THE CAT AND THE KING

Biography is a form of literature which requires sympathy, good judgment, impartiality, and tact. The last-named is particularly necessary when the subject of the biography is still living; biographers throughout history have caused pain, done injustice, and made fools of themselves through too much haste in publishing their work, or too little taste in the writing of it. Mr. Tumulty's recent publication, while not strictly a biography, must be placed in that class as it attempts to portray the character of ex-President Wilson through the narration of various events in his career. It is unfortunate that the work should have appeared at this time. Its purpose, no doubt was good; but personal prejudices are still too keen to permit the book a fair reception; and the writer's own preconceptions are no doubt still too strong to allow him the broad, impersonal altitude which is necessary for a successful biography.

Mr. Tumulty's book has one fault which will immediately condemn it for a majority of readers; his own petty personality intrudes in every sentence. The book might better be termed an autobiography of the president's secretary, for the greater man is distinctly secondary. It is scarcely believable that the writer deliberately set out to belittle Mr. Wilson to his own advantage; yet the impression which one first receives from the book is of a weakling acting as the tool of his secretary's superior intelligence, an impression far removed, by the way, from that given by Boswell. If we were to take the book at its face value, the effect would be grossly to lessen our respect for the great man. Yet the introduction denies this earnestly; and a knowledge of Mr. Tumulty proves that he intends to do his superior a great service.

In spite of Mr. Tumulty, as if were, there comes to the reader one firm conviction--that. Woodrow Wilson was thoroughly sincere in every action; that he never acted without the certain belief that what he did was right. No matter what may be our opinion of his leadership, his judgment, his diplomacy (and even these, one may believe, will appear better from a distance), this memory of him is destined to live; in everything he did as President he was a high-minded patriot and a sincere idealist.