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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT 



WOODROW WILSON PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED 

 STATES-THE WAR 



OHN GRIER HIBBEN was elected to the presidency of Princeton 

 University and inaugurated in the spring of 1912, When I heard of 

 this election, I was greatly disappointed and cast down, for I feared 

 that it signified the triumph of Mr. Wilson's bitterest enemies. In this, 

 happily, I was entirely mistaken. Dr. Hibben's genial and kindly nature 

 rapidly healed the breach which the violent controversies had made. 

 He gave us an admirable administration, one of the most successful 

 in all our history, and I, in particular, have every reason to be grateful 

 to him for the way in which he enabled me to expand and strengthen 

 the department of geology. 



When I sailed from Boston on July 2, 1912, the Democratic conven- 

 tion in Baltimore was in session, and the news of Wilson's nomination 

 reached us while still at sea. When Mr. Wilson was nominated for the 

 governorship of New Jersey, the Democratic bosses fancied that he was 

 a cloistered recluse, whom it would be easy to deceive and bend to their 

 own purposes. When this expectation was shown to be an absurd delu- 

 sion and Governor Wilson began to loom up as a formidable competi- 

 tor for the presidential nomination of his party, a systematic attempt 

 to discredit him was inaugurated. The artificial nature of this attempt 

 was made plain by the rhythmically recurrent attacks which even 

 stooped to the pubhcation of private letters. Whatever opinion may be 

 held of Mr. Bryan, it must always be remembered to his credit that, 

 large-mindedly ignoring Mr. Wilson's published disparagement of him, 

 he yet prevented the nomination of Champ Clark and secured that 

 of Governor Wilson. It was assuredly "a merciful dispensation of 

 Providence" that Wilson, not Clark, was at the helm, when the ship 

 entered the wild waters of the struggle with Germany. 



When I returned to Cataumet for the remainder of the summer, 

 after an absence of a month, I learned almost immediately of the vile 



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