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 HON. JOHN yf. WESCOTT 
 
Class L 7^7 
 
 COPifRIGHT DEPOSm 
 
WOODROW WILSON'S 
 'ELOQUENCE 
 
WOODROW WILSON'S 
 ELOQUENCE 
 
 HON. JOHN W. WESCOTT 
 
Copyright 19^3, By Hon. John W. Wescott 
 
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 ©CI.A677021 
 
Dedication 
 
 In Memory of my Mother, whose Face was 
 
 the Glow of Truth, which is the 
 
 Substance of Eloquence. 
 
Introduction 
 
 In the wilds of Canada, where the long, low call 
 of the moose ; the weird, uncanny cry of the loon ; 
 the bark of the cowardly wolf in quest of prey, and 
 the multitudinous song of birds bring the mind in 
 intimate association with the beauty and grandeur 
 of Nature, and where the reality of things is borne 
 in upon one with resistless force, is found the fulfill- 
 ment of a promise, made some years ago, to Mr. 
 Solomon B. Griffin, then editor of The Springfield 
 Republican, to set forth my views of Woodrow 
 Wilson's eloquence, and, by necessary implication, 
 some knowledge of his personality. 
 
 The purpose of this brochure is, therefore, first, 
 to explicate the nature and function of real elo- 
 quence; next, briefly to state the evolution of my 
 conception. 
 
 Not without some hesitation, I have appended to 
 the discussion my two speeches nominating Woodrow 
 Wilson for the presidency in 1912 and 1916. They 
 were composed under stress, while events were 
 transpiring in the midst of which I took such part 
 as one does who finds himself unexpectedly involved 
 in some glorious and scarce believable emergency. 
 Time and succeeding occurrences have verified the 
 accuracy of their analysis of Woodrow Wilson's 
 character to such a degree, and the prophecy of the 
 second speech, thought by some, at the time of its 
 delivery, to be mere hyperbole, has been (and I 
 believe is further to be) so remarkably fulfilled, that 
 
the repetition of them now may not prove uninter- 
 esting to any one who may find merit in the ensuing 
 reflections. Then, too, they are examples, or intended 
 to be, of application of the principles herein discussed. 
 They are genuine expressions, at any rate, of the 
 influence of the man whose eloquence of character, 
 as well as of speech, I have undertaken to explain. 
 
 The imperfections of the arrangement and phrase- 
 ology of the exposition, must be charged to the 
 conditions under which it was prepared. Seeking 
 rest, with a mind weary of human struggle, yet 
 buoyed with the assurance that "good will be the 
 final goal of ill," my promise is kept in admiration 
 and love of President Wilson, and in the wish that 
 the young men of America, whom I yearned to join 
 in arms quite as fully as I did in spirit, on their 
 sublime crusade under his remarkable leadership, may 
 appropriate his philosophy of life by conforming 
 their efforts to a determination to solve their every 
 problem correctly and to make that the secret of their 
 eloquence. 
 
 John W. Wescott. 
 
 August, 1919. 
 
Woodrow Wilson's Elocpience 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Progress 
 
 The deathless question, is, whether, innate in 
 man, there resides a faculty forever driving him to 
 a better civilization. The optimist answers affirma- 
 tively; the pessimist negatively. Optimism and 
 pessimism may be regarded as the two great distin- 
 guishing states of human society. Optimism is the 
 product of good health, sound thinking and moral 
 conduct. Pessimism is the result of disordered 
 health, incorrect thinking and immoral purposes. 
 
 A quick glance at human progress will be useful. 
 Roughly speaking, there are two admeasurements of 
 man 's growth : the one material, the other spiritual 
 and moral. Beginning with the stone age, men lived 
 in holes in the ground, in clefts in the rocks. They 
 were in a state of utter savagery. They were sub- 
 servient to one law alone, the law of violent and 
 uncompromising existence. They had no ornament, 
 except the skins of wild beasts. Their instruments 
 were clubs and stones. Follow this same race of 
 beings into millions of modern homes, thousands of 
 cities, tens of thousands of towns and villages, num- 
 berless structures of beauty and grandeur, countless 
 varieties of dress and ornamentation, and we will get 
 a vivid conception of its material progress. See man 
 
4 WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 again, emerging from a state of brutality and 
 remorseless savagery, erecting churches, libraries, 
 hospitals, school houses, harnessing the forces of 
 nature to his bidding, causing the earth to multiply 
 and sustain his life, devising innumerable means for 
 protecting the weak, expending his genius in philan- 
 thropic institutions, and we get an impressive view 
 of his spiritual and moral progress. What forces, in 
 combination and inter-play, produce the stupendous 
 resultant called civilization ? 
 
 First, is the love of existence. Merely to exist is 
 to know some measure of pleasure and happiness. 
 Secondly, the nervous system is so organized as to 
 compel the human animal to avoid pain and seek 
 pleasure. Pain, in a large way, is the educator of the 
 race. Thirdly, selfishness, ugly as it seems to most 
 minds, has always been and forever will be, one of 
 the propelling forces in progress. To exist is to be 
 selfish, since to exist is to deprive others of those 
 things which sustain and gratify individual existence. 
 Fourthly, the variant conceptions arising from the 
 mysterious and unknown realities lying behind all 
 natural phenomena. Through the ages they have 
 given rise to practices and customs, religious and 
 otherwise, which have had wide influence in control- 
 ling and shaping the conduct of individuals and 
 groups of individuals. Fifthly, intelligence, forever 
 expanding and exploiting, may account, and, to some 
 minds may fully account for the entire progress of 
 the race. In other words, enlightened selfishness, it 
 may be argued, embraces within the limit of its action 
 all that has been achieved by men. 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^ 
 
 The difficulty with this view is that it excludes, in 
 human affairs, the exercise of sacrifice and service 
 either for personal or general good. It eliminates 
 the everlasting question: Is it right! Enlightened 
 selfishness cannot explain the calmness with which 
 the Christian martyrs endured torture and surren- 
 dered life for death. It cannot explain the readiness 
 with which millions of men have sacrificed themselves 
 for a great principle. It cannot explain the innum- 
 erable instances of pain and suffering endured that 
 others might be free. Nor can it explain the unseen 
 sacrifices of parents and friends in behalf of the 
 weak and helpless. Nor can it explain the rise of 
 the arts and the development of the humanities. 
 Enlightened selfishness is well illustrated in the 
 growth of vast combinations, commercial and political, 
 which have spread want and misery broadcast and 
 demanded hecatombs of lives in order that they might 
 flourish. 
 
 It becomes necessary, therefore, to nominate that 
 capacity in man which presides over and more and 
 more directs and determines his every act. It is the 
 sixth of the forces which constitute civilization. It 
 is the moral faculty. It is the imperative interroga- 
 tory : Is it right ? 
 
 If, by some process, there could be extracted from 
 civilization the moral activities of men, there would 
 be an inevitable recession to aboriginal savagery. 
 
 What is the moral faculty? It is the ability to 
 distinguish between right and wrong and do the 
 right. What are right and wrong? Right is that 
 which produces happiness, pleasure and good. Wrong 
 
^ WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 is that which creates human misery and unhappiness. 
 Good, happiness, misery and unhappiness, are pal- 
 pable conditions. They are perceivable by unculti 
 vated as well as by cultivated minds. Hence it is 
 that there resides in the common consciousness of 
 mankind a sensitive appreciation of those conditions 
 which produce happiness and unhappiness, such for 
 instance, as peace and war. The institution of chattel 
 slavery is a suggestive illustration. Put it in the form 
 of a social equation. The wealth, power and intelli- 
 gence of the slave owners equalled the ignorance, 
 poverty, helplessness and inertia of millions of slaves. 
 A large section of our country rested upon the institu- 
 tion. Intelligent selfishness would seem to justify the 
 continuation of chattel slavery. But the general 
 consciousness of the nation saw and felt the vast and 
 detailed suffering consequent upon the existence of 
 the system. That general consciousness destroyed one 
 term of the equation by a great civil conflict. It was 
 a magnificent display of moral energy. The result 
 was an enormous step in human progress. 
 
 Put what is called commercial slavery in the form 
 of an equation. The power and intelligence of 
 organized wealth and business energy equals the 
 poverty, ignorance, helplessness and distress of the 
 world of labor. The spread of intelligence, which 
 distinguishes this age from all preceding ages, is 
 rapidly disturbing the latter term of the equation. 
 The common consciousness of man is thoroughly 
 sensitive to social conditions as they now exist. Labor, 
 whose back carries civilization, because of the spread 
 of intelligence, is devoting itself to the great task of 
 
"WooDRow Wllsoit's Eloquence "^ 
 
 improving social conditions throughout the world. 
 The dogma of intelligent selfishness would preserve 
 the equation stated. But the assertion of the moral 
 sense of mankind is as (Certain to disrupt the latter 
 term of the equation as it was inevitable that moral 
 sense would disrupt the institution of chattel slavery. 
 Civilization has slowly evolved a conscience. The 
 further evolution of that conscience is sure to mollify 
 civilization and ultimately produce a state of affairs 
 where efforts and objects will be to conserve the 
 health and energy and to secure the happiness of 
 every human being. It seems to follow irresistibly 
 that the innate qualitj^ of moral sense not only 
 explains progress, but necessitates an ever better 
 civilization and a more equitable social state. The 
 time will come when every laborer, business man, 
 politician and statesman will find himself concerned 
 with the moral question: Is it right? When that 
 state is reached civilization will have attained the 
 goal which an all-wise Providence seems to have set 
 as an objective of human existence. Morality will 
 then become the truth and the truth morality. 
 
 From this brief analysis arises a suggestion 
 pointing to the nature and function of real eloquence. 
 
 Supporting the conclusion to be drawn, another 
 view may be useful. Science and religion, and art 
 with its sub-divisions of music, architecture and liter- 
 ature, are the absorbing themes of research and 
 thought. Science is the leader and corrective of all 
 else, because it not only seeks the truth, but, if it be 
 science, must be and is the truth. To become scientific, 
 therefore, is to become truthful. Music, of all the 
 
8 WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 arts, is the most scientific, because it is founded on 
 mathematics. Its substance is harmony. Music is 
 eloquence, that form of eloquence which the mind 
 avails itseK of to express the inexpressible. Strangely 
 enough, as long as music is harmony, it is absolute 
 truth. The universal love of music, therefore, is an 
 amazing confirmation of the truth stated above. 
 
 Sculpture, painting and literature, carefully 
 looked at, disclose the same great reality. The nearer 
 they approximate the real, the more potential they 
 become. The evolution of these arts from their 
 original crudity to substantial perfection furnishes 
 more than a mere tendency in the mind to improve; 
 it conclusively shows that men are content with 
 nothing short of truth. Similarly with religion. From 
 the rudest fetishism, through the ages of polytheism, 
 and through periods of heartless persecution, cor- 
 rected by science and stimulated by the arts, it has 
 come to regard the Deity as a Being of mercy, com- 
 passion and love. It follows that the evolution of 
 science and the arts specified, not only explains the 
 progress of the race, but impressively shows that the 
 moral faculty alone accounts for the growth of 
 civilization. Thus the universal tendency in man to 
 seek and know the truth, as the most casual reflection 
 compels us to admit, shadows forth the nature of 
 eloquence and justifies the conclusion to be reached. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Eloquence 
 
 If one were asked to define science, religion, 
 architecture, painting and music, little difficulty 
 would be experienced in giving an intelligent and 
 quite precise answer. But if one were asked to define 
 eloquence, probably no two answers would exhibit the 
 same conception and all the answers would serve to 
 show, on the one hand, how inadequately the general 
 mind considers eloquence, and how, on the other 
 hand, it is regarded as a species of legerdemain ; an 
 art, the possession of which is desired by all men ; a 
 sort of utility sought after by every one ; a rare and 
 magical power possessed by few, coveted by all. 
 
 A few definitions, taken at random, will illustrate 
 the notion: 
 
 Webster's Dictionary: — "Eloquence is fluent, 
 forcible, elegant and persuasive speech in public ; the 
 power of expressing strong emotions in striking and 
 appropriate language. It ordinarily implies elevated 
 and forceful thought, well-chosen language, an easy 
 and effective utterance, and an impassioned manner. ' ' 
 
 Standard Dictionary: — "The power or act of 
 speaking or writing in language expressing strong 
 feeling, so as to move or convince ; lofty, impassioned 
 and fluent utterance. ' ' 
 
 Funk and Wagnalls: — "The quality of being 
 eloquent, or moving the mind; as the eloquence of 
 tears. ' ' 
 
 [ 9 ] 
 
^^ WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 Macaulay : — ' ' The hearts of men are their books ; 
 events are their tutors; great actions are their elo- 
 quence. ' ' 
 
 Campbell : — ' ' Song is but the eloquence of truth. ' ' 
 
 Daniel Webster: — "He is an orator that can 
 make me think as he thinks and feel as he feels." 
 
 Cicero : — "As the grace of man is in the mind, 
 so is the beauty of the mind in eloquence." 
 
 Rochefoucauld: — "There is as much eloquence 
 in the tone of the voice, in the eyes, and in the air of 
 a speaker as in his choice of words. ' ' 
 
 Daniel Webster: — "True eloquence does not 
 consist in speech. It cannot be brought from far. 
 Labor and learning may toil for it in vain. Words 
 and phrases may be marshalled in every way, but 
 thej'' cannot compass it. It must exist in the man, 
 in the subject and in the occasion." 
 
 These definitions, taken indiscriminately from 
 many, provoke two comments : First, if they are true, 
 eloquence as an art is mere entertainment ; secondly, 
 if they are true, eloquence is an art that cannot, like 
 other arts, forever tend toward the absolute truth. 
 While all other arts plainly approach, in their evolu- 
 tion, the absolute truth, the art of eloquence forever 
 lags behind and remains an indefinite and unscientific 
 means of entertainment. 
 
 Much confusion on the subject has also arisen 
 from the word eloquence itself. Its etymology, the 
 Latin verb loquor, seems to limit eloquence to vocal 
 
WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 
 
 utterance. This conception is too narrow, since it 
 would exclude writing, facial expression and action. 
 Therefore, to reason correctly about the matter, 
 eloquence must embrace voice, facial expression, 
 action, writing, and the mind, which finds its expres- 
 sion through these agencies. 
 
 The mind is a hidden and unseen force. It can 
 communicate itself only by speech, which is the use of 
 signs and symbols for the portraiture of mental 
 imagery and movement ; by actions, the unspoken 
 instruments of mental states ; by the expression of the 
 features, a division of action ; by the totality of 
 individual life, a combination of speech, action and 
 facial expression ; or by a species of indefinable 
 instinct by which one accurately infers the character, 
 purpose and mental state of another. There are no 
 other conceivable ways of disclosing that strange 
 power in man called mind. If, in the use of any or 
 all of these instrumentalities, there is dishonesty of 
 expression and immorality of purpose, the mind 
 cannot contribute to the sum total of human happi- 
 ness, but must necessarily, sooner or later, add to the 
 sum total of human unhappiness. It follows plainly, 
 therefore, that the ordinary conceptions of eloquence 
 are unsound. If, with the other arts, eloquence is to 
 forever tend to approximate, the truth, it must proceed 
 upon the same principles as underlie the evolution of 
 all progress. 
 
 Since eloquence, expression, whether by speech, 
 writing, or action, has for its necessary objects the 
 publi(?,ation of the mind, it must embrace, in its 
 broadest, most accurate and generic sense, every 
 
12 WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 agency of mental communication. It may be truth- 
 fully said, consequently, that eloquence is the queen 
 of the arts, the most majestic and imperious of them 
 all. In this sense of the term, it becomes quite evident 
 that civilization itself is the product of real eloquence. 
 
 Obviously there can be but one correct solution of 
 any problem. Eloquence, either by speech, writing, 
 or action must be the means by which the solution of 
 every problem is stated or known. This dogma 
 applies, not to science exclusively, but to all of the 
 arts. If the solution fails, there is error in the 
 premises and the resulting discomfort must be cor- 
 rected by a proper revision effected by irrefragable 
 reasoning based upon moral effort. 
 
 The ultimatum, consequently, is to state the 
 evolutionary principle of eloquence. The two greatest 
 pieces of eloquence in existence are The Lord's 
 Prayer and the Ten Commandments. They have 
 influenced and controlled millions of men. Why? 
 Because they express the truth so clearly that no one 
 can question them. They command immediate assent. 
 Ordinarily, they are not regarded as eloquence. We 
 know nothing, for instance, of the voice, action, or 
 manner of Christ, except as they may be inferred 
 from his words. But He was the most eloquent Being 
 that ever trod the earth. Why ? Because everything 
 He said and did added to human happiness and 
 lessened unhappiness. 
 
 If eloquence is fluent and persuasive speech in 
 public, what is to be said of millions of speeches on 
 the streets, in marts of trade, in homes, constituting 
 the daily life of the world? Each of them involves 
 
WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 
 
 effective and persuasive speech. What is to be said 
 of hundreds of thousands of daily acts of sacrifice 
 and aid ? What of men who lay down their lives for 
 a great cause? If eloquence is the power to make 
 one think and feel as another thinks and feels, what 
 if the orator, or actor, is absolutely wrong and is 
 thoroughly conscious of his error? It is now very 
 clear that the ordinary conceptions of eloquence may 
 reduce the art to mere pretense, because it may totally 
 lack the moral quality known as truth. 
 
