February 15th

Last evening we all went to the Hotel Murat and from there escorted the President to the station which was beflagged in his honor. The red carpet was spread and the waiting rooms with palms and evergreen plants and flowers had been converted into a tropical garden; a cheering sight after the drizzling rain that had been falling all day. President Poincare and his lady were there and Clemenceau and his cabinet. All the American delegates were on hand and most of the foreign ambassadors and delegates. As the Colonel had had a long talk with the President in the afternoon and received his instructions, he kept in the background, but the President’s attitude was most cordial. Just before he mounted the railway carriage he came over to House and placing his hand on his shoulder almost affectionately he said, “Heavy work before you, House.” I rode back with the Colonel from the station and found him extremely thoughtful and rather depressed.

“He goes to meet the Senate—” began House, and then stopped. “You do not seem hopeful of the encounter,” I suggested.

“Hopeful, yes, but not confident. In the Washington battle the President will need diplomacy, patience.”

Here I pitched in with, “You are always urging me to speak right out in meeting and I’m going to do it now! I think you are unfair to the President. What patience has he not shown in dealing with that pestiferous mosquito Hymans of Belgium; and with what diplomacy has he avoided a complete break with the subtle Scialoja from Italy.” Instead of the rebuke which I had expected and perhaps deserved the Colonel said, as his face brightened:

“How glad I am to hear you say that and how true it is. How true it is that if the President could bring himself to behave with the Senators as he has with the mixed and motley crew of world delegates here, if he could bring himself to unbend and be friendly with them, if but for a day, his troubles and ours would be over. But you see in Washington and particularly in the Senate the President is confronted, or at least he thinks he is, with ancient quarrels and feuds of long standing. So I can only hope and pray. Much, very much, is at stake; indeed all we have fought for and won at such cost.”

Seeing that I was still skeptical and thought his criticism a little unfair, the Colonel took me further into his confidence but with the understanding, of course, that what he said was to remain “graveyard,” that is, buried in my diary.

“Perhaps it is premature, but in my judgment you can never look over the probable field of battle too soon, and a man in my confidence has been making a tally of the probable vote on ratification of the unfinished treaty in the Senate. It is clear to me that not nearly as many Senators, as the President thinks, are ‘sold’ on the Treaty and the Covenant, but if he plays his .cards well he will win. So today in our talk I told him I was already counting noses, and as that made him laugh I went into details. I urged the President to extend some courtesies, to even extend an olive branch to Hoke Smith, the Senator from Georgia, with whom, as I knew, he had been ‘feuding’ for some years, why I never knew but I was now to learn. ‘If you whistle Hoke will not come to heel,’ I suggested, ‘but if you ask him to come to the White House and assist you he will come and stay with you.’

“ ‘I shall do nothing of the sort!’ answered the President, and for a moment his eyes blazed with anger. ‘That man is an ambulance-chaser. I scorn to have any relations with him whatsoever.’

“Aghast, I inquired for details, and the strange story of the feud came out. It seems that, unhappy coincidence, Hoke Smith and Wilson hung out their law-office shingles in Atlanta in the same month and the same year.” House continued, “As I see it Smith was a hustler and Wilson a Southern gentleman inclined to stand on his dignity. Smith got a few clients, perhaps he did chase ambulances, but Wilson got none except a few family lawsuits that brought in no fees, so Wilson soon returned to academic life and Smith went on his way to the Senate.

“ ‘But, “Governor,” ’ I insisted, ‘this man’s vote is important, it may be vital. If he did chase ambulances thirty years ago, do not ostracize him. Let him, too, help to save civilization.’

“The President laughed now, and that was a good sign. ‘I don’t think his vote will be important and I’m sure it will not be decisive.

I shall receive him, of course, as the Senator from Georgia, if he calls, but, House, no nosegays, no olive branches in that direction.’

“Wilson wanted to change the subject, but I was insistent, and we talked for an hour about the conflicts that awaited me in Paris and were also awaiting him in Washington. He seemed now in a reasonable mood, and so I ventured to say, ‘Governor, I hope you haven’t lost your admiration for Burke. Your essay on that great man was the first product of your pen that enthralled me.’ ‘Of course not, of course not,’ was his rejoinder. ‘When in doubt I always consult Burke or Bagehot or both. But why your question?’ ‘Because I recall your Burke said “to govern is to compromise.” ’ He laughed and shook his finger at me and then he grew serious. ‘I know the situation you have in mind, but for once I do not agree with you or with Burke, if you have quoted him correctly. I have found that you get nothing in this world that is worth while without fighting for it.’ And so you see why I am hopeful, but not confident, of the outcome of the battle that awaits the President in Washington,” concluded House.

Certainly the President has achieved a number of notable successes during his stay in Paris. It is equally certain, however, that many major problems remain unsolved. First, Reparations; second, French Security and the Left Bank of the Rhine; third, the Adriatic and the Shantung problems. House fears the return of the President which was announced for four weeks later. In his judgment, the President could best direct future negotiations from Washington. There he would be in a calmer atmosphere and have the advantage of enjoying close contact with developing American opinion. However, House has been designated to take charge of the negotiations while the President is away. Could he make a suggestion that would result in prolonging the period of his authority and greater responsibility? Confident that an expression of opinion would be misunderstood by some and would have no effect on Wilson, the Colonel did not repeat the views he had expressed so frankly in October 1918, when he urged the President not to personally enter the melee:

“We must leave the decision to the President, where it belongs,” were his words on the only occasion, at least in my presence, when the question was again raised.