Idling in Italy: Studies of literature and of lifeCollins, Joseph
History
Idling in Italy: Studies of literature and of life
Collins, Joseph
Italian literature -- History and criticism
Woodrow Wilson does not love his fellow men. He loves them in the
abstract, but not in the flesh. He is concerned with their fate, their
destiny, their travail en masse, but the predicaments, perplexities, and
prostrations of the individual or groups of individuals make no appeal
to him. He does not refresh his soul by bathing it daily in the milk of
human kindness. He says with his lips that he loves his fellow men, but
there is no accompanying emotional glow, none of the somatic or
spiritual accompaniments which are the normal ancillæ of love's display.
Hence he does not respect their convictions when they are opposed to his
own, he does not value their counsels. His determination to put things
through in the way he has convinced himself they should be put through
is not susceptible to change from influences that originate without his
own mind. He has made many false steps, but none of them so conditioned
the fall from the exalted position the world had given to him as his
determination to go to Paris and represent this country at the Peace
Conference. If one may judge what the verdict of all the voters in this
country would have been, had the question of his going been submitted to
them, from the expressions of opinion of those one encounters in his
daily life, it would be no exaggeration to say that three-fourths of the
voters would say he should not have gone. I think I may say truthfully
that I never encountered a person who approved his decision. It is
possible that his entourage or cabinet and counsellors did not contain a
daring soul who volunteered such advice, but it is incredible that both
they and the President did not sense the judgment of their countrymen as
it was reflected in the newspapers. However, it is likely that he would
have gone had he known that the majority of the voters of this country
were opposed to it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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