 If the reasoning, already gone through, forces a 
 just mind to accept morality as the principle of 
 progress, as seems inevitable, we have reached a true 
 conception of eloquence. Since morality is the truth, 
 and, since all the arts manifestly tend towards the 
 truth, it follows, by logical necessity, that eloquence, 
 which, in its various modes of action, becomes the 
 chief of the arts, must have, as its eternal principle, 
 morality. And, since morality is obviously the truth 
 and the source of human happiness, the true nature 
 and function of eloquence is plainly discernible. 
 Eloquence is the power to state and act the manifest 
 truth. 
 
 I hold that morality is the substance of progress. 
 The millions of words and acts, which constitute the 
 recurring daily life of the world are an admixture of 
 good and bad motives. But the desire for happiness, 
 the growing conscience of the race, neutralizes the 
 malign and pernicious motives of individuals. This 
 generalization again explains progress and proves 
 that the moral faculty, which is eloquence, is the 
 cause of progress. It again proves the great law that 
 
1^ AVooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 real eloquence consists in one 's ability and purpose to 
 utter and act manifest truth, in the presence of which 
 fraud and chicanery slink away. 
 
 Consider the negative view. Manner cannot, in 
 itself, be eloquence. Beauty of language cannot of 
 itself be eloquence. Dignity and force cannot of 
 themselves constitute eloquence, nor can the occasion, 
 nor the subject, nor the man. These are mere inci- 
 dents. It is profound error to suppose, a conception 
 common to all time, that these accomplishments are 
 the substance of eloquence. It is a waste of time and 
 energy to contemplate eloquence in the light of these 
 attributes, and to undertake to achieve it by their use. 
 Entertainment is a fundamentally different thing 
 from eloquence. The first indispensable essential is 
 the correct solution of the problem about which one 
 undertakes to act or speak. If the solution is correct, 
 it must be accepted by all ; if incorrect, it must be 
 rejected by all. If the solution is correct, it commands 
 and dominates, because it is the truth. Manner or 
 style are of no consequence, except as they may render 
 the correct solution more attractive and beautiful. 
 If the speaker, writer or actor has not grasped or 
 stated the truth, his effort has failed; he has not 
 become eloquent. He may have entertained, but he 
 has not established the truth. He may have pleased, 
 by manner and style, but he has advanced not one 
 step. He has added not one thing to the totality 
 and beauty of truth, nothing to the sum of human 
 comfort and happiness. 
 
 Two illustrations emphasize the point. In the 
 days of Prof. Huxley, a brilliant American speaker, 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 
 
 at an important function, stirred his hearers to a 
 frenzy of excitement. After the applause subsided, 
 another American turned to the great British thinker 
 and said : ' ' Wasn 't that a wonderful speech ? What 
 do you think of it?" Prof. Huxley's reply was: 
 "What did he say?" His interrogator, after think- 
 ing, answered: "For the life of me, I can't tell." It 
 was entertainment; not eloquence. It was making a 
 farce of eloquence. It was the loss of a great oppor- 
 tunity to utter some truth, which the speaker's 
 hearers would have appropriated to their everlasting 
 benefit. 
 
 The second illustration is a message to the National 
 Army, uttered September 3, 1917 : 
 
 ' ' To the Soldiers of the National Army : You are 
 undertaking a great duty. The heart of the whole 
 country is with you. Everything that you do will 
 be watched with the deepest interest and with the 
 deepest solicitude, not only by those who are near 
 and dear to you, but by the whole nation besides.. 
 For this great war draws us all together, makes us. 
 all comrades and brothers, as all true Americans felt 
 themselves to be when we first made our national 
 independence. 
 
 ' ' The eyes of all the world will be on you, because 
 you are in some special sense the soldiers of freedom. 
 Let it be your pride, therefore, to show all men every- 
 where not only what good soldiers you are, but also 
 what good men you are, keeping yourselves fit and 
 straight in everything and pure and clean through 
 and through. 
 
1^ WooDRow Wn^sox's Eloquence 
 
 "Let us set for ourselves a standard so high that 
 it will be a glory to live up to it, and then let us live 
 up to it, and add a new laurel to the crown of 
 America. 
 
 "My affectionate confidence goes with you in every 
 battle and every test. God keep and guide you. 
 
 "WooDRow Wilson." 
 
 This message came from the Commander-in-Chief 
 of the Army and Navy of the United States. It is 
 not the speech of a soldier, but the prayer of a God- 
 fearing man. Its simplicity is its sincerity. Its 
 sublimity is its truthfullness. Its eloquence is its 
 morality. It voiced the moral sense of America, The 
 creation of the American army in a few months is the 
 wonder of history. Rich and poor, learned and 
 illiterate, as by a divine impulse, united their efforts 
 and regulated their lives in such a way as to make 
 them the most resistless organized power that ever 
 trod a battlefield. They were not mercenaries. They 
 were free men, bound, driven and controlled by a 
 moral purpose never witnessed in the course of civil- 
 ization. 
 
 This short speech is the very heart and soul of 
 the man I came to know so well. Events, momentous 
 in import, were crowding so rapidly one upon the 
 other, that this appeal escaped, in some measure, the 
 attention which it deserved. It would be interesting 
 to collate all the great addresses of the immortal 
 soldiers of history for comparison with this. Some 
 of them were strong in diction, some brilliant in 
 imagery, some powerful in appeal, but not one of 
 them breathes the morality found in every word of 
 
WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 
 
 this one. "Clean through and through" is a concept 
 never before uttered and enforced by a commander- 
 in-chief of a great military power. It was the living 
 truth prescribed as a measure of military conduct. 
 It explains the irrestibility of the American Army. 
 "All comrade? and brothers," without distinction in 
 purpose, object and effort, means a better civilization 
 because it is the moral faculty of the race lifting men 
 to higher things. It is eloquence. 
 
 These two illustrations will at once give rise to a 
 criticism. The universal notions of eloquence will 
 suggest the difference between a social occasion and 
 a war. It will be said that the one is serious and the 
 other a time for relaxation; that the one demands 
 sober thought, while the other calls for fun. This 
 may be freely conceded. But the answer to the 
 criticism is, first, that nothing entertains the mind 
 so much as truth ; secondly, that truth may wear the 
 garb of wit, irony, sarcasm and never loose the power 
 which the manifest truth always carries with it. 
 
 These two illustrations cover the whole ground. 
 They show how speech, writing, action and purpose 
 may range from buffoonery to eloquence; from 
 linguistic legerdemain to morality; from idle enter- 
 tainment to an exposition of the beauties of truth. 
 They show how easily the queen of the arts, eloquence, 
 may be degraded, and they show how it may be 
 utilized to lift the whole human family nearer to true 
 morality, nearer to the truth itself. They show more. 
 They show how eloquence, either by speech, writing, 
 action, or purpose has, through the ages, carried the 
 human family from its original savagery to the best 
 
^^ WooDRow AViLsox's Eloquence 
 
 and highest moral state yet attained by it. Indeed, 
 the beauty of all the arts is, in the final analysis, 
 nothing but eloquence itself. So that real eloquence 
 is the undefiled instrument of human progress. It 
 may be said to be the very essence of morality itself. 
 
 For many years I have been engaged in thousands 
 of legal controversies, and have appeared before 
 public audiences as a speaker many times. In school, 
 and out of school, I had been taught to believe that 
 eloquence had attained its object, if the point was 
 carried and applause won. But my views of eloquence 
 were revolutionized by the study of Woodrow Wilson 
 and his speeches. I learned that, just in proportion 
 as premises were sound and conclusions just, speech 
 and writing became resistless and eloquent. I learned 
 that manner, style, earnestness, true hand-maidens of 
 eloquence, were not eloquence. I learned that the 
 objective of all speech, writing and action was the 
 truth. Therefore, I saw that real eloquence was 
 limited by one's power, not to persuade or deceive, 
 but to make the truth so plain that all honest minds 
 at once assented to it. I saw, for the first time, that 
 the vast majority of human communications were 
 based upon truth, upon morality, and therefore, saw 
 with entire clearness that the moral faculty in man 
 was the resistless agent forever driving him to a 
 better civilization. How this view crystallized into 
 conviction, by association with "Woodrow Wilson, it is 
 my pleasure now briefly to detail. 
 
 I will not undertake to analyze his character, nor 
 make declarations concerning that in him which lies 
 behind his acts and words. It is one of the propen- 
 
WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 
 
 sities of the human animal to snarl at and defame 
 those, whom, for different reasons, we dislike ; to laud 
 and extol, those, whom, for various reasons, we like. 
 It is one of our useless pastimes. No man thoroughly 
 knows himself. Much less can he know another. It 
 is the very sublimity of impudence for one to assume 
 to publish that about another which is forever a 
 sealed book. Yet, how often we see men of parts and 
 of facility of expression engaged in an effort to tell 
 the world all about a fellow-being concerning whom 
 they know nothing aside from his words and acts. 
 Therefore, to arbitrarily affirm things relative to the 
 unknown essence of a human character, is not only 
 immoral, but the abasement of eloquence. It is using 
 speech, not to declare the truth, but to publish one's 
 own lack of truthful purpose. We see this every day 
 in the abuse of our neighbors and especially of public 
 men. The subsequent narrative will be limited to 
 facts as nearly as may be. 
 
 From one motive and another, from one cause and 
 another, the possession of genius, or even what is 
 called talent, may be denied Woodrow Wilson ; but 
 that he possesses tremendous force and has a far 
 reaching influence, that time will not lessen, can be 
 denied by no one. The nature of that force, as it 
 came to exercise itself on men's mind and conduct, is 
 what I am chiefly concerned with. It was a discussion 
 with Mr. Griffin of that power in him which ended in 
 my promise to reduce to writing the views herein 
 expressed. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 My First Meeting With Woodrow Wilson 
 
 My acquaintance with Woodrow Wilson, his re- 
 markably quick and accurate mentality, his resistless 
 moral energy, his wide range of knowledge, his 
 profound human sympathy, his fidelity to all the 
 relations of life, his companionable and genial nature, 
 his wit, humor and composure were seen by me under 
 unexpected circumstances. 
 
 My parents, in every detail of life, were controlled 
 by the necessities of poverty and the morality of 
 labor. Reared in such practical philosophy, prepara- 
 tory school days and college life harmonized perfectly 
 therewith. Therefore, the idealism of school days 
 caused me to face life with the belief that all men 
 were driven in their activities by the same lofty 
 convictions. Almost immediately it was discovered 
 that the principle of enlightened selfishness, stim- 
 ulated by downright dishonesty, was dividing men 
 into classes and engendering antagonisms, which 
 meant anything but the well-being of the community. 
 The result was that I found myself in sharp conflict 
 with accustomed methods. Democracy, it seemed to 
 me, because it fostered personal initiative and offered 
 every man a free voice in his government, should be 
 my political faith. 
 
 In New Jersey there flourished a bi-partisan 
 machine. It controlled the Legislature and its legis- 
 lation. The purpose of the legislation, in the main, 
 
 [ 20 ] 
 
"WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence ^i 
 
 was to promote the interests of a few men and corpor- 
 ations. Enormous sums of money were spent in 
 purchase of the elections. The common weal was 
 subordinated to illegitimate ends. In a small way, 
 in concert with men concerned more about the general 
 good than particular interests, for years I combatted 
 these conditions. Finally came the Gubernatorial 
 Convention of 1910. Politicians who sustained the 
 bi-partisan machine, and certain other men, stimu- 
 lated by vision and a measure of idealism, proposed 
 to make Woodrow Wilson Governor of New Jersey. 
 Events proved that the combination could not 
 harmonize. There were three elements in the prob- 
 lem: first, the ability and morality of the proposed 
 candidate ; second, the cunning and calculations of 
 the politicians ; and third, the vast inequality between 
 the capacities of the visionaries and idealists and 
 those of Dr. Wilson. Disruption was the inevitable 
 fate of the undertaking. 
 
 To me, however, the situation was one of shock 
 and utter detestation. Here was a scholar, untar- 
 nished by practical politics, the head of a geat 
 university, putting himself in the power of men who 
 intended and expected to use him in the furtherance 
 of their dreams and schemes. The idealism of a 
 national seat of learning, it seemed to me, was to be 
 degraded and polluted by contact with the worst 
 political practices in the State of New Jersey. While 
 discouraged, the very enormity of the offense com- 
 pelled me to use every ounce of my power to help 
 defeat a scheme apparently damnable. For that 
 purpose I became one of the delegates to the conven- 
 
" WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 tion at Trenton. A strong sentiment of insurgency 
 had developed throughout the State against prevail- 
 ing political conditions. Consequently unusual efforts 
 were made to defeat the nomination of Woodrow 
 Wilson. 
 
 In the convention of 1907, Frank S. Katzenbach, 
 a lawyer of spotless fame and exalted notions of public 
 duty, had been nominated by the Democratic party. 
 In the general election he had polled 186,300 votes, 
 8,000 less than his opponent, John Franklin Fort. 
 It was thought by the friends of reform that he 
 should again be nominated. The honor was afforded 
 me to place his name before the convention. The 
 day was hot. Feeling ran intense and deep. 
 
 After setting forth conditions in the State and 
 the undoubted qualifications of Mr. Katzenbach, I 
 made an attack upon Woodrow Wilson and the 
 powers supporting him that produced an effect never 
 to be forgotten by those who were there. The nom- 
 ination of Woodrow Wilson had been pre-determined 
 to a nicety by political bosses, but the immorality of 
 the situation was so exposed as to throw the conven- 
 tion into a state of almost uncontrollable frenzy. The 
 supporters of Woodrow Wilson were in a state of 
 panic. Men were on their feet shaking their fists and 
 howling like mad. The storm of protest threatened 
 to carry everything before it. The insurgents were 
 jubilant and confident of victory. It was the happiest 
 day of my life because it seemed certain that the 
 good influences of the State were to come into control 
 of its affairs. Yet, when the vote was counted, it was 
 found that the work of the experienced machine had 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 
 
 withstood the attack. Woodrow Wilson had been 
 nominated by a small majority. Delegates who had 
 pledged themselves to vote against him had been won 
 over by methods familiar to the politicians. Sore at 
 heart, I left the convention hall and went to the 
 railway station to get away as soon as possible from 
 a place where, as it seemed clear to me, political 
 morality had been outraged. 
 
 Meantime, the successful candidate had been sent 
 for to address the convention. My brother William, 
 who was also a delegate, remained to hear Woodrow 
 Wilson, i was still at the station, when my brother 
 came with a grave face, and putting his hand on my 
 shoulder, said, "John, we may be wrong about that 
 man. He made a great speech. It was amazingly 
 candid and forceful, exactly in line with your views 
 and those of every real reformer in the State. Let 
 me read you his concluding paragraphs." And he 
 thereupon read to me from the evening paper: 
 "America is not distinguished so much by its might 
 and material power as by the fact that it was born 
 with an ideal — a purpose to serve mankind. And all 
 mankind has sought her as a haven of equal justice. 
 When I look upon the American flag before me, I 
 sometimes think that it is made of parchment and of 
 blood. The white in it stands for purity, the red in 
 it signifies blood-parchments on which is written the 
 rights of mankind, and blood that was spilled in 
 order that those rights might be perpetuated. Let 
 us dedicate the Democratic party to the recovery of 
 those rights. " 
 
-"* WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 On our way home I eagerly read and studied all 
 that Dr. Wilson had uttered in that memorable 
 acceptance and soon thereafter an interview was 
 effected with him. Knowing well the power and 
 purpose of the men who secured his nomination, I 
 was still suspicious and doubtful. I took with me to 
 the interview in Princeton, a very capable intellectual 
 bodyguard, Ralph W. E. Donges, Esq., whom Gov- 
 ernor "Wilson afterwards made President of the 
 Public Utilities Commission of New Jersey, and who 
 subsequently entered the National Army to render 
 cognate service during the war. 
 
 This was the first time I had seen the man whom 
 I now regard as one of the greatest personalities of 
 history. My first impressions of Dr. Wilson were not 
 free of doubt, for the reason that I still regarded it 
 as quite impossible that one whose nomination for a 
 great office had been accomplished by men and 
 methods such as I had denounced in the convention, 
 could be a thoroughly good man, with great vision, 
 uncompromising patriotism and an impregnable pur- 
 pose to serve his countrymen. But I saw a frank 
 character, open, alert, and very gifted. I at once 
 observed an irreconcilable incongruity between the 
 man and machine politics. 
 
 The first topic of conversation was the nature and 
 character of my assault upon him in the convention. 
 With such fairness and truthfulness as limited facul- 
 ties would permit, the reasons for my course were 
 fully stated. Without criticism of my conduct, but 
 with an implied justification of it. Dr. Wilson gave a 
 full and chronological account of all the circum- 
 
WooDKow Wilson's Eloquence ^5 
 
 stances, involving persons and conversations, which 
 led to his willingness to accept the leadership of the 
 Democratic party in New Jersey. Self-respect 
 required me, therefore, to state that, upon the assump- 
 tion that his narrative of events was correct, I was 
 not only in error in my views about him and his 
 nomination, but that there remained an obligation on 
 my part to him and to the public to correct my error. 
 When subsequent investigation convinced me that my 
 judgment, because of lack of knowledge of the facts, 
 had been wrong, I made my retraction as positive and 
 extensive as were my opportunities to do so. 
 
