Sometimes when he dropped in unexpectedly to make a suggestion--(he had a habit of calling directions "suggestions" when speaking to a Cabinet member)--I sometimes wondered if he was not as much influenced in making his personal calls to give encouragement and support, and the helpful personal touch, as to discuss strategy or tactics or policy. Certainly these visits heartened and strengthened those of us who in trying times were charged with heavy responsibility. He knew, too, what was going on. He often surprised me by his knowledge of the comparative qualities of men he had never seen--how accurate was his appraisement, how his questioning of them showed the military leadership which few people thought the college professor possessed. He never left my office, and I never left the White House, after a conference during the war, without the reflection that the world had lost a great military leader when it gained a great educator and executive. When we were transporting soldiers through the infested zones he was anxious, intensely interested, and read every cablegram concerning the troop-ships. When he did not come in person, in crucial days, there would come from the White House frequent memoranda written by himself on his little typewriter, asking for some information or making an illuminating suggestion, signed " W. W." Those " W. W." notes never had a spare word, and they showed the same clearness and vision which John Hay tells us Lincoln had when he would go over to see Stanton, or Gideon Welles in the dark days of Civil War. There is a feeling among many military men that civilians "butt in" when they give their views on strategy. It is notorious how some of the generals in the War between the States resented the suggestions of Mr. Lincoln, suggestions which as a rule displayed sounder judgment of the way to win battles than the military experts had shown. I recall one admiral during the war, who, upon receiving, through the diplomatic representatives of our Government, President Wilson's strong opinion that a certain important offensive should be adopted, asked: "What does the President want to butt in for? What does he know about it?" As to that particular matter the President, from long study and reflection, found that it was necessary to "butt in," because some naval leaders of more than one nation lacked the vision to do the bold and the new thing to win.