Mr. Wilson on Wednesday, in a speech addressed to the
Washing. ton Press Club, said : " If I cannot retain my moral influence over a man except by occasionally knocking him down, if that is the only basis upon which he will respect me, for the sake of his soul I have got occasionally to knock him down." We are sure our readers will not think we are saying anything derogatory of President Wilson if we speculate whether before using the words just quoted—words which of course were spoken with humorous intent—the President had been lately re-reading the immortal passage in David Copperfield where Mr. Micawber declared that there was a time when he held himself erect before his fellow-man, and if they differed punched his head. "I and my fellow-man," regretfully added Mr. Micawber, " no longer meet upon those glorious terms." Mr. Wilson has no such cause of regret. He can, and we believe will, if necessary, supply the particular medicine of the soul to which he alludes.
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