 Dr. Wilson disclosed on this occasion his entire 
 political philosophy by this statement : 
 
 "Of practical politics I know nothing, but I do 
 know that deep in the heart of every man there is a 
 desire to do what is right, and I will have, if I do 
 what is right, the support of every patriotic and good 
 citizen." The great events that followed in the 
 immediate history of the State and country, revealed 
 to the full the astounding morality and righteousness 
 of the man who spoke. A brief discussion of political 
 conditions and affairs in New Jersey followed. My 
 gratification to find that Dr. Wilson was sensitively 
 alive to the needs of the State was without limit. 
 
 Of the more human aspects of the interview 
 nothing impressed me so much as the conciseness 
 and fairness of Dr. Wilson, unless, perhaps it was 
 his wit, which was as spontaneous and prolific as a 
 gushing fountain. Before leaving I said to him: 
 "Whether I support you in the coming campaign 
 will depend upon investigations which I propose to 
 
2S WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 make. If I conclude to help you, and you are success- 
 ful, let it be understood and never forgotten that 
 there will be no office within your gift which I would 
 be even tempted to accept." We were standing at 
 the time. Dr. Wilson grasped my hand, and with that 
 marvelous gaze, so characteristic of him, said, "I like 
 that. Good-bye." This ended my first interview 
 with a man destined to become the commanding 
 figure of the world. It can well be imagined with 
 what perplexity of mind, concerning the possibilities 
 of the campaign to come, I left the home of Woodrow 
 Wilson in Princeton. 
 
 Having verified the essentials and many of the 
 details of Dr. Wilson's statements, I gladly threw 
 into his campaign all the zeal, energy and intelligence 
 at my command. And what a campaign ! The State 
 was overwhelmingly Republican in its vote. The two 
 political machines had taken it for granted that the 
 Democratic candidate, if elected, would be a facile 
 instrument in doing their bidding, while the same 
 assumption was indulged in with reference to his 
 adversary. Dr. Wilson, in a series of plain and 
 powerful speeches, showed the need of, and promised, 
 first, the reformation of the finances of the State; 
 second, a divorce between the agents of special 
 interests and the State House ; third, the purification 
 of the elections ; and fourth, the formation of a legis- 
 lative program having for its object exclusively the 
 public benefit. It soon became apparent, that the 
 Democratic candidate was not only a free agent, but 
 splendid in his determination to put the politics of the 
 State on an exalted and moral plane. The machine 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^'^ 
 
 men saw their danger and brought to bear every 
 means of strategy, good and corrupt, to defeat his 
 election. The Democratic campaign became literally 
 evangelical. It took on a fervor never before known 
 in the State. It became a contagion, resistless and 
 universal. The result was that Dr. Wilson was elected 
 by a tremendous majority. 
 
 During the campaign I obtained more accurate 
 and comprehensive views of the mentality and pur- 
 pose of this political crusader. His versatility in 
 dealing with a few fundamental propositions was 
 phenomenal. The illustrations used by the speaker 
 were from all conditions, all ages and all philosophies. 
 Humor and wit, constantly restrained, were as pure 
 and unsullied as the mind that projected them. The 
 marvel was that all audiences, either in cities or rural 
 districts, whether composed in the main of thoughtful 
 and cultivated people, or by men whose fingers were 
 bent by toil and faces seamed by care and poverty, 
 were in instant and zealous rapport with him. 
 Harangue was invariably absent. There was no 
 strain for effect; nor was there any evidence of a 
 desire to win a personal triumph. Purity of diction, 
 logical order, clearness and simplicity of statement 
 were to me the features of the most remarkable series 
 of speeches I had ever heard uttered. From ths 
 endeavor to explain satisfactorily to myself this rare 
 exhibition of power, I at length appreciated the 
 truth of the statement made bj^ Dr. Wilson to me in 
 the interview at Princeton. Further study disclosed 
 the fact that his every speech was distinctly moral. 
 It also appeared that here was man seeking, acting 
 
^^ WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 and stating the truth. It finally became apparent 
 that it was the impressive morality of his speeches 
 and their obvious truth which so easily caught, dom- 
 inated and convinced all minds. Here was the 
 solution of the riddle of his success and here was 
 discovered the secret of real eloquence, my reflections 
 upon which, originally stated to Mr. Griffin, have 
 resulted in this discussion. I became convinced that 
 no trick of language, brilliant sophistry, or impas- 
 sioned manner could achieve great results in the 
 domain of eloquence, unless the speaker had the truth, 
 supported bj'^ resistless moral energy. In that case 
 alone, I believe, can oratory, or eloquence, fully per- 
 form its function. 
 
 Always, finally, when I have reflected on these 
 and subsequent events, and have asked myself : What 
 is this strange man, what his power and what his 
 eloquence ? The answer has resolved itself to this : He 
 is the impersonation of moral energy and righteous- 
 ness. If the spiritual theory of civilization is correct, 
 then clearly this man is preeminently an instrumen- 
 tality of Providence leading the human family from 
 a state of selfish calculation, supported by force, to 
 a condition where every man is confronted with the 
 supreme interrogatory: Is it right? — to a condition 
 of determination to do as nearly right as is prac- 
 tically possible — to a condition of sacrifice and com- 
 promise, where the object of men is to achieve the 
 greatest good for the greatest number, to augment 
 happiness and diminish suffering. 
 
 For this is his power. While it has made him 
 the central point of assault by the reactionary and 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 29 
 
 selfish interests of men, it explains why he has never 
 deviated from a moral course, knowing that morality 
 amongst men is right. It has been said that he was 
 the most stubborn of men. An intimate personal 
 knowledge of his character refutes this charge. He 
 can change his mind and purpose more easily than 
 any man I know, provided one can show him that he 
 is morally wrong. On the other hand, once he is con- 
 vinced that he is morally right, it becomes impossible 
 to move him by any art, persuasion or consideration. 
 I know of no man in whose presence one may feel 
 more comfortable, or more uncomfortable. If you are 
 right, candid and moral in your purposes, it is a 
 delight and inspiration to come into the presence of 
 this repository of moral potency. If you are wrong, 
 if your purpose is one of selfishness and calculation, 
 the very gaze of the man causes the utmost discom- 
 fiture. 
 
 This quality of character largely, if not entirely, 
 explains the declination of some politicians to meet 
 him and the uncompromising hostility of some of 
 those who have met him. His strength is his obvious 
 righteousness. The individual feels it; the world 
 knows it. Hence he is the commanding figure of the 
 age, palpably designed to help his fellow creatures 
 attain a higher and better civilization by the exercise 
 of their moral faculties. 
 
 And this, likewise, is the quality of his eloquence. 
 It is not the use of facile and apt expression. It is 
 not the legerdemain of language, concealing thought 
 and distorting truth. It is neither gesture nor words. 
 
^^ AVooDROw AVilson's Eloquence 
 
 It is not arrangement nor sophistry. It is moral pur- 
 pose and a consuming desire to be right and to state 
 and act the truth. This is the secret of real eloquence. 
 And this is Woodrow Wilson 's eloquence. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 His Governorship 
 
 As Governor Wilson began his new work, tlie 
 politicians, who had sought and predicted his defeat, 
 still called him a "Schoolmaster" and not infre- 
 quently declared that when they got him to Trenton, 
 they would run away with the inexperienced peda- 
 gogue and have their own fun with him. He was 
 confronted with a hostile Legislature, of a differing 
 political faith and purpose. There were brought to 
 bear upon that Legislature the same methods and 
 forces that Dr. Wilson had used in his campaign. 
 Before clear, direct, moral and truthful argument, 
 legislative opposition gradually yielded and melted 
 awaj''. In Governor Wilson's efforts to realize the 
 promises he had made to the people he was tremen- 
 dously aided and reinforced by the moral rebound 
 of his remarkable campaign. The people of the State, 
 at least for the time being, had been led to accept and 
 believe in the ideals of this gifted and good man and 
 they made themselves felt in the Legislature. The 
 consequence was that he wrote a series of statutes 
 which put New Jersey far in advance of her sister 
 States. He drove corporations out of politics and 
 caused them to do a legitimate business. He put the 
 finances of the State upon a sound and healthy basis. 
 He purified elections and substantially stopped the 
 use of money in controlling votes. He impregnated 
 the electorate with a moral purpose and a sense of 
 [ 31 ] 
 
22 WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 profound responsibility. He made New Jersey clean. 
 His work was tantamount to a moral revolution. 
 Certainly he effected a political revolution. A 
 moralist of grandeur, he became the most practical 
 of all the Governors in the United States. His moral 
 fidelity was carried into every relationship ; personal, 
 social and public. His campaign and his work at 
 Trenton began to attract the attention of the entire 
 country. 
 
 Two incidents, because of their importance in 
 disclosing the personality and eloquence of this 
 Governor of New Jersey, should be here set down. 
 While touring the county of Cape May on a Saturday 
 evening, he spoke in the Town Hall, at Cape May 
 City, then went to Cape May Court House for his 
 second speech of the evening, then to Wildwood, 
 where his third speech was made. He had indulged 
 besides in several arguments during the day to 
 crowds of people. He was obliged to return to Cape 
 -May City from Wildwood and got there about one 
 o'clock Sunday morning in a state of obvious ex- 
 haustion. I said to him: "Dr. Wilson, you'd better 
 retire and get some rest." To which he replied: "I 
 will recuperate by having some fun with you boys." 
 There were about thirty of us present. He began by 
 telling a side-splitting story. The ensuing laughter 
 was joined in by himself very heartily. This story 
 was followed by some twenty more, derived from all 
 conditions, classes and times. His mastery of dialects 
 and brogue was perfect. To anyone in an adjoining 
 room it would have been quite impossible not to 
 believe that a real Irishman, German or other 
 
WooDROW Wilson's Eloquence ^ 
 
 national type was not talking. It was perhaps three 
 o'clock when the party separated. Everyone was 
 astonished at the candidate's phenomenal talent in 
 story telling. But what impressed me most was his 
 complete recovery from weariness. He seemed to be 
 refreshed as by a sound sleep. I reflected upon his 
 statement: "I will recuperate by having some fun 
 with you boys ! ' ' 
 
 The other incident occurred at the beginning of 
 his second campaign for the presidency. During a 
 dinner to President Wilson at the Waldorf-Astoria, 
 I carried on with Dr. Grayson, his personal physician, 
 a long discussion concerning the physical powers of 
 President Wilson. Dr. Grayson gave me the details 
 of a typical day's work. I said, "How is it possible 
 for him, day in and day out, to do such an enormous 
 amount of work and not break down?" To which 
 Dr. Grayson at once replied: "It is his sense of 
 humor; he recuperates upon the food of fun." 
 Fortunate is the man who possesses so rare and useful 
 a gift. It saves his breaking under a load of labor 
 and responsibility. I have always believed in the 
 medicinal value of fun and cheerfulness, but never 
 before saw it so triumphantly asserted. It is gener- 
 ally supposed that President Wilson is an austere 
 personage and so practical as to be out of touch 
 with common humanity. Afterwards, an occasion 
 permitted me to comment to the President upon the 
 infrequency in his public speeches of apt stories, to 
 which he answered: "I am constantly tempted to 
 use them, but fear that they might afford the impres- 
 sion of flippancy." He loves to make puns, some- 
 
-^■^ AVooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 times termed the lowest form of wit, but in many- 
 conversations with him, both as Governor and Presi- 
 dent, his spirit of fun and intellectual playfulness, 
 while very pronounced, have never left the impres- 
 sion that his humor was anything less than sound 
 philosophy, good sense, and perfectly clean morality. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 His Further Progress 
 
 There always have been and always will be two 
 theories explanatory of civilization ; one spiritual, 
 the other material. Either theory may properly 
 embrace what has already been said concerning the 
 moral faculty in the progress of the race. For my 
 purpose it is unimportant which theory may be 
 accepted. But it is difficult to explain the fact that 
 every great crisis in human history produces a 
 commanding leader. In the case of President Wilson 
 the problem is all the more perplexing. For the first 
 time in American History there arose, from a seat of 
 learning, a character not only relatively unknown, 
 but unschooled in the art of politics. Woodrow 
 Wilson was without political experience and training, 
 and unassociated with politicians. He had drunk 
 deep at the fountain of learning, had written a his- 
 tory of his country, and somewhat upon the theory of 
 our government. It was thought by certain designf ul 
 men that his talents and prestige might be utilized to 
 further their schemes and purposes. Convinced, as I 
 first was, that the movement was nefarious, I hap- 
 pened to come very near to defeating it. Considering 
 what followed and what is going on in the world at 
 the present hour, one can well imagine how often I 
 have asked myself what the consequences might have 
 been had that opposition to his rise been successful. 
 The query is not an idle one when it is suggested 
 [ 35 ] 
 
o(y WoouKovv^ Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 whether a Divine Providence was not preparing, 
 under such unusual circumstances, to meet the future 
 of our beloved country by the production of this 
 remarkable character. 
 
 This query loses none of its interest when we pass 
 to the next step in the work of President Wilson. The 
 moral energy of the man, together with his practical 
 achievements, had arrested the attention of the 
 observing minds of every State in the Union. It was 
 as if some great moral compulsion were already 
 moving the American people, as if Providence were 
 compelling them to prepare for events that few men, 
 if any, imagined could be possible. 
 
 The historic Baltimore Convention of 1912 was 
 destined to emphasize the query stated. The conven- 
 tion lasted from the 25th of June to the 2nd of July. 
 It was probably the most remarkable and momentous 
 ever held, since, within its unseen potentialities, re- 
 sided a moral force, which, in the near future, was 
 to direct and largely control the fate of the world, 
 the civilization of mankind. 
 
 I will not speak of the incidents of the convention, 
 but rather of its meaning. Probably no convention 
 ever conducted its affairs upon a loftier or purer 
 basis. While argument, appeal and political ma- 
 noeuver were driven hy an intensity and zeal seldom 
 witnessed, there was not even a suggestion of unfair- 
 ness or trickery from the beginning to the end of 
 its memorable days. It was generally conceded, 
 before the balloting began, that the successful candi- 
 date would be the Hon. Champ Clark, Speaker of the 
 House of Representatives, or else Woodrow Wilson, 
 
WooDRow Wilson ^s Eloquence ^ 
 
 the meteoric Governor of New Jersey. The first ballot 
 gave Speaker Clark four hundred forty, and Gov- 
 ernor Wilson, three hundred twenty-four votes, the 
 other votes being scattered among various other can- 
 didates. 
 
 According to universal experience, the first ballot 
 meant the nomination of Mr. Clark. As the balloting 
 proceeded, he gained, but so did Governor Wilson. 
 Still, Clark's lead was so pronounced that there 
 seemed to be no doubt about his ultimate success. Yet, 
 on the forty-sixth ballot Governor Wilson won the 
 nomination. Again, therefore, I put the query : How 
 explain the rise of the man whose course transcended 
 all precedent? 
 
 Governor Wilson made no bargains, nor appeals 
 with a view of advancing his interests in the conven- 
 tion. A profound moralist, he had an impregnable 
 faith in an overruling Providence. His Christianity 
 was as unpretentious as it was real. Therefore, 
 preceding and during the convention he kept his 
 hands off, and to some of his friends, seemed passive 
 to the extent of indifference itself. He believed that 
 the right thing would happen. His trust in an all- 
 wise Being was as impressive as his belief in the 
 ultimate triumph of righteousness in human affairs. 
 
 The members of the convention who espoused 
 Governor Wilson's cause were of a faith similar to 
 his own. They had studied the problems of the 
 times. They had come to believe that the country 
 was drifting to a crisis, which required for its 
 direction the genius and character already proclaimed 
 in the public acts of New Jersey's Governor. Con- 
 
•''' WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 sequently, they were not only impervious to the 
 pleadings and manceuvers of opposing candidates, 
 but were also as determined as the Christian martyrs 
 of old. Nothing could disturb their faith in the man 
 or their sense of duty to the public. They were held 
 by a great moral conviction. They were very like 
 those brave spirits who attacked the institution of 
 slavery. They had the zeal and purpose of the 
 Crusaders. They argued as if the fate of their 
 country depended upon the outcome of the conven- 
 tion. It would not have been possible, by any 
 conceivable influence, to break the ranks of the 
 Wilsonian phalanxes. This phenomenon never before 
 appeared, so far as I know, in a political convention. 
 It was a moral fact that could neither be resisted, 
 nor circumvented. It was the rock of righteousness 
 on which all selfish, personal hopes and ambitions 
 were to break. 
 
 Besides this, the thousands of visitors who poured 
 daily and nightly into the great convention hall were 
 caught in a sort of moral contagion, which thundered 
 the cause and purpose of the "Wilson movement. It 
 was an adjunct of almost resistless potentiality and 
 slowly affected the convention itself. Never before 
 had outsiders exerted such an influence on the out- 
 come of a convention, nor could it be credited, unless 
 witnessed. It was like the heat of a great conflagra- 
 tion, which mortal man could not escape noticing and 
 feeling. Besides this, after the convention had settled 
 with great intensity to its work, and it became, 
 apparent that a mighty conflict was raging therein, an 
 anxious and onlooking country began to direct its 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^9 
 
 influence upon the delegates through innumerable 
 telegrams, urging the nomination of Governor Wilson, 
 It was one of the unseen and unrecorded but most 
 potential influences that shaped and determined the 
 work of the convention. 
 
