Modern Screen (Jan-Nov 1944)

He stood looking around at them, profoundly touched, trying to find the words to reach them. He felt that here in the proving ground of war, was the proof of America. Here all races and all creeds met in a common purpose, all together, all Americans. What could be done here, in one country, could perhaps be done for the world. He groped for words. "I want you to know," he said, "that we are fighting not only for our own safety but for those who will come after us. There must be a way — if we all will it — to guarantee peace. The world is large enough for all its nations. If we work together, band together in common aim like a — like a League, perhaps . . ." He always remembered that. And when, the time came for peace, he worked toward that great aim. He crossed to Paris to face the tortuous legalities of treaty making, hoping always to preserve that single aim in all its great simplicity. Even then, in Paris after the war, the doubts began to creep in. There was too much hatred left in the world. In Europe there were old scores, old wounds remembered; at home a group of men maligned him, misinterpreted his every word. As always, he had faith in the people. He always said that if they knew the issue, if they understood it completely, they would see the great need for America to share in the work and responsibility of a League of Nations. So he took the story to the country. Grayson, his doctor, told him he wasn't physically fit enough to undertake a trip of that length, speaking every night, sleeping in snatches, eating on the run. He insisted. That was his duty. That was what he had sworn to the soldiers he had asked to fight. "There can be no united action — no League of Nations — in the true sense without America's participation," he said. He spoke at crossroads. He spoke in the huge auditoriums of the cities of America. He spoke from the backs of trains. He spoke to the people wherever and whenever they would listen. "Make no mistake," he said. "Germany wants us to remain isolated . . ." He grew weaker. You could see the strain in his face. He spoke through the pain; nothing stopped him. He spoke, in final appeal, to the men who had fought the war. "You are betrayed," he said. "You fought for something you did not get . . . There will come a time in the vengeful providence of God . . . another struggle in which . . . many millions may be asked to give their lives to accomplish the final freedom of the people of the world . . ." After that speech he turned from the platform of the train. Behind him Edith was watching anxiously. Dr. Grayson came hurrying forward. Grayson caught his arm. His face was ashen white. He took Edith's hand: "I'm so — tired." As a soldier who does his duty and sometimes dies doing it, so Wilson did his duty. Despite pain and illness he carried on until the moment of collapse. He was a soldier in the cause of peace; he was one of the casualties in civilization's endless war against war. He was a paralyzed old man at the end of his term of office. But there was nothing gone in his spirit. The fire still flashed in his eyes, and his great soul still fought on where the body had deserted. He tasted defeat. He saw his policies go down to defeat in the next election. He watched America spurn the League of Nations. But the day he left the White House he still believed in all the principles that he had always believed in. He still believed in their eventual triumph. He still believed in the Tightness and the justness of his ideas. He believed fervently and completely in the ideal of Peace through a League. Standing in the White House on his last day there, with Edith, he said quietly: "The fight's just begun. You and I may never five to see it finished. But that doesn't matter. The League isn't dead ... the dream of a world united against the awful wastes of war is too deeply embedded in the hearts of men everywhere . . ." He left the White House as he had entered it, a quiet man with flaming eyes. They walked out together, Wilson and Edith, Margaret and Jessie and Nell. Wilson walked out into the annals of America and into the hearts of Americans and into the soul of any man anywhere who dreams the word Peace. CAST Woodrow Wilson Alexander Knox Professor Henry Holmes Charles Coburn Edith Wilson Geraldine Fitzgerald Joseph Tumulty Thomas Mitchell Ellen Wilson Ruth Nelson Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Sir Cedric Hardwicke William G. McAdoo Vincent Price George Felton William Eythe Eleanor Wilson Mary Anderson Margaret Wilson Ruth Ford Josephus Daniels Sidney Blackmer Jessie Wilson Madeleine Forbes Admiral Grayson Stanley Ridges Eddie Foy Eddie Foy, Jr. Colonel House Charles Halton Senator E. H. Jones Thurston Hall Edward Sullivan J. M. 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