He might, had he cared for it, done as other Presidents, made the White House the social