 Some weeks before the convention assembled, I 
 had made an extensive tour of the Middle West for 
 the purpose of determining how deeply and widely 
 the character and work of Governor Wilson had taken 
 hold of men 's minds. It was evident that the best men 
 of that region thought and felt identically as the 
 delegates did, who cast their first ballot for Woodrow 
 Wilson. It was that state of conviction throughout 
 the country which finally voiced the telegrams, which, 
 I think, nominated him. The fate of the other can- 
 didates depended upon the usual political methods. 
 But Governor Wilson's candidacy depended upon 
 influences that never before entered a political con- 
 vention. A species of instinct, which men were 
 conscious of, but could not understand, was in the 
 very air and was slowly disintegrating all previously 
 laid plans and arrangements. It was the moral force 
 of this strange character that appeared so unaccount- 
 ably in American thought. It finally forced opposing 
 delegates to yield until they themselves became help- 
 less before a power which could not be resisted. So 
 in that contradiction of all precedents and experience 
 the politically impossible happened. It was a display 
 of moral energy that one finds hard to explain unless 
 he turns to a Wisdom that is not of man. 
 
 The campaign which followed is equally unex- 
 plainable by the usual methods and means employed 
 
*^ WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 in the conduct of a great struggle. In no other 
 country of the world are political bias and prejudice 
 so intense and uncompromising as in America. It is 
 the marvel of our national life. It was this very 
 fact, however, that elected President Wilson. A 
 quarrel, due more to political bias than to the dom- 
 ination of any great idea in the opposing parties, a 
 quarrel without sense or justification, made President 
 Wilson's election a certainty. Clearly this was not 
 human design. Folly and political zeal were at grips 
 for a purpose not intended by men. Nor can the 
 situation be attributed to accident. There were forces 
 underlying and guiding it which were as moral as 
 they were resistless. The outcome, when the factors 
 involved are studied, almost compels the belief that 
 Providence was preparing the way for what was 
 soon to come. 
 
 The situation with which the President dealt 
 during his first term was almost entirely internal. 
 The financial side of the problem was settled and 
 American finances placed in an impregnable position. 
 The other side of the problem, social justice, was 
 postponed by the breaking out of the great European 
 war. It is now upon us in a state of almost unsur- 
 mountable difficulty. 
 
 What is that phase of the problem? First, the 
 world as a whole had produced an astounding 
 measure of wealth and creature comforts. Secondly, 
 the schoolhouse and printing press had completely 
 and profoundly changed the common apprehension 
 of labor, which, guided by a high degree of intelligent 
 organization on the part of capital, had produced 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 
 
 that wealth. Very able men availed themselves of 
 the legal and commercial means of controlling and 
 securing an illegitimate and undue proportion of the 
 world's wealth. The situation involved a huge im- 
 morality, which the general enlightenment of man- 
 kind could not and would not sanction. It was a 
 moral evolution not to be dealt with by the methods 
 of centuries gone. 
 
 The margin between universal devastation and 
 universal life is appallingly narrow. It is as thin as 
 the productive soil of the earth. Few men grasp the 
 full force of this fact. The human family subsists 
 upon what is produced day by day. The farmer 
 feeds the world. Even those who go down to the sea 
 and return with food, before they go, and until they 
 return, must be sustained by the farmer. If food 
 production were suspended for three months, the 
 human race would disappear. Distribution of food 
 products is equally important. If distribution of 
 food were stopped for one month, the human family 
 would be in a state of helpless, uncontrollable law- 
 lessness in its struggle to secure subsistence. Wealth 
 would lose its meaning. Poverty would destroy all 
 government and men would become howling beasts 
 of prey. But the farmer cannot produce without the 
 implements of production. Therefore, as all men 
 depend upon the farmer, so he does and must, depend 
 upon all men. Inter-dependence, it is feared, is too 
 little appreciated. The man of means seldom realizes 
 how his very existence depends upon those who toil. 
 On the other hand, the fundamental defect of social- 
 ism is that while it attempts to equalize the products 
 
^2 WooDBow "Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 of labor, it fails to consider the impossibility of equal- 
 izing the talents and capacities of men. Inventors, 
 organizers, discoverers, scholars, speculative thinkers, 
 doctors, lawyers, teachers, are just as indispensable 
 to the evolution of civilization as the man with the 
 hoe The view that the man with the hoe is unimpor- 
 tant is a desperate immorality. The view that the 
 organizer is unimportant is equally immoral. The 
 view that one should not be rewarded more than the 
 other is likewise wrong. And those processes by 
 which the cunning acquire more than they earn are 
 wrong and immoral. Combinations of producers, 
 which undertake to compel more than just compen- 
 sation are manifestly in error and engaged in an 
 immoral undertaking, because they are resorting to 
 the aboriginal methods of violence. The gravity of 
 'their mistake, as a practical step, lies in the circum- 
 stance that they lessen production. If the problem 
 of social justice is to be worked out by force, not only 
 is civilization a myth, but human happiness an im- 
 possibility. The solution of the problem is a moral 
 one. jMen are capable of reasoned argument. They 
 are capable of seeing the right thing and they are 
 equally capable of doing the right thing. Those who 
 produce can well afford to rely upon the imperative 
 morality of their needs and demands. The moral 
 faculty in the race will ultimately adjust what is 
 unjust. The moral sense in man is vastly more 
 powerful than the instinct of selfishness. 
 
 I add that social justice is the immediate problem 
 of the whole. world, made so by the war just ended. 
 America's part in the solution of that problem has 
 
WooDKow Wilson's Eloquence *^ 
 
 widened by the war and embraces the world. Thus, 
 the present state of affairs appears to be the final 
 test of the moral faculty in civilization. Either the 
 principle of unreasoning force must prevail, or the 
 flexible power of living Christianity must prevail. 
 The balance wheel of the world's practical morality 
 is President Wilson. The principles of justice and 
 morality, as expounded and enforced by him, will 
 prevail and the evolution of human progress will 
 continue to be guided by man's moral faculty. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Instances of His Eloquence 
 
 It is to be regretted that, under the circumstances, 
 one or two of his gubernatorial speeches can not be 
 produced. Despite their clarity and cogency of 
 reasoning, the most conspicuous characteristic of 
 those speeches was the moral basis on which all of 
 his arguments rested. From his college days to the 
 present hour, there cannot be found, in his numerous 
 utterances and acts, a single instance where moral 
 purpose and an effort to state the truth are absent. 
 On the contrary, from the beginning to the end, a 
 consuming earnestness to get the truth and publish 
 it is the patent and impressive fact in the life of 
 this remarkable man. I know of no other person in 
 political history of whom I can make this declaration 
 with entire confidence. 
 
 I must content myself with citing two instances 
 only. The first is a quotation from his inaugural 
 address, delivered March 4, 1913 : 
 
 "The Nation has been deeply stirred, stirred by 
 a solemn passion, stirred by the knowledge of wrong, 
 of ideals lost, of government too often debauched and 
 made an instrument of evil. The feelings with which 
 we face this new age of right and opportunity sweep 
 across our heart-strings like some air out of God's 
 own presence, where justice and mercy are reconciled 
 and the judge and the brother are one. We know 
 [ 44 ] 
 
WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence ^5 
 
 our task is to be no mere task of politics but a task 
 which will search us through and through, whether 
 we are able to understand our time and the need of 
 our people, whether we be indeed their spokesmen 
 and interpreters, whether we have the pure heart to 
 comprehend and the rectified will to choose our high 
 course of action. 
 
 "This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of 
 dedication. Here muster, not the forces of party, but 
 the forces of humanity. Men 's hearts wait upon us ; 
 men's lives hang in the balance; men's hopes call 
 upon us to say what we will do. Who shall live up 
 to the great trust? Who dares fail to try? I sum- 
 mon all honest men, all patriotic, all forward-looking 
 men to my side. God helping me, I will not fail them, 
 if they will but coimsel and sustain me." 
 
 This declaration reveals the inmost nature and 
 morality of President Wilson. In inaugural speeches 
 there is, of course, always an effort to state things in 
 strong and appealing terms. But, for the most part, 
 such speeches are not a revelation of the real man 
 who utters them. In this case it was. If it were 
 possible to feel, touch and measure the very soul of 
 mortal man, it would be agreed that this quotation is 
 the actual vivid and living Woodrow Wilson. Nor 
 has his participation in past momentous events, and 
 in those of present occurrence, shown the slightest 
 deviation from the commanding morality of this 
 incomparable statement. 
 
4^ AVooDEow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 The second selection is from his address to Con- 
 gress on the 8th of January, 1918, containing the 
 celebrated fourteen points: 
 
 1. "Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, 
 after which there will be no private international 
 understandings of any kind, but diplomacy shall 
 proceed always frankly and in the public view, 
 
 2. "Absolute freedom of navigation upon the 
 seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in 
 war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in 
 part by international action for the enforcement of 
 international covenants. 
 
 3. ' ' The removal, as far as possible, of all economic 
 barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade 
 conditions among all the nations consenting to the 
 peace and associating themselves for its maintenance. 
 
 4. "Adequate guarantees given and taken that 
 national armaments will be reduced to the lowest 
 points consistent with domestic safety. 
 
 5. "A free, open minded, and absolutely impartial 
 adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon the 
 strict observance of the principle that in determining 
 all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the 
 populations concerned must have equal weight with 
 the equitable claims of the government whose title 
 is to be determined. 
 
 6. "The evacuation of all Russian territory and 
 such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as 
 will secure the best and freest co-operation of the 
 
WooDEow Wilson's Eloquence ^"^ 
 
 other nations of the world in obtaining for her an 
 unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the 
 independent determination of her own political 
 development and national policy and assure her of 
 a sincere welcome into the society of free nations 
 under institutions of her own choosing; and, more 
 than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that 
 she may need and may herself desire. The treatment 
 accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months 
 to come will be the acid test of their good will, of 
 their comprehension of her needs as distinguished 
 from their own interests, and of their intelligent and 
 unselfish sympathy. 
 
 7. "Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be 
 evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit 
 the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all 
 other free nations. No other single act will serve, 
 as this will serve, to restore confidence among the 
 nations in the laws which they have themselves set 
 and determined for the government of their relations 
 with one another. Without this healing act the whole 
 structure and validity of international law is forever 
 impaired. 
 
 8. "All French territory should be freed and the 
 invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to 
 France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace- 
 Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world 
 for nearly fifty years, should be righted in order that 
 peace may once more be made secure in the interest 
 of all. 
 
4^ WooDKow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 9. ''A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy 
 should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of 
 nationality. 
 
 10. "The peoples of Austria-Himgary, whose 
 place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded 
 and assured, should be accorded the freest oppor- 
 tunity of autonomous development. 
 
 11. "Rumania, Serbia and Montenegro should be 
 evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia ac- 
 corded free and secure access to the sea; and the 
 relations of the several Balkan States to one another 
 determined by friendly counsel along historically 
 established lines of allegiance and nationality; and 
 international guarantees of the political and economic 
 independence and territorial integrity of the several 
 Balkan States should be entered into. 
 
 12. "The Turkish portions of the present Otto- 
 man Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, 
 but the other nationalities which are now under 
 Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security 
 of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of 
 autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should 
 be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships 
 and commerce of all nations under international 
 guarantees. 
 
 13. "An independent Polish state should be 
 erected which would include the territories inhabited 
 by indisputably Polish populations, which should be 
 assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose 
 
WooDEow Wilson's Eloquence *^ 
 
 political and economic independence and territorial 
 integrity should be guaranteed by international cove- 
 nant. 
 
 14. "A general association of nations must be 
 formed under specific covenants for the purpose of 
 affording mutual guarantees of political independence 
 and territorial integrity to great and small States 
 alike." 
 
 This is the sublimest declaration of practical 
 morality ever uttered in the political and social world. 
 It is the same thing as the Ten Commandments and 
 the Lord's Prayer are in the spiritual and religious 
 world. The principles therein stated at once gripped 
 and held the world in their mighty embrace. They 
 reached the common consciousness of men, and, for 
 a time at least, united their moral forces in an almost 
 universal purpose. It was the first time in history 
 that pure morality formulated a plan by which peace 
 could be forever secured and war forever banished, 
 and by which the nations could proceed to develop 
 their resources, preserve their respective nationalities, 
 and measurably secure the happiness and comfort of 
 every human being on the earth. This declaration 
 brought an end to the war, and, in my belief, will, 
 sooner or later, secure the peace of the world for all 
 time to come. It must be so, or we are obliged to 
 admit that savagery and selfishness, not kindliness 
 and righteousness, are the objectives set, by an all- 
 wise Providence, for the attainment of the race. 
 
 No one thinks of attributing genius, talent, or 
 even eloquence to Christ. He dealt in the simplest 
 
^0 WooDEow AVilson's Eloquence 
 
 manner with the profoundest truths, so that they 
 were understood and appropriated by all honest 
 minds. When His Divinity is taken into account, it 
 compels the admission that His utterances acquire the 
 sanctity of the Eternal Good, God. Christ was per- 
 fectly eloquent because He was perfectly good. 
 
 How simple, therefore, is the work of the states- 
 man, when he proceeds upon principles of morality, 
 righteousness and true eloquence ; how very difficult 
 is his work when he deals with selfishness, unrighteous- 
 ness and immoral calculations. How soon then he 
 creates antagonisms ending in war, as the world has 
 witnessed so many times. 
 
 I have spent a long life in strife and struggle. 
 The inscrutable puzzle to me is that our representative 
 men are not more willingly guided, in their public 
 work, by simple considerations of morality. I do not 
 understand why, when problems arise for solution, 
 they cannot take into account the good of all men. 
 It seems very clear, as the situation in the world 
 today shows, that their failure to follow the principles 
 of plain morality, exercises all the wit of man to 
 avoid war by compromises forever having as their 
 object an advantage to be gained. If the principles 
 of the fourteen points were rigorously applied, there 
 could be no war and the Divine injunction. Peace on 
 Earth and Good Will to Man, would be established 
 and men would soon learn that the beauties of 
 righteousness are more desirable than the miseries of 
 
 ir Go»8idering which, it is not surprising that I 
 often contemplate what might have happened, if I 
 
WooDBow Wilson's Eloquein^ce ^ 
 
 — ^ 
 
 had succeeded in defeating the nomination of Wood- \ 
 
 row Wilson for the governorship of New Jersey in \ 
 
 1910. Nor can anyone avoid the belief, when all the • 
 foregoing is taken into account, that there is a moral ; 
 
 design in the universe and that the moral faculty in j 
 
 man is forever driving human affairs to a better "4y' 
 state. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Social Justice 
 
 I am writing this chapter, not only to round out 
 the argument concerning eloquence, but to state the 
 substance of discussions, held years ago, between 
 President Wilson and myself. The vast project, 
 concerning social justice, held in contemplation by 
 him, was necessarily interrupted by the great war. 
 It will require time, thought and moral effort to 
 bring America and the other nations into a mood to 
 solve the problems yet to be solved. 
 
 There can be no such thing as social justice in the 
 absence of a sound financial system. The genius of 
 Woodrow Wilson gave the United States admittedly 
 the best financial system in the world. It put money 
 easily within the reach of every industrious and 
 honest citizen. This achievement was the beginning 
 of the establishment of real social justice in the 
 America of our day. The other phase of the problem, 
 namely, the relation between labor and capital, was 
 rendered enormously more difficult by the war of 
 1914. The question is seriously acute in every nation 
 at the present time. 
 
 To the thoughtful man the wonder is, not the 
 presence of unrest and confusion everywhere prev- 
 alent, but the absence of universal chaos. In the 
 general social ferment, superficial thinkers are study- 
 ing symptoms, not the disease ; effects, not causes. 
 [ 52 ] 
 
WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence ^ 
 
 Before the war the wealth of the world afforded 
 such a measure of general comfort that mankind was 
 in a state of comparative contentment. It is true that 
 socialism, an effort to equalize the enjoyment of the 
 world's wealth, was taking root in places where pov- 
 erty was most sensitively felt. Yet, there were no 
 general unrest and disturbance of the world's busi- 
 ness. 
 
