"who gave an impression of greater distinction and dignity than your president. He has outward strength and inward gentleness." Whatever may be said by his enemies at home--and he has plenty of them--the Presi- dent never upon any occasion whatsoever, no matter how difficult, failed to represent America and the American people with dis- tinction. He never represented what was cheap or crude in American life, but unfail- ingly what was highest and best; and he was not less successful in capturing the critical audience at the Sorbonne, where he made one of his notable speeches, than he was with the mass of the workers who swarmed around the Crillon Hotel on May Day shouting "Vive Wilson! Vive le Président!" In spite, however, of all the discussion and inquiry that went on at Washington during the three months after his return; in spite of all the President's own explanations and speeches, his exact service at Paris, so it seems to me, has never been properly understood. A vast mass of facts regarding the Conference and the Treaty have been poured out before the American people--one cannot see the for- est for the trees!--but there has been no clear -13- |