Cary T. Grayson Diary
Title
Cary T. Grayson Diary
Creator
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938
Identifier
WWP17100
Date
1919 March 10
Source
Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia
Language
English
Text
The President did not arise until noon. After lunch he went on deck for the first time and promenaded around the enclosed “B” Deck a few times. He was attracted to the shuffle board game, and he and Mrs. Wilson amused themselves playing it for a little while. The President was not very lucky, his highest score in any of the games approximating only three. He could get the blocks in the squares, but they usually landed on the line and did not therefore count in the score.
In today’s issue of the HATCHET -- the U. S. S. GEORGE WASHINGTON’S publication -- the following despatch appeared:
After reading this article the President said that this looked bad; that if the present government of Germany is recognizing the soldiers and workers councils, it is delivering itself into the hands of the bolshevists. He said the American negro returning from abroad would be our greatest medium in conveying bolshevism to America. For example, a friend recently related the experience of a lady friend wanting to employ a negro laundress offering to pay the usual wage in that community. The negress demands that she be given more money than was offered for the reason that “money is as much mine as it is yours.” Furthermore, he called attention to the fact that the French people have placed the negro soldier in France on an equality with the white man, and “it has gone to their heads.”
Discussing bolshevism, the President referred to the fact that its theory had some advantages but the trouble was that an attempt was being made to accomplish it in the wrong way. It is a very serious and grave question and one that will have a marked bearing on future business. And in speaking of business, he said that the employees do not seem to be satisfied with what is called a partnership or share of the profits. As to profit sharing they doubt their employers when the business concern tells them that they cannot afford to give them more than, say, 10% of the profits; they often say: “We believe they can afford to give us 20%”, or sometimes they go as far as to say, even 50%, and that they (the employees) have no way of examining the books and ascertaining just what they are entitled to under this system. The President thought it might be feasible to make the workmen partners of the business to the extent of having half of the directors from the working-class, because then they could see what is going on; they would be present at the meetings and could examine the books and have their own representatives present at all times, and in that way be convinced as to the actual conditions.
The President today said: “In I was having lunch at the Everett Hotel, New York, a quiet little hotel that I used to frequent when in New York. While there at lunch Mr. Gilder, editor of the Century Magazine, came over to my table and said: ‘I see that some one in the Indianapolis News has nominated you for President.’ I said: ‘President of what?’ He replied: ‘Why President of the United States’. To which I exclaimed: ‘That is rather a large order’. Mr. Gilder added: ‘And he isn’t a fool either’. I said: ‘I like that’. And he then began not to take me seriously but to apologize, saying that: ‘I meant to show you what a big calibered man he is and a man of good sense and great vision’. I jokingly changed the subject. I had been recently elected President of Princeton University.”
In today’s issue of the HATCHET -- the U. S. S. GEORGE WASHINGTON’S publication -- the following despatch appeared:
After reading this article the President said that this looked bad; that if the present government of Germany is recognizing the soldiers and workers councils, it is delivering itself into the hands of the bolshevists. He said the American negro returning from abroad would be our greatest medium in conveying bolshevism to America. For example, a friend recently related the experience of a lady friend wanting to employ a negro laundress offering to pay the usual wage in that community. The negress demands that she be given more money than was offered for the reason that “money is as much mine as it is yours.” Furthermore, he called attention to the fact that the French people have placed the negro soldier in France on an equality with the white man, and “it has gone to their heads.”
Discussing bolshevism, the President referred to the fact that its theory had some advantages but the trouble was that an attempt was being made to accomplish it in the wrong way. It is a very serious and grave question and one that will have a marked bearing on future business. And in speaking of business, he said that the employees do not seem to be satisfied with what is called a partnership or share of the profits. As to profit sharing they doubt their employers when the business concern tells them that they cannot afford to give them more than, say, 10% of the profits; they often say: “We believe they can afford to give us 20%”, or sometimes they go as far as to say, even 50%, and that they (the employees) have no way of examining the books and ascertaining just what they are entitled to under this system. The President thought it might be feasible to make the workmen partners of the business to the extent of having half of the directors from the working-class, because then they could see what is going on; they would be present at the meetings and could examine the books and have their own representatives present at all times, and in that way be convinced as to the actual conditions.
The President today said: “In I was having lunch at the Everett Hotel, New York, a quiet little hotel that I used to frequent when in New York. While there at lunch Mr. Gilder, editor of the Century Magazine, came over to my table and said: ‘I see that some one in the Indianapolis News has nominated you for President.’ I said: ‘President of what?’ He replied: ‘Why President of the United States’. To which I exclaimed: ‘That is rather a large order’. Mr. Gilder added: ‘And he isn’t a fool either’. I said: ‘I like that’. And he then began not to take me seriously but to apologize, saying that: ‘I meant to show you what a big calibered man he is and a man of good sense and great vision’. I jokingly changed the subject. I had been recently elected President of Princeton University.”
Original Format
Diary
Files
Collection
Citation
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938, “Cary T. Grayson Diary,” 1919 March 10, WWP17100, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.