 The war came as the direct result of greed and 
 ambition. What was it? Approximately twenty 
 millions of men, under arms, were engaged, for the 
 period of four years, in the scientific destruction of 
 wealth. Substantially all the remainder of the human 
 family devoted its energy, in one way or another, to 
 the sustentation of that terrible machine of devasta- 
 tion. Note the consequences. First, it is estimated 
 that two hundred billions of the world's surplus 
 wealth were destroyed, a catastrophe so enormous and 
 wide-reaching that it must profoundly effect every 
 human being on the earth. Secondly, approximately 
 ten millions of the most efficient men in the world 
 were put under the sod and twice as many were 
 maimed and rendered practically unfit for the pro- 
 duction of wealth, while many millions, old and 
 young, were destroyed by massacre, starvation and 
 disease, directly due to the war. Thirdly, the indebt- 
 edness of the nations was augmented approximately 
 to the extent of two hundred billions. Fourthly, all 
 the industrial and commercial processes of the world 
 were disjointed and thrown out of their usual course. 
 Fifthly, as inevitable consequences, prices rose with 
 unheard of rapidity, the purchasing power of money 
 
^^ WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 declined with equal rapidity, and taxes the world over 
 were increased, almost beyond the power of the 
 nations to carry them. Sixthly, there resulted a 
 shortage of labor everywhere. Seventhly, the psy- 
 chology of war, which, in my opinion, was the worst 
 of its evils. During four years, men, women and 
 children were fairly consumed by the passions of 
 destruction, hatred, vengeance, retaliation and mur- 
 der, carried on by wholesale and retail. These deep 
 passions became almost a habit. To win, to conquer, 
 to destroy life and property, were the burning pur- 
 poses of the nations. It would not be so difficult to 
 clear the wreckage of some great cataclysm, if men 
 were moved, in so doing, by humane and moral 
 purposes ; but to clear the wreckage of a world war, 
 while the habitual passions of war are still, more or 
 less, in the possession of the nations, is an almost 
 impossible task. Even when statesmen went at the 
 undertaking with just and moral aims, the mass 
 passions back home neutralized their efforts very 
 largely. Not until the psychology of the war shall 
 have yielded to the adoption and application of the 
 principles of justice and morality, will social justice 
 be made attainable. 
 
 It is as certain as the law of gravity that the 
 world as a whole cannot get back to pre-war content- 
 ment and prosperity until the wealth destroyed by 
 twenty millions of armed men is recreated, and until 
 the increased national indebtedness of two hundred 
 or more billions are brought within control. The 
 nations are now staggering under a load of at least 
 four hundred billions of destroyed wealth and 
 
WooDRow Wilso:n"'s Eloquence ^^ 
 
 financial obligation. This wealth can be restored only 
 by labor. The debts of the nations must be either 
 paid or repudiated. Repudiation would mean com- 
 mercial chaos, but, if the debts, due to the war, are 
 to be paid, they must be paid by wealth yet to be 
 created by human effort. The disease therefore, the 
 symptoms of which are so assiduously studied and 
 unavailingly doctored, is the disease of poverty and 
 under-production. We make no progress by blinking 
 the facts. If one's house and all his belongings are 
 destroyed by fire, the owner is confronted with two 
 alternatives, the one to work and recreate his lost 
 wealth, the other to become a hinderance and an agent 
 of disturbance. 
 
 In my speech nominating Woodrow Wilson for 
 his second term, I predicted, because I foresaw it, the 
 creation of a League of the Nations to secure peace 
 and prevent war. The frightful heritage of that 
 devastation will never be recovered from unless peace 
 is made permanent by the abolition of war, the most 
 immoral act, as a rule, that men engage in. Nor 
 can social justice ever be achieved, until peace is 
 secured as an abiding world condition. As long as 
 war is possible, social justice is impossible, for the 
 plain reason that war is the antithesis of social justice. 
 
 Peace cannot be secured and war prevented unless 
 the nations agree to secure peace and prevent war. 
 That was undertaken by the peace of Versailles. 
 President Wilson, in the fourteenth, of the celebrated 
 fourteen points, said : "A general association of 
 nations must be formed." The nations at Paris used 
 the phrase League of Nations. This attempt, tried 
 
56 WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 for the first time in the history of the world, was 
 the greatest step ever taken by mankind to secure 
 social justice. Two thousand years ago Christ said : 
 "Let there be peace on earth and good will to man; 
 do to others as you would have them do to you. ' ' The 
 politicians and lawyers of Christ's day declared him 
 to be a disturber of the peace and he was crucified. 
 The nations at Paris undertook to identify the 
 declarations of Christ with statesmanship. They 
 undertook to make governments and international 
 obligations moral and just. The world must either 
 progress or retrogress. It cannot stand still. If it 
 progresses, it must be along the lines traced in the 
 pact of Versailles, because those lines lead to a perfect 
 international morality. The effort at Paris was the 
 consummate expression of the morality of Wood row 
 Wilson. It was a flash of eloquence that enlightened 
 the world. The word has been spoken and its moral 
 power will never die. 
 
 When this sublime undertaking reached the 
 American Senate, the politicians and the lawyers 
 condemned it, practically crucified its author, and 
 endeavored to destroy it. It is indestructible, because 
 m.orality is indestructible. It will live. The psy- 
 chology of the war found its expression in personal 
 and political hatred in the United States. Nor can 
 this be wondered at, when it is considered that the 
 hundred and ten millions of people, who constitute 
 the citizenship of the United States, are a conglom- 
 erate of all the nations of the earth. Each group, 
 making up our citizenship, was moved and controlled 
 by the passions that moved and controlled the citizens 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^'^ 
 
 of the nations from which they came. It was prac- 
 tically impossible, in the fiery swirl of national 
 passions, for this great moral conception to secure 
 due and calm consideration. The advocates of the 
 League were met by advocates of an Association, as 
 if there were any conceivable substantial difference. 
 If the Wilsonian phrase "Association of Nations," 
 used in his fourteen points, had been adopted by the 
 nations at Paris, the psychology of the war would 
 have demanded a League of Nations. And so the 
 psychology of the war, for the time being, has cheeked 
 the great moral movement of the world towards 
 universal peace by agreement. 
 
 Whether the phrase League of Nations, or that of 
 an Association of Nations, be employed, international 
 agreements become inevitable. International agree- 
 ments must be kept, or morality between nations 
 disappears. Nothing but the psychology of the war 
 could have quarreled over the two phrases. If the 
 purpose of either a League or an Association is to 
 secure peace, prevent war, reduce armaments, and 
 establish social justice, a plan, a set of rules, or prin- 
 ciples become a necessity. 
 
 The League of Nations, adopted at Paris, by 
 upwards of forty nations and by a vast majority of 
 the earth's inhabitants, was framed upon four 
 distinct principles. The first was arbitration of 
 international disputes, the very opposite of war ; the 
 second, publication of the terms of arbitration with 
 sufficient time for the nations to consider the fairness 
 and justice thereof, the very opposite of war; third, 
 in case a nation, whose dispute was arbitrated, refused 
 
^^ WooDFvOw Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 to abide by its terms, boycott of that nation by all 
 other nations in the League, the very opposite of war ; 
 fourth, if boycott failed to compel acceptance of the 
 terms of arbitration, force was to be applied. A 
 simpler and more comprehensive plan to secure peace 
 and prevent war is beyond the mind of man to 
 conceive. Reduction of armaments was also a detail 
 of the scheme. Based upon the purest morality, as 
 the conception is, a universal adoption thereof would, 
 in all human probability, have made war impossible 
 and would have resulted in the realization of social 
 justice throughout the world. 
 
 The fundamental objections, made by politicians 
 in America to the adoption of the League were, first, 
 that it would involve a surrender of national 
 sovereignty and, second, embroil us in European 
 disputes. These objections are not only illogical, but 
 they are immoral. 
 
 The nations are already associated by electricity, 
 by steam, by commerce, hy blood and social ties, and 
 by a body of international law. We cannot escape 
 this association, if we are to remain in the family 
 of civilized nations. But what is this sovereignty, 
 this sacred bugbear, to be lost, if we agree with other 
 nations to enter a compact to secure peace and 
 prevent war? 
 
 First, what is individual sovereignty? It is the 
 power of the individual to do as he pleases. What 
 are the limitations upon the power of the individual 
 to do as he pleases? They are, first, the social 
 compact ; second, the laws of the land ; third, his 
 contracts; fourth, those moral obligations which the 
 
WooDROw Wilson's Eloquexce ^^ 
 
 average man respects. These limitations upon per- 
 sonal sovereignty are not only moral, but the more 
 completely they are conformed to, the more perfect 
 is the state, the more pronounced the social justice of 
 the state. What is national sovereignty? It is the 
 power of the nation to do as it pleases. What are the 
 limitations upon the exercise of that power? First, 
 international law, so far as it has been formulated 
 and approved by civilized nations ; second, the moral 
 obligation resident in the masses of mankind and 
 acknowledged by men everywhere ; third, treaties 
 between nations. Treaties between nations are 
 always, so far as their terms go, a surrender of the 
 power of the nations, bound bj^ that treaty, to do as 
 they please. It is the veriest nonsense to say that, if 
 the United States were a member of the League of 
 Nations to secure peace and prevent war, its 
 sovereignty would be surrendered any more than its 
 sovereignty is surrendered when it enters into a 
 treaty with a single power, or with two or more 
 powers. It is equally foolish to hold that, if the 
 United States should be a member of the League of 
 Nations to secure peace and prevent war, it would 
 become embroiled in European disputes. If such 
 would be the result, then every time the United States 
 enters into a treaty with a European power it is, at 
 least to that extent, entangled in European affairs. 
 Therefore, the objections raised, are not only plainly 
 immoral, but they put America in antagonism with 
 the tenets of Christianity. 
 
 To have checked this vast moral project, as it was 
 formulated at Paris by Woodrow Wilson, is not to 
 
60 
 
 WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 have defeated it. It is his glory to have identified 
 practical statesmanship with the teachings of Christ. 
 The bent of the masses of mankind is towards peace. 
 The moral forces of the world demand it. Its reali- 
 zation cannot be stopped, unless the morality of the 
 race is transformed into its original savagery. Peace 
 will be secured and war prevented by an agreement 
 between the nations, whether we call it a League or 
 an Association. The moral purposes of the world 
 cannot be defeated in the interests of party politics, 
 in America or in any other country. 
 
 Perhaps some politician, who defeated the League 
 of Nations, can explain to the ordinary man, how and 
 why, if we stipulate with European nations to reduce 
 armaments, we do not, at least to that extent, impair 
 our national sovereignty and become entangled in 
 European affairs. America blundered, but and not- 
 withstanding, unless civilization is to fail and the 
 race lapse into savagery, the moral forces must 
 prevail ; peace w ill come by the concord of the nations, 
 not only without the loss of their respective sovereign- 
 ties, but by the enthronement over all of a Prince, 
 the Prince of Peace. 
 
 Another aspect of the problem of social justice 
 appears under a variety of isms. Nihilism, Bolshevism, 
 Single Taxism, Socialism and what-not. In general 
 terms their purpose is to control the production of 
 wealth and its distribution. The growing intelligence 
 of the world 's labor, in its eagerness to escape oppres- 
 sion, has taken shelter under various delusions. The 
 very term socialism, vaguely conceived and poorly 
 considered, has drawn to it millions of earnest men. 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 
 
 Their quest for the true solution of the problem of 
 social justice will not halt until the solution has been 
 reached. It has often been pointed out that the 
 underlying conception of these groups of thinkers 
 will necessarily end in the destruction of capital, the 
 very worst calamity that could visit the human 
 family. 
 
 Just as civilization is due to the moral faculty, so 
 the solution of the problem of social justice must be 
 a moral, not merely an economic solution. The 
 homeliest analysis will prove this assertion. Suppose 
 the entire human race, unclothed, unsheltered and 
 unfed were placed in line and reasoned with in the 
 following way: 
 
 "Let us see upon what points we can absolutely 
 agree. First, we are all animals, and, without shelter, 
 clothing, food, light, air and water, must die." 
 
 Every human being would agree to this obvious 
 truth. Air, light and water, without which we would 
 immediately die, are furnished us by nature and 
 nature's God. Every sensible being would agree to 
 this truth. 
 
 "Next, do we all agree that a beneficent Provi- 
 dence has furnished us with the earth, from the soil 
 of which our food must come?" Everyone agrees to 
 this and must agree to it, with this modification, that 
 while air, light and water are free, food must be pro- 
 duced somehow from the soil. 
 
 "Can we agree upon another point? Is man, by 
 Divine decree, compelled to get food from the soil by 
 the sweat of his brow ? " If it is agreed to, as it must 
 
^- WOODROW WiLSOX's ELOQUENCE 
 
 be, then let us proceed to execute that decree. At 
 the end of a day's work, on the part of the entire 
 human familj", by virtue of assent to these simple 
 truths, what would have happened ? Some would 
 have produced nothing. The very old and the very 
 young and the mentally feeble would have produced 
 nothing, because it was out of their power to produce 
 anything. Some would have produced relatively 
 little, because their capabilities were relatively small. 
 Others, on account of their physical and mental 
 superiority, would have produced a great deal. 
 
 "What now, is to be done with the great deal? 
 These isms say "divide equally amongst all." 
 
 At the end of the week, it will be found that the 
 strong and capable have produced a greater quantity. 
 At the end of the month and the year the capable will 
 have produced a much larger quantity. If, now, the 
 socialistic theory be applied, there will be no surplus, 
 because it will have been divided day by day, and, in 
 all probability, consumed. That is to say, there will 
 be no capital. Out of the surplus, equally divided, 
 the old, the young, and the incompetent will have 
 been eared for. This is moral, because it is humane 
 and christian. Those who did their best but were 
 unequal to the task, will have been cared for. This 
 is moral, because it is humane and christian. Those 
 who were indolent shirkers will have become parasites. 
 To divide equally with them would be immoral, 
 unjust and unchristian. To compel the able and 
 industrious to divide the fruits of their toil, under 
 such a system, is to compel injustice and inhumanity. 
 But the v.'orst of the theory is tliat humanity, despite 
 
WooDROW Wilson 's Eloquence 
 
 63 
 
 the efforts of its best, would never acquire a surplus, 
 never acquire capital, since it would be equally 
 divided day by day, divided by a theory inherently 
 wrong and immoral. Under such an arrangement, 
 progress is an impossibility ; hence it is suicidal. 
 
 Under this conception, at the end of the year, it 
 would be found that some possessed imagination and 
 inventive faculty. They would be able to trace the 
 secret laws of nature and discover great truths, which, 
 practically applied, enabled them to produce incom- 
 parably more than their fellows. Some would be dis- 
 covered to be great organizers and leaders and 
 therefore capable, in conjunction with inventors, to 
 utilize the efforts of their fellows so as to produce an 
 enormous surplus. Yet, under the socialistic theory, 
 inventors and organizers would be impossible and the 
 human family would be decreed to live from hand to 
 mouth throughout the ages. There would be no 
 progress and the race would disappear, since every- 
 thing produced would be equally divided day by day 
 in virtue of a practice, which, because of its obvious 
 unfairness, would lead to perpetual strife. 
 
 Take still another view. Every human being is so 
 organized that he wants to have his own way. From 
 the cradle to the grave he struggles to have his own 
 way. Yet, he never succeeds in having his own way, 
 first because of his limitations ; second, because of his 
 environment ; third, because of the organized will of 
 his fellows; fourth, because every human being, 
 directly or indirectly, is opposing him. Still, in this 
 universal conflict of will and desire, everybody 
 manages to live. The daily transactions of the 
 
64 WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 human family run into the millions. Every one of 
 these transactions is a conflict. Every one of them 
 involves, more or less, good and bad motives. At the 
 end of each day of these millions of transactions, 
 what is their balance sheet? If the total of them 
 shows more comfort and happiness than discomfort 
 and unhappiness, not only has the world progressed, 
 but the moral faculty has acquired ascendency, and 
 civilization is accounted for. That is to say, the good 
 motives of the millions of transactions daily of the 
 human family have gained upon the bad motives. The 
 test always is, has human happiness been augmented 
 or decreased? Through the endless centuries human 
 happiness and comfort have increased, or the race 
 w^ould have become extinct, which demonstrates the 
 thesis that the moral faculty explains man 's progress. 
 Progress is the infinite result of infinitesimal com- 
 promises. Civilization is the cancellation of error in 
 the infinitesimal transactions in the daily life of the 
 race. Morality is forever in the ascendant. This 
 progress could not have been made under the theory 
 of an equal division of surplus. Hence the system 
 of socialism is fundamentally wrong. 
 
 It is manifest that the capable and the willing 
 would not submit to an equal division of the fruits of 
 their efforts with the incapable and unwilling. It 
 would involve a plain immorality. It would encourage 
 the incapable and unwilling to become more so and 
 the progress of the race would end. Consequently, 
 the various isms having for their object the establish- 
 ment of social justice would miserably fail, as is 
 instanced by the history of Russia. 
 
WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence ^ 
 
 Another phase of social justice is presented in the 
 evolution of the principle of combination. In 
 America we conceive the virtue of our institutions to 
 be expressed in two popular dogmas, the one equal 
 opportunity and privilege, the other the greatest good 
 to the greatest number. Economic science, as we are 
 taught it, springs from the system under which men 
 have lived from a remote past to the present day. 
 Out of it has grown the great law of supply and 
 demand. This law, if justly and morally applied, 
 fits the situation in which the human animal finds 
 himself. Our progenitors undertook to see that the 
 law of supply and demand should be justly and 
 morally applied. Hence the two dogmas stated. But 
 the law of supply and demand can be applied only to 
 an individualistic state of society. It can be justly 
 applied only between natural individuals. 
 
 The first invention of society, which made the 
 application of this principle difficult, was partner- 
 ships. As soon as men combine, the combination has 
 an obvious advantage over the individual. Hence 
 the dogma of equal opportunity and privilege begins 
 to disappear. It has disappeared in the United States 
 and throughout the world. 
 
