Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY. MARCH 13, 1919. WILSON AND LLOYD GEORGE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1951, 13 March 1919, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY. MARCH 13, 1919. WILSON AND LLOYD GEORGE.

THE meeting for the first lime of President Wilson and the British Prime Minister has an immense personal interest. Personality is still the most fascinating thing in the world, Armageddon eannol eelipse it. Utopia eonhl not dull it. And in the malehiiig of the minds of Lloyd Oeorge and Woodrow Wilson the old writers of parallels and contrasts, like the famous one between Pope and Dryden, would have found ait irresistible appeal to their pens. Nothing so ambitious can ho exported to occur to a newspaper; hn) if may he well In remind ourselves what manner of men these two are who.se conferences in London mean so much for (wo great democracies and for the world. Both ar/lirslclass® lighting men. Outwardly, Lloyd Oeorge is the harder hitler. He has fought his way from the bottom to the top. He bigirs more sears of battle than docs Mr Wilson. So do Lloyd George's enemies. , For he has left a trail of dead and dying opponents'behind him. Aggressive pugnacity hits marked his course from the day when, a> a sou of poverty and a struggling WeL.li attorney, he’ began to attack landlords and the Established Church. Rough of longue, he has been little delicate to his political methods. Even his admiring biographer has to admit that the intrigue by which Lloyd George forced his chief, Mr Asquith —the inyn who had made him politically —out of Prime Ministership, and then snatched it himself Ims an “ugly” look. But Lloyd George has always snapped his fingers at mere appearances, and gone straight for the filing lie was after. This combative instinct is not absent from President Wilson, He, too, sets a goal, for himself towards which he presses with very little regard for those, whether they he friends or foes, Avho get in his way. But lie has not the bruiser quality of Lloyd

George. Tie never “Limehouses.” His greater refinement of method may bo clue, in pari, to the fact that his rise was not achieved by hard knocks. In addition to better cultivation of mind and manners than Lloyd George early enjoyed, Mr Wilson had an easier coprso to power and place. An amazing opportunity came to him late in life, and ho made the most of it. He must sometimes have been almost dazed himself at the romantic public career (hat opened before him, A good part of his success in ollice has been due to his lighting spirit, often audacious, always tenacious, occasionally, it is to he feared, not 100 fastidious, but never on the rude model of Lloyd George. Both men are great speakers,. Wilson excels in tinish. It is doubtful, however, if any speech of his has ever had the moving Celtic quality which Lloyd George so often displays, albeit with a deficient sense of liierary form. Wilson sympathises with the ordinary man by a process of divination. Lloyd George knows his working men from having rubbed shoulders with (hem. Both statesmen have said many things,, in their much speaking, which they would willingly let die. Against both of (hem their former speeches am quoted. The chaige of inconsistency disturbs Lloyd George less than it seems to Mr Wilson. The Welshman laughs at the charge in coarse-grained fashion. The American is more like Gladstone in desiring to “explain away'' (hit contradict ions. Both of them might; wisely imitate the frankites.- of Lincoln, who, when accused of having changed his ground, admitted it, and said: “i should not think much of a man avlio was not wiser this year than last." In fact, it could be said of the President and the Prime Minister, as it has been said of Lincolns (hat they have not thought if beneath them to seek to enlarge their minds and expand heir powers after thev were forty.