WOODROW WILSON.*
The pergontility of the Democratic candidate for the Presi- dency of the United States is so little known in Britain that many readers will welcome Miss HosfOrd's little book. We can promise them -some -instruction and more mystification, It is written very- muoh in the style of election posters, and since the election jargon is American it is not easy reading, being full of strange words and strange metaphors from (to the Briton) mysterious sports.. We suppose that by this time Dr. Wilson is hardened to political journalism, but it would embarrass most men, of his antecedents to be described in Miss Hosford's artless manner as "a Southern-Northerner and a Northern-Southerner, a national favourite son, a Yankee-Doodle-Dixie candidate." We are grateful to her for printing the speech made by Mr. Westcott of New Jersey at the Baltimore Convention. It is a delightfol specimen of Convention oratory, Dr. Wilson being described as "peerless, matchless, unconquerable, the ultimate Democrat." But in spite of our difficulties with her language Miss Hosford contrives to present a very interesting and striking picture of one of the most remarkable of living Americans. No professional scholar has ever marched so gaily T11) the political ladder. A distinguished historian and jurist, he was elected president of Princeton in 1902, and during his term of office made valuable reforms in the curriculum, and established a system very like the college- tutorships at Oxford and Cambridge. As Governor of New Jersey he waged relentless war against the " bosses," and inaugurated that revolt against the " machine " which is the chief feature of modern American politics. He also carried through a number of valuable social and legal reforms. He is what is commonly called a Radical, but he is very ill described by party names. Few politicians have ever bad his equipment of knowledge and serious thought, and his aim is to diagnose the evils of his land and face them fearlessly. At the same time he is- no hasty propagandist, and his idealism never descends into sentimentality. Probably the truest description of the man who may very well be the next, American President is one which Miss Hosford quotes—"a; Conservative with a move on."
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