 The principle of partnership has its limitation in 
 the deaths of the individuals that constitute it and 
 in the liability of each partner to the extent of his 
 ownership in the wealth controlled by this form of 
 combination and in whatever other wealth the 
 partners may have. Partnerships are rapidly disap- 
 pearing and are succeeded by another form of 
 combination, namely, the corporation. 
 
<56 
 
 Woor)Eow Wjlsox's Eloquence 
 
 The corporate principle exposes three stag:es of 
 development. The first was marked by a legislative 
 limitation upon the right of the corporation to pursue 
 more than a single line of business. The second arose 
 when legislatures gave corporations the right to 
 pursue any number of vocations. The third arose 
 when legislatures gave corporations the privilege of- 
 combining. A corporation, being immortal, and its 
 members relieved from responsibility beyond the 
 extent of the corporate property, had an enormous 
 advantage over the natural individiial. Hence arose 
 the modern trust, and the individual was at the 
 mercy of a combination that he could by no possibility 
 compete with. The modern trust largely controls 
 both production and distribution, the very thing that 
 socialism aims to achieve and which affords socialism 
 its chief justification. If a number of men may 
 combine, under the corporate principle, to control 
 production and distribution, it is asked by the 
 socialists, why should not government itself do the 
 same thing ? There is much force in the question, but 
 its fallacy has been already exposed. 
 
 No more useful work of scholarship could be 
 performed than to produce a lucid exposition of the 
 development of the corporate principle. It has trans- 
 formed human effort. While it has made individual- 
 istic competition impossible, it has multiplied the 
 world's surplus very far beyond that which 
 individual effort could have gone. It has made it 
 possible for individuals of commanding talent to 
 acquire, on the one hand, an undue part of the surplus 
 of human effort, and on the other, to oppress masses 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^'' 
 
 of men and limit competitive effort. The corporate 
 principle, as now applied, enables the corporation to 
 control the production of human necessities and 
 therefore the supply and price of such necessities. 
 It is no longer a contest between natural individuals, 
 but one between artificial and natural individuals. 
 So that, while the dogma of equal privilege and 
 opportunity has disappeared, the dogma of the 
 greatest good to the greatest number can be raade^ 
 through the agency of the corporate principle, the 
 greatest blessing ever vouchsafed to the race. 
 
 A productive machine is a combination in more 
 senses than one. If a machine, superintended by one 
 person, produces tv\'ice as much wealth as the person, 
 by combination of brain and muscle, could produce, 
 the machine, in competition, surpasses the person in 
 preduction. If a piece of machinery produces, when 
 operated by one person, twenty times the quantity of 
 VN'ealth producable by the combined brain and 
 muscular power of the person operating it, it becomes 
 the equivalent of the productive capacity of twenty 
 persons. 
 
 This is the age of machinery. Steam engines, steam 
 ships, factories of every sort, by their combined power 
 and efficiency, have multiplied the wealth of the world 
 to an extent never dreamed of by past ages. In 
 reality it is the combination of individual brain and 
 muscle. It is very evident that individuals, by the 
 simple application of brain and muscle, could, by 
 comparison, produce only an infinitesimal fraction of 
 the wealth daily produced. It is equally evident that 
 the ownership of the world's machinery cannot be 
 
68 
 
 WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 equally distributed amongst the inhabitants of the 
 earth. If, from the beginning of invention, its equal 
 distribution had been attempted, there would have 
 been little or no machinery in existence and the world 
 would have been incomparably poorer than it is today. 
 While these simple truths are self-evident, they serve 
 to show two things : First, that combination of power 
 and effort are indispensable to general happiness and 
 comfort ; second, that the principle of combination is 
 here to stay. No one would advocate the abolition of 
 machinery, since by it only can the resources of the 
 earth be exploited for the use of men. 
 
 For the same reasons, there must be combinations 
 of machinery, factories and great business under- 
 takings, which are capital. The common necessities 
 of men can be met and satisfied in no other way. It, 
 therefore, follows that vast aggregations of wealth, 
 whether we call them trusts or soulless corporations, 
 are here to stay. Progress cannot continue without 
 them. Their existence destroys the dogma of equal 
 privilege and opportunity, but, at the same time, 
 makes the greatest good of the greatest number a 
 realizable dream. They bring within the limits of 
 human achievement, not only the establishment of 
 actual social justice, but the actual abolition of 
 poverty and unhappiness. 
 
 Yet, these great instrumentalities of good have 
 been made instrumentalities of oppression, cause of 
 strife, and the advocacy of all the isms that occur to 
 men as a means of avoiding such results. 
 
 Surplus, or capital, is not only the product of 
 human effort, but it is entirely due to differences in 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 
 
 the abilities of individuals. This truism lies at the 
 bottom of all our difficulties. The man of genius 
 cannot be held back by the stupidity of another. If 
 so, the world would have had no surplus, no capital 
 and no progress. There would have been no homes, no 
 towns, no cities, and none of the instrumentalities of 
 civilization. 
 
 Is there any real solution of the problem? Is it 
 possible for men to attain social justice? I answer 
 the question by three incidents, one actual, another 
 largely actual, and the other supposititious. 
 
 Some years ago, while a strike was in progress in 
 New Jersey, I happened to meet one of the employers 
 of the strikers. He said to me, "The labor of 
 America knows too much ; it is above its business ; it 
 needs to be taught to keep its place." I said to him, 
 "Are you against public schools and colleges; are 
 you against newspapers and books; are you against 
 general education?" He promptly answered, "No." 
 Then I observed, * ' To keep the labor of America from 
 knowing too much, you will have to keep labor from 
 the schools and newspapers; otherwise you will 
 support the evil you complain of. Suppose every 
 man and woman in the world were as intelligent as 
 you are, would the farms cease to be tilled, coal cease 
 to be mined, ditches ceased to be dug, railroads cease 
 to be built, and machinery cease to be made and 
 operated? Plainly not, or we would all perish 
 together. If all men were your equal in intelligence, 
 would the labor of the world be any less well done? 
 It would be better done ; but you would run into this 
 trouble. Men of your intelligence would not be 
 
'^0 WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 willing to do the world's manual labor under condi- 
 tions and for a reward which would make their lives 
 unhappy and miserable. There is your problem. If 
 you are an organizer and capitalist, you are no more 
 human than the employees who perform your manual 
 service. The one is of as much consequence as the 
 other in the system of things. The distinction between 
 the human claims of one over the other is entirely 
 false and immoral. As soon as men of superior ability 
 and high position duly recognize the claims of men 
 of inferior ability and lower position, the conflict 
 between labor and capital will disappear. We must 
 have capital and labor, or civilization will vanish. A 
 fair and moral recognition of the inter-dependence of 
 labor and capital, with a just reward to each 
 according to their respective merits, will make strikes 
 impossible and bring universal contentment." 
 
 The employer agreed to the soundness of this 
 argument, but thought it too idealistic for the race 
 as it now is. But the fallacy of his objection is found 
 in the circumstance that the moral sense of men is 
 an ever-increasing power in human relationships. It 
 contemplates the gradual diminution of that form of 
 selfishness which closes its eyes to the humanity of 
 the least important laborer in the world. Justice is 
 morality. Morality is the kingdom of Christ. Sooner 
 or later all men recognize this eternal truth. It is 
 the only conceivable solution of the problem of social 
 justice. I may add that the strike in question was 
 at once settled when the corporation did what it 
 should have done in the first instance. 
 
WooDKow Wilson's Eloquence ''^ 
 
 Tile supposititious case is this: Jones had accu- 
 mulated enough wealth to sustain his family in com- 
 fort and luxury. There is enough surplus wealth in 
 the world to liken the possessors of that wealth to the 
 situation of Jones. He advertised for a house servant. 
 Next day two women appeared in answer, one middle- 
 aged, the other young. To the question by him, 
 "What will you do the work for per week?" The 
 elder said, "Five dollars." The younger, "Four 
 dollars." Here was an opportunity to apply the law 
 of supply and demand. 
 
 "Why do you want five dollars per week," asked 
 Jones of the elder. She replied, "My husband is 
 dead ; I have three small children ; their shoes are 
 worn out ; there is no coal in the bin, nor flour in the 
 can; they are hungry; I must get five dollars, or 
 they will suffer." The younger one, to the same 
 question, said, ' ' I am unmarried ; I can live for less ; 
 my needs are not so imperative." Jones played the 
 necessities of these two beings against each other and 
 finally secured the services of the mother for four 
 dollars per week. Society approved. He had driven 
 a sharp bargain. He had applied the law of supply 
 and demand. He apparently added to his wealth by 
 the contract. 
 
 The transaction had two sides, one physical, the 
 other moral. On the physical side, Jones had propo- 
 gated ill health, suffering and inefficiency in both the 
 mother and her children. He maj'' have driven the 
 young woman to want or crime by forcing her on the 
 street. Indirectly he had added to the difficulties of 
 society in many ways. On the moral side, Jones had 
 
"''^ WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 intensified his own selfishness and greed, engendered 
 hate in the hearts of the two women and driven them 
 towards that feeling of despair and hopelessness that 
 leads to social unrest. 
 
 Suppose, now, that Jones, after hearing the 
 respective stories of the women, had said to the 
 mother, "No, I will not give you five dollars; I will 
 give you seven," to the other, "I am interested in 
 your case, come to my office tomorrow and I will find 
 you some remunerative employment." The trans- 
 action would have had its physical and moral sides. 
 Jones would have been a better and happier man. 
 The mother would have taken up her work with good 
 cheer and hope in her heart. Her children would 
 have grown stronger and healthier. The young 
 woman would have left Jones with respect and love 
 in her heart, and Jones' interest in her behalf would 
 have made her a stronger and better woman. In both 
 cases the total of human happiness would have been 
 augmented. In the end Jones finds that the services 
 of the mother were so efficient that he had actually 
 saved money. 
 
 In the one case, the law of supply and demand had 
 injured society; while, in the other, an application of 
 the moral law had benefitted society. In the one 
 case, economic science had failed ; in the other, moral 
 science had succeeded. Christ was the greatest 
 political economist that ever appeared. "Do unto 
 others as you would have them do unto you" is the 
 last word in economic science. There is enough 
 wealth in the world to permit the application of the 
 moral code in every conceivable case of employment. 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence '^ 
 
 If it were applied, what would become of the strife 
 between labor and capital? What would become of 
 strikes and lockouts, what of social unrest, what of 
 inefficiency and waste? Not economic science, but 
 moral science will secure social justice amongst men. 
 
 The partially actual and partially supposititious 
 illustration is the following : A graduate of one of 
 our universities had mastered economic science. Of 
 great energy and commanding ability, he saw a rare 
 opportunity to establish a big commercial enterprise 
 in one of the Eastern States. In a few years, at the 
 head of a powerful corporation, he had built a town, 
 employed thousands of men, women and children, and 
 amassed a large fortune. These results had been 
 achieved by a relentless application of the principle 
 of combination and of the law of supply and demand. 
 Wages had been kept to the lowest possible point. 
 Men, women and children were worked to the very 
 limit of human endurance. The homes of the workers 
 became unsightly and repulsive. The children were 
 inadequately clothed. By the factory store system 
 the earnings of all the employees were absorbed. 
 Religion amongst them had become a mockery. Faith 
 had been banished from their hearts and immorality 
 was the habit of the community. Dividends were 
 large and regular. 
 
 The head of the institution had married a Chris- 
 tian woman. They had a family of beautiful children, 
 who were indulged in extravagant luxury before the 
 very eyes of a broken community. The good mother, 
 by her moral ministrations, not only alleviated the 
 sufferings of the poor to some extent, but often 
 
"^ WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 protested to her powerful husband against the con- 
 ditions that his system of economic science had 
 produced. The moral and physical sides of this 
 situation are obvious. 
 
 In course of years, the climax came. The 
 employees could endure their conditions no longer. 
 Socialism was at work amongst them. Labor organ- 
 ization directed their antagonisms into a destructive 
 strike, because demands were refused. Factories were 
 closed. Disorders broke out. Buildings were burned 
 and excesses soon got beyond control. As a result, 
 the head of the institution visited the Governor of 
 the State to induce him to send the militia to subdue 
 his rebellious subjects. 
 
 While at the Capitol of the State for this purpose, 
 his children were sailing on a lake, which was a part 
 of his extensive domain. The boat capsized. The 
 children were doomed. Some of the strikers saw their 
 peril, and, at the risk of their lives, succeeded in 
 saving the children of their economic master and 
 enemy. 
 
 For the first time in his life, the head of this 
 tyrannical institution saw the value of the human 
 heart. For the first time he was made to feel and 
 know the meaning of Christ's teachings. He saw that 
 common laborers were made in the image of God, and 
 that they, like himself, came from the same mysterious 
 source and were bound to answer the same destiny. 
 At once the demands of the men were met and the 
 strike ended. 
 
 But this was not all. A new system, thoroughly 
 revolutionary and against every tenet of economic 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence '^^ 
 
 science, was immediately projected. Out of the 
 surplus of the concern, with the assent of the stock- 
 holders, a public hall was built, a reading room 
 provided, a library established and a course of 
 weekly lectures inaugurated. Besides, the employees 
 were induced to buy their own homes and the com- 
 pany elaborated a scheme by which it was accom- 
 plished. Employees were encouraged to purchase 
 stock of the corporation. A new church and a school 
 house were built. Drunkenness disappeared from 
 the commimity. Young children were kept out of 
 the factories and put in schools. The whole town 
 took on a different aspect. Flowers appeared in the 
 yards of working men. Books and some form of 
 music were found in their homes. Labor in the mills 
 became an enjoyment. Some of the employees in- 
 vented new processes and made improvements, which 
 brought larger profits into the treasury of the cor- 
 poration. But the most interesting of all the results 
 was that in proportion as interest and efficiency grew, 
 waste disappeared. It was one of the most prosperous 
 and contented communities in America. 
 
 Here again economic science was tried and found 
 wanting. Here again the economics of morality were 
 tried and produced the most desirable results. 
 
 As long as men acquire more of the product of 
 human effort than they are entitled to, whether by 
 legitimate or illegitimate means, whether by the law 
 of supply and demand, whether by taking advantage 
 of human necessities and weakness and economic con- 
 ditions, or by downright theft, there will be strife, 
 
''^ AVooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 in the shape of class feeling, strikes, violence and 
 coercion. 
 
 There are three forces resistlessly at work in 
 modern life. One is the spread of intelligence; the 
 other the rapid production of wealth by machinery 
 and combination ; the other a growing appreciation 
 by many of the captains of industry of the value of 
 morality in business transactions. Nations are grad- 
 ually moulded by these conditions. The statesman 
 who fails to build in harmony with these forces will 
 fail and the likelihood of national and international 
 conflict will grow. 
 
 My argument has been neither exhaustively nor 
 gracefully framed, but it answers my purpose. It 
 has, I believe, shown that inherent morality is driving 
 the race to a better civilization ; that, while science 
 is the truth, the arts forever tend to coalesce with 
 science and become scientific ; that eloquence, either 
 in speech, writing or action, is the mouthpiece of the 
 arts and even the voice of science itself; that real 
 eloquence is the truth, and that, therefore, eloquence 
 is measured and determined by one's ability to state 
 and live the manifest truth; that style and manner 
 are not eloquence, although they may adorn it; and 
 that truth is the most fascinating and commanding 
 of all qualities in speech, writing or action. These 
 views generated from the studj' of the speeches and 
 acts of Woodrow Wilson, whom I regard as the first 
 man in history to identify statesmanship with Chris- 
 tianity. Therefore, the world will follow him in the 
 coming centuries, because there is in man a capacity 
 for perfect eloquence, which is the eternal truth. 
 
Sketck ol Judge Wescott's Life 
 
 By Charles R. Bacon, New Jersey Editor of 
 The Philadelphia Record. 
 
 This rugged son of a hardy toiler of New Jersey 
 came forth from the ranks of the people. When I 
 first came to know John W. Wescott I was covering 
 for my paper the trial of the negro, Lingo, for the 
 murder of Annie Miller. That was twenty -two years 
 ago. I had known the man as a lawyer, had had some 
 slight acquaintance with his ability and capacity by 
 personal contact with several important cases with 
 which he was professionally associated and had rather 
 admired his frank and vigorous manhood, but it was 
 in the long tedious ordeal of that great trial that I 
 really took his measure and sounded his depths. Day 
 after day as the trial proceeded through four solid 
 weeks, amid many exciting and, as we newspaper men 
 say, colorful incidents, I discovered the great warm 
 heart that throbbed beneath that splendid frame and 
 learned the human side of a great and masterful 
 lawyer. 
 
 I became so imbued with the strong character 
 which dominated the legal proceedings, overshadow- 
 ing all else, that one who had prejudged the ease and 
 who feared that justice might be cheated wrote my 
 paper in indignant protest, suggesting that I must 
 [ 77 ] 
 
''^ AVooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 be ill the pay of the counsel for the defense. The 
 results fully substantiated all that I had written and 
 clearly brought out the fact that a human heart and 
 a great mind can so completely dominate a situation 
 as to subordinate its every other aspect. I have 
 always felt since those days as though it were not so 
 much the trial of a poor negro as the development of 
 a superb manhood that I had recorded with such 
 enthusiasm as to evoke hostile criticism. 
 
