rring to Page men who
offered themselves to him as volunteer workers in his cause. "Go and see
Walter Page" was his usual answer to this kind of an approach. But Page
was not a collector of delegates to nominating conventions; not his the
art of manipulating these assemblages in the interest of a favoured man;
yet his services to the Wilson cause, while less demonstrative, were
almost as practical. His talent lay in exposition; and he now took upon
himself the task of spreading Wilson's fame. In his own magazine and in
books published by his firm, in letters to friends, in personal
conferences, he set forth Wilson's achievements. Page also persuaded
Wilson to make his famous speechmaking trip through the Western States
in 1911 and this was perhaps his largest definite contribution to the
Wilson campaign. It was in the course of this historic pilgrimage that
the American masses obtained their first view of a previously too-much
hidden figure.

On election day Page wrote the President-elect a letter of
congratulation which contains one item of the greatest interest. When
the time came for the new President to deliver his first message to
Congress, he surprised the country by abandoning the usual practice of
sending a long written communication to be droned out by a reading
clerk to a yawning company of legislators. He appeared in person and
read the document himself. As President Harding has followed his example
it seems likely that this innovation, which certainly represents a great
improvement over the old routine, has become the established custom. The
origin of the idea therefore has historic value.

_To Woodrow Wilson_
Garden City, N.Y.
Election Day, 1912. [Nov. 5]

MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT:

Before going into town to hear the returns, I write you my
congratulations. Even if you were defeated, I should still
congratulate you on putting a Presidential campaign on a higher
level than it has ever before reached since Washington's time. Your
grip became firmer and your sweep wider every week. It was
inspiring to watch the unfolding of the deep meaning of it and to
see the people's grasp of the main idea. It was fairly, highly,
freely, won, and now we enter the Era of Great Opportunity. It is
hard to measure the extent or the thrill of the new interest in
public affairs and the new hope that you have aroused in thousands
of men wh