WILSON 



630S 



WINCHELL 



fore, the participation of the United States in 

 the war made even' American a cog in the 

 great war machine. Individual interests had to 

 be sacrificed. Never before had the United 

 States made such tremendous demands on it- 

 self. (For further details of America's partici- 

 pation and the events which led up to it, see 

 WAR OF THE NATIONS.) 



During the years 1913-1916 President Wilson 

 devoted his energies partly to domestic prob- 

 lems and partly to the task of keeping the na- 

 tion out of war. His success in the latter task 

 was one of the appeals for his reelection in 

 1916. To be sure, he stood on his record as a 

 whole, including the legislative achievements of 

 the administration. The Republicans, after a 

 period of uncertainty, nominated Charles Ev- 

 ans Hughes, an Associate Justice of the United 

 States Supreme Court. Wilson was reflected 

 by a vote of 277, as against 254 for Hughes. 



President Wilson's second term was devoted 

 to the war and the problems involving peace. 

 He broke all precedents when in December, 

 1918, he headed America's delegation to the 

 peace conference at Paris (see VERSAILLES, 

 TREATY OF), and remained away from home for 

 six months. Wilson was one of the "big four" 

 of that great meeting. He fought for principles 

 of open diplomacy, a league of nations and for 

 self-determination of peoples, but was success- 

 ful only in part. Europe's masses hailed him 

 as their savior; its statesmen held to their tra- 

 ditions. See WAR OF THE NATIONS. 



Other Events. Many other important events 

 must be recorded of Wilson's administration. 

 First, perhaps, should come the completion of 

 the Panama Canal (which see). This was com- 

 memorated by two great expositions, the 

 Panama-Pacific at San Francisco and the 

 Panama-California at San Diego, California, 

 both held in 1915. The terrible floods in the 

 Ohio Valley in 1913, the Hetch-Hetchy Reser- 

 voir Law of 1913 and the agitation which pre- 

 ceded it; the completion of the Keokuk Dam 

 in 1913 and of the Cape Cod Canal in 1914; 

 adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment, pro- 

 viding for the direct election of United States 

 Senators, and the granting of partial suffrage 

 to women in Illinois (1913) and full suffrage 

 to those in New York (1917) were all events 

 of significance. The acceptance of women as 

 voters in Illinois was especially noteworthy be- 

 cause it was the first state east of the Missis- 

 sippi to take this action ; New York's vote, and 

 that of Rhode Island, which had previously 

 granted women Presidential suffrage, broke the 



solid East, which had been unanimously against 

 equal suffrage. 



An epoch was marked by the appointment of 

 Louis D. Brandeis to the United States Su- 

 preme Court. Mr. Brandeis was not merely 

 the first Jew to sit on this court, but he was 

 the first Justice who was a so-called "radical." 

 A fight of five months preceded his confirma- 

 tion by the Senate, as many Senators preferred 

 a more conservative man. 



Private Life of the President. Although 

 President Wilson and his family did not arouse 

 the personal interest in their private affairs 

 which was so striking a characteristic of some 

 of his predecessors, the nation as a whole ex- 

 tended its deepest sympathy to the family 

 when Mrs. Wilson died. As Ellen Axson, of 

 Savannah, Georgia, she had married the young 

 lawyer on June 24, 1885. On August 6, 1914, 

 during the first week of the War of the Na- 

 tions, she died. A man of strong domestic in- 

 clinations, the President naturally craved a 

 helpmate, and his friends were gratified by the 

 announcement that he was to be married a 

 second time. On December 18, 1915, he be- 

 came the husband of Mrs. Norman Gait, for- 

 merly Miss Edith Boiling, of Wytheville. 

 Virginia. During his Presidency two of his 

 daughters were married in the White House 

 Jessie to Francis B. Sayre, and Eleanor to Wil- 

 liam G. McAdoo, Secretary of the Treasury. 

 The third and eldest daughter, Margaret, is a 

 singer of ability and is noted for her activities 

 in social welfare. W.F.Z. 



Consult: J. G. Wilson's Presidents of the 

 United States, vol. 4 ; Ford's Woodrow Wilson; 

 Hosford's Woodrow Wilson. 



WINCHELL, win'chel, ALEXANDER (1824- 

 1891), an American geologist and university 

 professor, born in North East, t)utchess County, 

 N. Y. He was graduated at Wesleyan Uni- 

 versity, Middletown, Conn., in 1847, and in 

 1863 became professor of botany and geology 

 in the University of Michigan. From 1873 to 

 1874 he was chancellor of Syracuse University, 

 but resigned to become professor of geology, 

 zoology and botany in that institution ; in 1875 

 he was appointed to a similar position in Van- 

 derbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. Until 1878 

 he filled both positions. In 1879 he was re- 

 called to the University of Michigan, and held 

 there until his death the professorship of ge- 

 ology and paleontology. His published writings 

 embrace The Doctrine oj Evolution, The 

 Geology oj the Stars, Sparks from a Geolo- 

 gist's Hammer and Sketches of Creation. 