 Never since that time have I had cause or occasion 
 to amend my estimate of John W. Wescott. On the 
 contrary, the years have ripened and accentuated the 
 judgment, and now that he has been called to the 
 service of the people, I am convinced that no more 
 earnest and honest advocate of a righteous cause lives 
 in our State. 
 
 It is not strange that John W. Wescott is a 
 Democrat, considering his training and his qualities. 
 He started with poverty and pugnaciousness and has 
 risen by force of a rare mind, not to a position of 
 w^ealth, but to one of public confidence, affection and 
 respect. He has lived sixty-seven strenuous years, 
 but is today as hale and serene as though a life of 
 plenty and the gospel of love and gentleness had 
 alwaj^s been his. 
 
 In the City of Camden, where Judge Wescott 
 practices law, he is looked on as a somewhat austere 
 and self-contained man. He is not sociable, in the 
 sense of being talkative and jolly, but he has hosts 
 of warm friends who began by admiring his skill as 
 an advocate and grew to love him as a trusted and 
 affectionate friend. Perhaps the most notable example 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence '^^ 
 
 of this is President Wilson himself. He first learned 
 of Judge Wescott just after being nominated by the 
 Democratic party at Trenton for the governorship 
 of New Jersey. The Judge had made the speech 
 nominating ex-Mayor Katzenbach, of Trenton. With 
 that speech he had almost stampeded the Wilson 
 delegates for Katzenbach. The Wilson leaders could 
 not tell for a time whether their lines would hold or 
 not. But organization and the hand of Providence 
 finally won the day for Wilson. 
 
 After the convention, the Judge and the candidate 
 met at Princeton. They immediately gained each 
 other's confidence by a frank and fearless discussion 
 of the campaign. Their acquaintance has since grown 
 into a personal friendship highly prized by each and 
 it was not for political reasons alone that the Judge 
 was selected in 1912 to put the President's name 
 before the convention at Baltimore and again in 
 1916 at St. Louis. 
 
 Judge Wescott 's boyhood was spent in Waterf ord, 
 Camden County, where he was born in 1849. He led 
 a hardy outdoor life. Waterford was a prosperous 
 little glass-making village surrounded for miles by 
 the stunted oak and pine woods of South Jersey. 
 John Wescott, Sr., a native Jerseyman, was an expert 
 cutter of window glass, a silent, steady man who never 
 was known to swear or lie. He believed that to spare 
 the rod spoiled the child. 
 
 The same belief inspired the village school teacher, 
 who gave the future presidential nominator his first 
 lesson in public speaking. This teacher, a tall, stal- 
 wart youth named Reed, required the childrr-n to 
 
^'' WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 "speak pieces." Johnny Wescott wouldn't speak. 
 Reed had a will of his own also. The school was on 
 the second floor of a large grange hall, which still 
 stands there beside the White Horse Pike. It was 
 hot weather and the windows were raised. Fearing 
 that the rebellious and stubborn boy might try a 
 dangerous escape, Reed stationed the big boys in 
 front of the open windows, then took down his raw- 
 hide gad and commanded John to mount the platform. 
 John mounted, but was silent. "Crack!" went the 
 whip about his legs. 
 
 "You'd scarce expect!" prompted the teacher. 
 In a low voice the words were finally repeated, then 
 silence. ' ' Crack ! ' ' came the cowhide around the 
 little legs again. "One of my age!" yelled Reed. 
 Out it came, but no more. Again the whip sang and 
 cut. "To speak in public" — Crack! "On the stage." 
 After the lines, "But if I chance to fall below 
 Demosthenes or Cicero" 
 
 Reed put both hands to his mouth and shouted, 
 "Go it, Susie, while you're young!" and compelled 
 the unhappy orator to wind up his speech with these 
 humiliating words. Had the teacher lived, no one 
 would have rejoiced more than he in the distinction 
 as a speaker that finally came to his unresponsive 
 little pupil. 
 
 The boy's mother, Catharine Bozarth Wescott, 
 also native to New Jersey, did not spoil him either, 
 but she had great ambitions for him. She had named 
 him John Wesley and intended that he should preach 
 the gospel of the Methodists. To his mother Judge 
 Wescott says he owes his start in the great world. 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 
 
 With Reed's encouragement, she helped him off to 
 boarding-school in New England. He had tried 
 several times unsuccessfully to join the Union army, 
 being rejected, even as a drummer boy, on account of 
 his youth and slenderness. This nearly broke his 
 heart. He resolved to become strong. He worked 
 and fought his way along, without financial help, 
 through Wesleyan Academy and Yale University, 
 gaining steadily in power of body and mind. While 
 at Yale he met his wife, Frances Pryor, a native of 
 Connecticut. 
 
 He had developed into an all-round athlete of 
 great skill, becoming especially well known as a boxer. 
 He took life and himself seriously as a rule and would 
 not let anybody get the better of him if he could help 
 it. A New Haven policeman who had heard Wescott 
 called the best boxer in college made some disparag- 
 ing remarks about the college brand of athletics. The 
 result was a contest between young Wescott and the 
 best boxer on the large New Haven force, a fight 
 which the New Haven participant, now an ancient 
 pensioner, still loves to tell about. "It was a foine 
 shcrap," he said recently. "I was shtrong an' quick 
 in them days, but young Jack Wescott was a shade 
 too clever for me; ye never could tell phwhere he'd 
 be going to land next." 
 
 From the Yale Law School, where he took the 
 DeForrest Gold Medal, the highest university honor 
 in oratory and literary composition, and where he 
 won further athletic fame as bow oar of the fast 1876 
 crew, of which the famous coach. Bob Cook, was 
 stroke oar, John Wescott returned home and began 
 
82 AVooDEow AVilson's Eloquence 
 
 the practice of law in Camden with David Pancoast 
 in 1878. In 1886 Governor Leon Abbett appointed 
 him President Judge of the Coimty Court of Common 
 Pleas, to take the place of Judge Reed, deceased. 
 This was the same Reed who had taught school at 
 Waterford and made the Wescott boy recite his first 
 "piece." 
 
 At the bar. Judge Wescott had early gained the 
 reputation of a fighter. He was always resourceful, 
 but fought clean and hard. Always generous to a 
 beaten adversary and cheerful himself when worsted, 
 he has remained the inspiration and pride of the 
 struggling youth of his profession. In 1894 he was 
 assigned by the Supreme Court to defend Francis 
 Lingo, the negro indicted for the murder of Mrs. 
 Miller, wife of a farmer living near Matchtown, 
 Camden County. Mr. Wescott literally took his life 
 in his hands in defense of Lingo, for the whole 
 countryside was ablaze with the desire for vengeance. 
 Lingo was convicted after a long and bitter trial. 
 Mr. Wescott was certain that the negro was innocent. 
 By a study of the locality and comparing the testi- 
 mony relating to time with that relating to distances, 
 he saw that Lingo could not have been present when 
 the woman was killed. He was allowed a half hour 
 for argument on the rule for a new trial. When the 
 time was up, it was unanimously agreed by the Court 
 to let him go on. He argued the case for three days. 
 The result was a new trial. At the second trial 
 popular fury had subsided. Sober second thought 
 prevailed, and Lingo was acquitted by direction of 
 the Court on the case presented by the State, without 
 
WooDBow Wilson's Eloquence ^ 
 
 calling on the defense. Without Judge Weseott's 
 zeal and tenacity, which led the Chief Justice to call 
 him "a benevolent madman," this innocent negro 
 would undoubtedly have been hanged for another's 
 crime. Mr. Weseott's remarkable cross-examination 
 had destroyed the State's case completely. He is a 
 master in the trial of cases, as has been shown during 
 his service as Attorney General by the conviction of 
 the Roosevelt strike-breakers at New Brunswick, 
 charged with the illegal shooting of strikers. They 
 were ably defended by former Attorney General 
 McCarter and other eminent counsel and local public 
 sentiment was violently in their favor, but Judge 
 Wescott fearlessly and strenuously performed his 
 duty and effectually checked such lawlessness as had 
 marked the handling of the strike at Roosevelt. 
 
 While president of the New Jersey State Bar 
 Association, Judge Wescott called to address it such 
 able and distinguished students of our legal and 
 economic conditions as Hon. George W. Alger, of the 
 New York Bar, and Brooks Adams, Esq., whose 
 writings on the economic side of law are of world- 
 wide fame among scholars. The address made by 
 Judge Wescott himself on retiring from the presi- 
 dency of the association shows the vehement optimism 
 that lies at the foundation of his character. "Faith 
 in the future," he then said, "is not anchored in a 
 sea of doubt. It is an impregnable certainty, fixed 
 in the nature of man. ' ' 
 
 While always active in politics as a propagandist 
 of democratic ideas and policies and a tireless cam- 
 paigner for the Democratic ticket. Judge Wescott 
 
^* WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 could never be induced to "play the game" for 
 personal advancement. He ran once for Congress in 
 1888, and went down with Cleveland, though he led 
 the ticket in his district. In 1907 he joined the young 
 progressive element of South Jersey in support of 
 Frank S. Katzenbach for Governor. It was his 
 manly opposition to Woodrow Wilson and his equally 
 manly espousal of the Wilson cause when convinced 
 that it was in line with true progress that brought 
 Judge Wescott again into a campaign for elective 
 office. Governor Wilson chose him, after much delib- 
 eration, for the delicate and difficult task of heading 
 the New Jersey delegation to Baltimore in 1912, and 
 of presenting his name to the assembled convention. 
 The result made a national reputation for the New 
 Jersey lawyer and led his young associates in the 
 delegation to vent their enthusiasm for him in a boom 
 for nomination to the United States Senate. While 
 Mr. Wescott was absent on his well-earned vacation, 
 more than five thousand voters of his party petitioned 
 for his nomination. Their genuine enthusiasm sur- 
 prised him on his return and made it doubly hard to 
 sacrifice, a few weeks later, the candidacy thus 
 spontaneously made. 
 
 But loyalty to a cause triumphed instantly over 
 personal ambition. Judge Wescott 's act at that time 
 was far-sighted, fearless and self-denying. The an- 
 nouncement made in May that he would again become 
 a candidate for the nomination gave great satisfaction 
 to all his former supporters, who had felt deprived of 
 their first opportunity to choose for their Senator a 
 
WooDBow Wilson's Eloquence ^5 
 
 man bred in the hard school of poverty, who had won 
 success against great odds and who had never for- 
 gotten the plain people who have made this country 
 creat. 
 
Speecli of Hon. Jolin W. Wescott 
 
 of Caniclen, New Jerseij 
 Noiiiiiiatiii^ 
 
 Governor Woodrow Wilson 
 
 of New Jerseij 
 
 For tke Presideuctj of tke United States 
 
 at tke Democratic Convention 
 
 Baltimore, Jmie 27, 1912 
 
 New Jersey, once bound, but, by the moral energy 
 and intellectual greatness of a single soul, now free, 
 comes to this historic convention, in the glory of her 
 emancipation, to participate in your deliberations, 
 aid in formulating your judgments and assist in 
 executing your decrees. The New Jersey delegation 
 is in no sense empowered to exercise the attributes 
 of proprietorship. On the wreck and ruin of a 
 bi-partisan machine a master hand has erected an 
 ideal Commonwealth in less than two years. (Ap- 
 plause.)- ''New Jersey is free. Therefore, the New 
 Jersey delegation is commissioned to represent the 
 great cause of democracy and to offer, as its militant 
 and triumphant leader, a scholar, not a charlatan ; a 
 statesman, not a doctrinaire ; a profound lawyer, not 
 a splitter of legal hairs ; a political economist, not an 
 egotistical theorist; a practical politician, who con- 
 [ 87 ] 
 
^8 WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 structs, modifies, restrains without disturbance or 
 destruction ; a resistless debater and consummate 
 master of statement, not a mere phrase-maker; a 
 humanitarian, not a def amer of characters and lives ; 
 a man whose mind is at once cosmopolitan and com- 
 posite of all America; a gentleman of unpretentious 
 habits, with the fear of God in his heart and the love 
 of mankind exhibited in every act of his life (ap-— 
 plause) ; above all a public servant who has been tried 
 to the uttermost and never found wanting — peerless, 
 matchless, unconquerable in the performance of his 
 duty, the ultimate Democrat, the genius of liberty and 
 the very incarnation of progress. (Applause.) 
 
 New Jersey has reasons for her course. Let us 
 not be deceived in the essentials of the premises upon 
 which this convention will build, if it builds success- 
 fully. Campaigns of vilification, corruption and 
 false pretense have lost their usefulness. The evolu- 
 tion of national energy is toward a more intelligent 
 morality in politics and in all other relations. 
 (Applause.) The line of cleavage is between those 
 who treat politics as a game and those who regard it 
 as the serious business of government. The realign- 
 ment of political parties will be on this principle. 
 The situation admits of no dispute and no com- 
 promise. The temper and purpose of the American 
 people will tolerate no other view. The indifference 
 of the American public to its politics has disappeared. 
 Any platform, and any candidate on that platform, 
 not fully responsive to this vast social, political and 
 economical behest will go down to ignominious defeat 
 at the polls. (Applause.) Platforms are too often 
 
 i 
 
WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 
 
 mere historic rubbish heaps of broken promises. 
 Candidates are too often the unfortunate creatures 
 of arrangements and calculations. Exigencies, con- 
 ditions, national needs and necessities make better 
 platforms and produce greater leaders than does the 
 exercise of proprietorship. (Applause.) Hence it is 
 that a disregard of the premises will bring our dreams 
 crashing in ruins next November. 
 
 Again the eternal conflict between equal oppor- 
 tunity and special privilege is upon us. Our fathers 
 wrote the issue of that struggle in our Constitutions. 
 They declared all men to be free and equal. In a 
 single century that principle developed the North 
 American continent, leavened the world with its 
 beneficence, inspired all nations with hope and made 
 the United States the asylum of all mankind. (Ap- 
 plause.) Yet America, at this very hour, presents 
 the most stupendous contradiction in history — a 
 people politically free, while economically bound by 
 the most gigantic monopolies of all time and burdened 
 with a system of taxation which exploits millions to 
 enrich a few. We have preserved the forms of 
 freedom, but are fast losing its substance. The evils 
 of this condition are felt in a thousand ways through- 
 out the land. Therefore it is that America is awake. 
 Therefore it is that a mistake in our premises will 
 be fatal. Therefore it is that the situation, the 
 national exigency, the crisis, call for the right man. 
 Therefore it is that a silent and resistless revolution 
 demands our patriotic and best judgment. Individuals 
 are as nothing and personal ambitions are worse than 
 nothing. Impersonality should be the majesty of this 
 
90 
 
 AYooDKow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 convention. If the chosen candidate fails in any 
 sense or in any degree fully and completely to meet 
 the call of the nation, he is doomed to defeat. (Ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 Men are known by what they say and do. Men 
 are known by those who hate them and those who 
 oppose them, (Applause.) Many years ago the 
 distinguished executive of New Jersey said, ' ' No man 
 is great who thinks himself so, and no man is good 
 who does not strive to secure the happiness and com- 
 fort of others." (Applause.) This is the secret of 
 his life. This is, in the last analysis, the explanation 
 of his power. Later, in his memorable effort to retain 
 high scholarship and simple democracy in Princeton 
 University, he declared, ' ' The great voice of America 
 does not come from seats of learning. It comes in a 
 murmur from the hills and woods, and the farms and 
 factories and the mills, rolling on and gaining volume 
 until it comes to us from the homes of common men. 
 Do these murmurs echo in the corridors of our uni- 
 versities? I have not heard them." A clarion call 
 to the spirit that now moves America. Still later he 
 shouted, '*I will not cry peace so long as social injus- 
 tice and political wrong exist in the State of New 
 Jerse}'. " (Applause.) Here is the very soul of the 
 silent revolution now solidifying sentiment and pur- 
 pose in our common country. 
 
 The deeds of this moral and intellectual giant 
 are known to all men. They accord, not with the 
 shams and pretenses of diseased and disorgaiiized 
 politics, but make national harmony with the millions 
 of patriots determined to correct the wrongs of 
 
WooDEow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 
 
 liberty in all their regnant beauty and practical 
 plutocracy and re-establish the maxims of American 
 effectiveness. (Applause.) New Jersey loves her 
 Governor, not for the enemies he has made, but for 
 what he is. All evil is his enemy. He is the enemy 
 of all evil. The influences opposing him have demon- 
 strated his availability and fitness on the one hand, 
 and exposed the unavailability and unfitness of cer- 
 tain others on the other hand. The influence that 
 has opposed him blights and blasts any cause and 
 any person it espouses. That influence has appealed 
 to the sordid, the low and the criminal. That influ- 
 ence fattens and gorges itself on ignorance and 
 avarice. Any man who accepts the aid of that influ- 
 ence would be more fortunate had a millstone been 
 tied about his neck and he had been cast into the 
 depths of the sea. (Applause.) New Jersey believes 
 that the opposition to her Governor, such as it has 
 been and such as it is, necessitates and secures his 
 triumph. 
 
