Teach
02-17-2017, 07:20 AM
“It’s for the people to decide.” No, those are not the words of President Donald Trump, but Woodrow Wilson. A little less than 100 years ago, then President Woodrow Wilson went on a cross-country speaking tour to save The League of Nations.
Yesterday, in a similar vein, yet with a different purpose, POTUS said “I’m here again to take my message straight to the people.” The apparent reason for yesterday’s one hour and 15 minutes news conference is that President Trump is deeply frustrated at the way his new White House is being portrayed. He decided to take matters into his own hands by appealing directly to the people.
All this reminds me of Woodrow Wilson’s ill-fated trip in the late summer of 1919 when Wilson criss-crossed the country to, as he put it, “Let the people know exactly what’s at stake.”
After the Treaty of Versailles was signed at the end of World War I, Wilson met stiff opposition at home as to its ratification (a two-thirds vote of Senate is necessary). There was opposition: “Reservationists” led by MA senator, Henry Cabot Lodge, and “Irreconcilables” led by Sen. William Borah (Idaho) and Sen. Hiram Johnson (California).
President Wilson, for his part, would “stump the country” on a 9,500-mile speaking tour. He would make thirty-five speeches in twenty-two days. That schedule would be a daunting task for anyone; yet Wilson, at the time, was a few months shy of his 63rd birthday. In addition, he was not “the picture of health”. In fact, Wilson’s doctors warned him not to undertake this rigorous trip. Yet, despite doctors’ warnings, Wilson persevered. Wilson could be stubborn. Someone once said that Wilson was “born halfway between the Bible and the dictionary and never strayed far from either.”
Well, in mid-September, Wilson would make a speech at Pueblo, Colorado. He was by then totally exhausted. He collapsed. Wilson would make no more speeches. He was rushed back to Washington. Doctors determined that he had had a stroke. Though Wilson’s mind was clear, his body was partially paralyzed. Wilson’s wife, Edith Bolling (Galt) Wilson would serve as “the unofficial president” while Wilson recuperated.
As a postscript, the United State Senate never ratified the Treaty of Versailles (The U.S. signed a separate peace treaty with Germany in 1921). We thus never joined the League of Nations. Instead, the U.S. turned its attention to domestic issues.
Yesterday, in a similar vein, yet with a different purpose, POTUS said “I’m here again to take my message straight to the people.” The apparent reason for yesterday’s one hour and 15 minutes news conference is that President Trump is deeply frustrated at the way his new White House is being portrayed. He decided to take matters into his own hands by appealing directly to the people.
All this reminds me of Woodrow Wilson’s ill-fated trip in the late summer of 1919 when Wilson criss-crossed the country to, as he put it, “Let the people know exactly what’s at stake.”
After the Treaty of Versailles was signed at the end of World War I, Wilson met stiff opposition at home as to its ratification (a two-thirds vote of Senate is necessary). There was opposition: “Reservationists” led by MA senator, Henry Cabot Lodge, and “Irreconcilables” led by Sen. William Borah (Idaho) and Sen. Hiram Johnson (California).
President Wilson, for his part, would “stump the country” on a 9,500-mile speaking tour. He would make thirty-five speeches in twenty-two days. That schedule would be a daunting task for anyone; yet Wilson, at the time, was a few months shy of his 63rd birthday. In addition, he was not “the picture of health”. In fact, Wilson’s doctors warned him not to undertake this rigorous trip. Yet, despite doctors’ warnings, Wilson persevered. Wilson could be stubborn. Someone once said that Wilson was “born halfway between the Bible and the dictionary and never strayed far from either.”
Well, in mid-September, Wilson would make a speech at Pueblo, Colorado. He was by then totally exhausted. He collapsed. Wilson would make no more speeches. He was rushed back to Washington. Doctors determined that he had had a stroke. Though Wilson’s mind was clear, his body was partially paralyzed. Wilson’s wife, Edith Bolling (Galt) Wilson would serve as “the unofficial president” while Wilson recuperated.
As a postscript, the United State Senate never ratified the Treaty of Versailles (The U.S. signed a separate peace treaty with Germany in 1921). We thus never joined the League of Nations. Instead, the U.S. turned its attention to domestic issues.