eds to read his speech, very
clearly and audibly. Some passages were applauded. When he had done, he
again shook hands with the presiding officer and went out, preceded and
followed by the White House escort. I sat in the Presidential (or
diplomatic?) gallery with the White House party, higgledy-piggledy.

The speech ended, the President drove to the White House with his escort
in his car. The crowds in the corridors and about the doors waited and
crowded to see Mrs. Wilson, quite respectful but without order or
discipline. We had to push our way through them. Now and then a
policeman at a distance would yell loudly, "Make way there!"

When we reached the White House, I asked the doorman if the President
had arrived.

"Yes."

"Does he expect me to go in and say good-bye?"

"No."

Thus he had no idea of talking with me now, if ever. Not at lunch nor
after did he suggest a conversation about American-British affairs or
say anything about my seeing him again.

This threatened strike does hold his whole mind--bothers him greatly.
It seems doubtful if he can avert a general strike. The Republicans are
trying "to put him in a political hole," and they say he, too, is
playing politics. Whoever be to blame for it, it is true that politics
is in the game. Nobody seems to foresee who will make capital out of it.
Surely I can't.

There's no social sense at the White House. The President has at his
table family connections only--and they say few or no distinguished men
and women are invited, except the regular notables at the set
dinners--the diplomatic, the judiciary, and the like. His table is his
private family affair--nothing more. It is very hard to understand why
so intellectual a man doesn't have notable men about him. It's the
college professor's village habit, I dare say. But it's a great
misfortune. This is one way in which Mr. Wilson shuts out the world and
lives too much alone, feeding only on knowledge and subjects that he has
already acquired and not getting new views or fresh suggestions from men
and women.

He sees almost nobody except members of Congress for whom he sends for
special conferences, and he usually sees these in his office. The
railroad presidents and men he met in formal conference--no social
touch.

A member of his Cabinet told me that Mr. Wilson had shown confidence in
him, given him a wide range of action in his own Department and that he
relies on his judgment. This Cabinet member of