 Similar necessities, causes and motives impel all 
 men similarly the world over. The same necessities, 
 causes and motives which draw, as by omnipotence, 
 all New Jersey about this great and good man, are 
 identically the same necessities, causes and motives 
 that are in resistless motion in every State in the 
 Union. (Applause.) Its solidarity cannot be disin- 
 tegrated. False argument falls broken against it. A 
 revolution of intelligent and patriotic millions is the 
 expression of these same necessities, causes and mo- 
 tives. Therefore, New Jersey argues that her splendid 
 Governor is the only candidate who can not only 
 
^2 WooDROW Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 make Democratic success a certainty, but secure the 
 electoral vote of almost every State in the Union. 
 (Applause.) New Jersey herself will endorse his 
 nomination by a majority of one hundred thousand 
 of her liberated citizens. What New Jersey will do, 
 every debatable State in the Union will do. (Ap- 
 plause.) We are building, not for a day, or even a 
 generation, but for all time. Let not the belief that 
 any candidate may succeed, rob us of sound judg- 
 ment. What would it profit the Democratic party to 
 win now, only to be cast out four years hence ? The 
 Democratic party is commissioned to carry on a great 
 constructive program, having for its end a complete 
 restoration of the doctrine of equal rights and equal 
 opportunity — without injury or wrong to any one. 
 Providence has given us, in the exalted character of 
 New Jersey's executive, the mental and moral equip- 
 ment to accomplish this reincarnation of democracy. 
 New Jersey believes that there is an omniscience 
 in national instinct. That instinct centers in her 
 Governor. He is that instinct. (Applause.) How 
 can his power in every State be explained? He has 
 been in political life less than two years. He has 
 had no organization of the usual sort ; only a practical 
 idea, the re-establishment of equal opportunity. 
 (Applause.) The logic of events points to him. The 
 imperious voice of patriotism calls to him. Not his 
 deeds alone, not his deathless words alone, not his 
 simple personality alone, not his incomparable powers 
 alone, not his devotion to truth and principle alone, 
 but all combined, compel national faith and confidence 
 in him. (Applause.) Every crisis evolves its master. 
 
"WooDROw "WrLSO]sr's Eloqueni^k -^^ 
 
 Time and circumstance have evolved the immortal 
 Governor of New Jersey. The North, the South, the 
 East and the West unite in him. Deep calls to deep- 
 Height calls to height. 
 
 ' ' From peak to peak, the rattling crags among. 
 Leaps the live thunder. Not from one lone clo«cl, 
 But every mountain now hath found a tongue, 
 And Jura answers through her misty shroud 
 Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud. ' ' 
 
 The lightning flash of his genius has cleared the 
 atmosphere. We now know where we are. The 
 thunder of his sincerity is shaking the very founda- 
 tions of wrong and corruption. (Applause.) 
 
 This convention stands between ninety millions 
 of people and a thousand monopolies. It stands 
 between ninety millions of people who need a free 
 and fair opportunity and a thousand trusts that have 
 special privileges. The great issue is to restore to the 
 people equal opportunity, and, at the same time, to 
 compel monopolies and trusts to proceed upon the 
 same principle. This issue cannot be solved by a 
 platform. Thousands of platforms will not solve it. 
 The man on the platform alone can solve it. If he 
 has the moral force and personal courage and mental 
 ability, he will solve it because ninety millions of 
 confiding men, woman and children stand behind 
 him. (Applause.) Such is the meaning of the ap- 
 pearance of the Governor of New Jersey at this time 
 in the history of the nation. (Applause.) From the 
 roar and struggle and strife preceding this convention 
 and now involving it, there arises in majesty one char- 
 acter, unsullied and unsoiled. He has made but onii 
 compact. That compact was with his conscience. He 
 
^ 
 
 ^■^ WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 has made but one agreement. That agreement was 
 with his country and his God. (Applause.) He is 
 under but one obligation. That obligation is to 
 the eternal principle of truth and right. It requires 
 no sophistry to explain either his position or his 
 character. He stands in the quenchless light of truth, 
 a brave, fearless and patriotic soul. (Applause.) 
 /^'"^'^f Providence could spare us a Washington to 
 ■ lay deep in the granite of human need the founda- 
 tions of the United States ; if Providence could spare 
 \ us a Jefferson to give form and vitality to the most 
 splendid democracy the sun ever shone upon ; if 
 Providence could spare us a Lincoln to unite these 
 i 'States in impregnable unity and brotherhood, New 
 f Jersey appeals to the patriotism and good sense of 
 I this convention to give to the country the services 
 of the distinguished Governor of New Jersey, that 
 J the doors of opportunity may again be opened wide 
 
 I to every man, woman and child under the Stars and 
 I Stripes, so that, to use his own matchless phrase, 
 
 "their energies may be released intelligently, that 
 peace, justice and prosperity may reign." (Applause.) 
 New Jersey appreciates her deliverance. New 
 Jersey appreciates the great constructive results of 
 her Governor's efforts during the past two years, but 
 New Jersey appreciates more than that the honor 
 which she now has, through her freely chosen repre- 
 sentatives sitting before me, of placing before this 
 convention, as a candidate for the presidency of the 
 United States, the seer and philosopher of Princeton, 
 the "Princeton schoolmaster," Woodrow Wilson. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 t 
 
Speeck of Hon. Jokn W. Wescott 
 
 Attonieij'-Geiieral of New Jerseij 
 Nomiiiatiii^ 
 
 Woodrowr Wilson 
 
 President of tke United States 
 for Re-election 
 at tlie Democratic Convention 
 at Saint Loviis, Jtuie, 19 lO 
 
 Prophecy is fulfilled. The eternal verities of 
 righteousness have prevailed. Undismayed by the 
 calamities of war, unmoved by vituperation and vain 
 declamation, holding to the pure altar of truth, the 
 schoolmaster is statesman, the statesman financier, 
 the financier emancipator, the emancipator pacifica- 
 tor, the pacificator the moral leader of democracy. 
 
 The nation is at work. The nation is at peace. 
 The nation is accomplishing the destiny of democracy. 
 Four years ago the nation was not at work. With 
 resources boundless, with a hundred million people 
 eager to achieve and do, commerce languished, mdus- 
 tries halted, men were idle. The country struggled 
 in the toils of an inadequate financial system. Credit 
 [ 95 ] 
 
^^ WooDRow AYilson's Eloquence 
 
 was at the mercy of piracy. The small business man 
 was bound hand and foot. Panic hung like a storm 
 cloud over the business world. 
 
 Now bursting granaries, teeming factories, 
 crowded railways and overladen ships distribute 
 wealth and comfort to uncounted millions the world 
 over. Production outruns the means of distribution. 
 The parallel of American prosperity is not found 
 in industrial history ; nor is it causeless. It did not 
 descend, like a merciful accident, from heaven. It 
 is not due to the devastations of a revised tariff. It 
 is not the result of destructive legislation. It can- 
 not be attributed to the manufacture of war materials, 
 constituting a bare two per centum of the volume 
 of national busmess. War is destruction, not produc- 
 tion. War curtails international trade. War depresses 
 industrial energy. When the European cataclysm 
 struck the world, moratoria fell like a blight upon 
 many of the neutral nations, but not upon the United 
 States. 
 
 There stands the astounding phenomenon of 
 American prosperity. What is its explanation 1 The 
 Euclid of financial theory worked to a demonstration 
 measures for the country's relief. He promptly put 
 into effect the legislative expression of a great pro- 
 gram. He did not talk. He did things. He dynamited 
 the monetary dams and let credit flow to the remotest 
 corners of the land, its spray dashing even upon 
 foreign shores. (Applause.) He released the nation's 
 resources and set the energies of all men free to 
 exploit them. He destroyed commercial slavery. He 
 struck off its shackles. The prosperity of the nation 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^^ 
 
 is the product of statesmanship and financial genius. 
 American credit is now limited oidy by its own 
 honesty and capacity. The cause being undisturbed, 
 the effects must remain. The schoolmaster is states- 
 man, the statesman is financier, the financier is eman- 
 cipator. With Lincoln, the emancipator of the chattel 
 slave, he will live forever as the emancipator of the 
 commercial slave. (Applause.) 
 
 The nation is at peace in a world at war. America 
 is confronted with appalling realities. It is not the 
 part of wisdom to play with phantoms, deal in riddles, 
 or seek to entertain the national imagination with the 
 legerdemain of language. To build words mountain 
 high as the throne of vanity and ambition should not 
 be an American pastime. An attempt to catch the 
 presidency by phrases is the work of folly. The 
 function of a sounding brass and tinkling cymbal is 
 not germane to the tragic conditions of the world. 
 When the fate of millions is at stake, it is not the 
 part of any man to stack the cards. With civilization 
 in peril, the sphinx becomes an anachronism. With 
 the whole world tense and anxious, patriotic advice 
 and suggestion are of more value than abuse and 
 defamation. Speculation wilts in the blaze of truth. 
 Abusive phraseology shrivels before the relentless 
 fact. Honesty is the commanding quality of a free 
 and patriotic American, (Applause.) 
 
 What are the realities that face us? In Mexico 
 exist the potentialities of civilization. In her wealth, 
 her history, her schools, her religion, her needs, her 
 very suffering and patriotism lie the indestructible 
 seeds of progress. To have conquered Mexico would 
 
^^ AVooDKow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 have seated death at the American fireside. It would 
 have destroyed our prosperity and added hundreds 
 of millions of taxation to the burdens of the nation. 
 It would have planted distrust and hatred of the 
 United States in every South American republic. It 
 would have forfeited the respect of the world. It 
 would have substituted the tenets of Imperialism for 
 the principles of Americanism. It would have pros- 
 tituted the bravery and patriotism of American arms 
 to the greed and avarice of concessionaires. It would 
 have robbed the United States of the grandeur of her 
 mission amongst the nations of the earth. It would 
 have made might right and repudiated the doctrines 
 of Christianity. It would have ignored the funda- 
 mental conceptions of moral progress and denied the 
 right of fifteen millions of people to govern them- 
 selves. (Applause.) Ambition and greed were 
 prepared to sacrifice America and all that America 
 stands for, in order to acquire the wealth of Mexico. 
 The diplomacy of "watchful waiting" averted these 
 calamities and preserved in their original purity the 
 principles of American freedom and justice. ''Watch- 
 ful waiting" repudiated the brutal dictum of science 
 that the weak must go down before the strong. Help 
 Mexico lest over her bloody grave are sown the 
 dragon's teeth of our own destruction, (Applause.) 
 War with any European nation Avould have set 
 the whole world aflame and stopped the march of 
 progress for a century. Would any one have had it 
 so in order to affirm a ' ' virile Americanism " ? Is a 
 "virile Americanism" bloodshed, destruction, the 
 horrors of war and its uncertainties? The substance 
 
WooDROw Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 99 
 
 of civilization is the arts, thie sciences, literature, 
 philosophy, industry, the domestic virtues, freedom, 
 religion and peace. But this is the substance of 
 American nationalism. This is the virility of Ameri- 
 canism. It knows no national boundaries. It yet 
 lives in the trenches and broken homes of Europe 
 and pervades its very thrones. Therefore, America 
 lives in the trenches and broken homes of Europe 
 and its thrones. The stupendous conflagration is 
 consuming the errors of statesmen and dynasties; it 
 is not consuming the substance of civilization. Civil- 
 ization is a unity. War with Europe would have cut 
 asunder the moral forces that bind the nations and 
 left an age of darkness, anarchy and despair. Stand- 
 ing on the immutable foundations of such Ameri- 
 canism, the schoolmaster and statesman, with con- 
 summate skill, a skill that commands the admiration 
 of the world, directs the forces of civilization, not 
 with arms, but with reason and moral pressure against 
 the excesses of a belligerent world. With preter- 
 natural poise and clearness of vision, he is piloting 
 America through the rushing storm. Who can deny 
 the existence of a moral design in the universe ? Who 
 now can question its fulfillment ? Who now can close 
 his eyes to the destiny of democracy to make the 
 principles of civilization dominant, to bring the war- 
 ring nations of the earth together in lasting peace? 
 The passions of men die. The truth lives. America 
 has called to Europe ; Europe is responding in terms 
 of a revitalized civilization. The sublimest picture 
 in civil history is that of a plain American citizen 
 manoeuvring with the weapons of reason and human- 
 
100 WooDEow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 ity against the navies and armies of the contending 
 nations, and bringing them in accord with the princi- 
 ples of international law. (Applause.) The American 
 standard of peace and justice now floats on the sea. 
 It is unfurling over the trenches of the struggling 
 nations. From the vantage ground of imperishable 
 Americanism the matchless craft of a real pacifist has 
 not only avoided all war, but is leading the world in 
 the ways of peace. What is peace but the assertion 
 of moral progress? What is the assertion of moral 
 progress but the indestructible civilization of Europe 
 and America ? From the smoldering ruins of a thou- 
 sand cities, over the graves of millions of brave men, 
 out of the blackness of the battle smoke, arising from 
 the obscurities of national passions, already the 
 peoples of the earth recognize the dim outlines, grow- 
 ing ever more distinct, of the composite soul of 
 America in the patient and humane wisdom of the 
 world's real pacificator. (Applause.) Of what avail 
 all the wealth of our beloved land if it had been 
 consumed in the destructiveness of war ? What avail 
 the travail of human progress for ten thousand years 
 had not the schoolmaster and statesman been pacifi- 
 cator ? His achievement is so vast that ambitious men 
 are blind to its reality. But the plain millions, of all 
 creeds and nationalities, recognize in it the imperish- 
 able glories of a Christian civilization. It glorifies 
 the peasant and king alike. The schoolmaster is 
 statesman, the statesman is financier, the financier is 
 emancipator, the emancipator is the pacificator of the 
 world. 
 
WooDEow Wilson's Eloquence ^^^ 
 
 Thus is the nation accomplishing the destiny of 
 democracy. The commanding fact of the modern 
 age is the spread of intelligence. The schoolhouse 
 has conquered ignorance. The printing press has 
 transformed the purposes and capacities of man. 
 Education has qualified him for a better existence. 
 The Bible has made him a moralist. Men know that 
 the world is big enough to support the human family 
 in peace and comfort. Men know that the great 
 problem of peace and comfort is not yet solved. They 
 know that it cannot be solved by the savagery of 
 war. They know that its solution is obtainable only 
 in conditions of peace, reason and a practical moral- 
 ity. This state of knowledge is the crowning achieve- 
 ment of progress. (Applause.) 
 
 The American experiment of self-government has 
 stood the test. The achievements of the American 
 system are known of all men and felt throughout 
 the world. The United States is the world's asylum. 
 Here all races, all conditions, all creeds are assimi- 
 lated, helped, elevated, and men are made into self- 
 governing men. In America justice has made its 
 greatest progress, because it is progress in which all 
 men have a part. That form of government which 
 affords the fullest opportunity for happiness and 
 comfort is destined to be the universal form. Such 
 is the resistless syllogism of progress. War cannot 
 stop its inevitable march. The opinion of all men 
 is more potential than the opinion of one man. The 
 best opinion of the best men, by the force of example 
 and mutuality of interest, becomes the opinion of all 
 
102 "WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence 
 
 men. American opinion is embodied in a man of 
 peace. American opinion is marching through the 
 world. (Applause.) 
 
 When the Imperialism of Europe cast the iron 
 dice of destiny, America threw the moral dice of 
 destiny. America staked the principles of her justice. 
 There they stand in untarnished integrity in the gaze 
 of a stricken world. The intelligence of men grasps 
 the meaning of America. Her example will readjust 
 the relations of men everywhere. The aspirations of 
 men are for freedom. Men and women can and 
 should rule themselves. The day when they rule 
 themselves war will disappear. The hand of Divinity 
 has so written it in the needs and necessities of 
 humanity made in Its image. 
 
 America, prosperous, peaceful, blessed, is so be- 
 cause the inscrutable purposes of God intended it. 
 The contrast between Europe in flames and suffering 
 and the United States peaceful and prosperous is 
 the divine contrast. By saving the American system 
 civilization is saved. The peace of America demon- 
 strates the folly of war. The principles of democracy 
 furnish the means of avoiding a^d preventing war. 
 The universal intelligence of men decrees that the war 
 now devastating Europe shall be the last war. It will 
 end in the world's League of Peace. (Applause.) 
 
 Sons of America, keep unsullied the sacred shrine 
 of peace, through whose portals will yet pass arm in 
 arm the crowned head and the humble peasant in 
 silent worship of God. 
 
 Out of the ruins and sufferings of the present 
 conflict will arise a temple of justice whose dome will 
 
WooDRow Wilson's Eloquence ^^^ 
 
 be the blue vault of heaven ; its illuminants the eternal 
 stars; its pillars the everlasting hills; its ornaments 
 the woods and bountiful fields ; its music the rippling 
 rills, the song of birds, the laughter of happy child- 
 hood; its diapason the roar of mills and the hum of 
 industry; its votaries the peoples of the earth; its 
 creed, on which hangs all the law and the prophets, 
 "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Above its altars 
 in ineffaceable color will live eternally the vision of 
 its artificer. (Applause.) 
 
 Therefore, my fellow countrymen, not I, but his 
 deeds and achievements; not I, but the spirit and 
 purposes of America; not I, but the prayers of just 
 men; not I, but civilization itself, nominates to 
 succeed himself to the presidency of the United 
 States, to the presidency of a hundred million free 
 people, bound in impregnable union, the scholar, the 
 statesman, the financier, the emancipator, the pacifica- 
 tor, the moral leader of democracy, Woodrow Wilson. 
 (Great demonstration, lasting forty minutes.) 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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