Cary T. Grayson Diary
Title
Cary T. Grayson Diary
Creator
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938
Identifier
WWP17121
Date
1919 March 31
Source
Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia
Language
English
Text
The Council of Four met this morning at 11:00 o’clock. Lloyd-George came in about a half hour before Clemenceau and Orlando arrived. After they were all here, the President said that he was glad to see that the teaching profession had at last been recognized; that in the gathering here of the representatives (four) of the four leading powers, the teachers were in a majority of three to one. Clemenceau taught school at Stamford, Connecticut; Orlando is a professor of law in Rome; and the President was at the head of Princeton University. Lloyd-George was the only one who could not qualify.
The President had a second conference this morning in an adjoining room with the Finance Committee, consisting of Mr. Baruch, Mr. McCormick, Mr. Norman Davis and Mr. Lamont.
He invited Mr. Lloyd-George, and Mr. Melville Stone, General Manager of the Associated Press, and Colonel House to lunch. The President followed his customary rule by not talking business at lunch. The others started but he turned the subject through to other channels. Finally, Mr. Lloyd-George said: “Did you ever discover whether the MAINE was sunk by the Spaniards.” The President said that there were some special examining boards that had put in reports. But he added: “I think Mr. Tom Reed, who was Speaker of the House of Representatives, and a very able man from the State of Maine, expressed it pretty well on one occasion when there was heated discussion on all sides as to whether we should declare war against Spain. Mr. Reed was apposed to America making such a declaration. One afternoon while going home from the Capitol, he boarded a street car and sat down by the side of a fellow-Congressman, named Handy, who had just made an impassioned speech that day emphasizing why we should go to war. Mr. Reed said: ‘Handy, why did you make that speech today with such blood and desire to fight with Spain.’ Handy replied: ‘Well, didn’t she sink the MAINE and isn’t that cause enough to go to war.’ Reed said: ‘Now, Handy, your argument reminds me very much of a man I knew in Maine who went out shooting with a double-barreled shotgun and a setter dog; while going through the woods the dog treed a bear, and the huntsman fired both barrels at the bear. Seeing that the bear had a lot of fight in him, the huntsman ran; but the bear came down the tree and practically did away with the dog. But that dog never could convince the bear that he didn’t do the shooting.’”
Among other subjects discussed were Abraham Lincoln and Slavery. During the lunch the President said: “A Southern gentleman was once asked the question who, in his opinion, was the most remarkable man in America, and he replied: “‘Booker T. Washington.”’ The inquirer asked: ‘How about Theodore Roosevelt?’ The Southern gentleman answered: ‘I did think Roosevelt was until he invited Washington to dine with him; now I would not dine with Roosevelt.’”
The President paid beautiful tributes to Abraham Lincoln. He spoke of the debates between Lincoln and Douglas, and of the deep friendship which existed between these two men notwithstanding their differences of opinion on slavery. The President said that Douglas accused Lincoln of believing in social equality between the whites and the blacks. Lincoln replied to this accusation:
“My friend has misrepresented me when he said that I believe in social equality. I know him so well and I can say this to his face - I would not say it if he were not present. What I said was that every man was created equal and that every one was entitled to an equal start. That does not mean that I believe in social intercourse between the whites and the blacks. I did not refer to that, and my friend knows I would not favor that. But the thing that I would not say if my friend were not present is that this morning I saw his wife driving in a carriage with a black negro. Here Lincoln paused (it was at one of their joint debates), and the audience sat aghast; then Lincoln smilingly resuming said: “But I must finish the recital, Mrs. Douglas was in the rear seat of the carriage while the negro was on the box driving.”
Lloyd-George said to Mrs. Wilson: “We think your husband is the most wonderful man in every respect of them all. And I don’t know what would become of our meetings in the moment of terrible tension, in this terrible crisis, when many of us feel that the future of the world is hanging by a thread - if it were not for his wonderful sense of humor that never fails to come to the rescue in the most trying time and in the most appropriate way. It gives a new breath of life to us all.”
Lloyd-George said that the President had given them great delight in England over the way in which he handled Judge Cohalan and the Irish on the night previous to his departure from New York for Paris. He said that the Irish question was absolutely impossible; that the Crown of England had allowed them to appoint their own delegates to come and state their desires and their wishes and how they wanted them carried out. They sent so many committees that they fought among themselves and were unable to reach any conclusion at all. The President interjected and said: “I gave you the solution of that question if you had only followed it out, namely, give them Home Rule and reserve the moving-picture rights.”
The subject turned to birds, particularly the English sparrow. The President said that the English sparrow in America was a menace, because it whipped away the thrush, the robin and other song birds. Lloyd-George was surprised to hear that, because, he said, “it was such a quiet bird at home in England.” The President said: “How do you account for the fact that it is so peaceful at home and such a fighter with us?” Lloyd-George said: “I think it is due to the fact that your climate is more energetic; that you have more champagne in the atmosphere.” The President said: “That might have held good in the past but it will not hold good now, because we are dry (prohibition).”
The President said that he knew of a case where the English sparrow had had a bad political effect. And he recited the story which Mrs. Wilson told him of a Congressman in the Ninth Virginia Congressional District, who had brought some English sparrows to his district with the object of killing out a certain species of moth. NHowever, the birds multiplied so rapidly and were so destructive to the other birds, that they became very unpopular, and when this man came up for re-election, his opponent used the argument against him that he had brought the sparrows into the community and that they had proven such a pest -- and he defeated him on that platform.
The President quizzed Lloyd-George as to how well informed he was on the cootie, telling him the story of the experiments of Miss with cooties. She kept them in a glass tube, and they could not live on anything but human beings. So she had a drunken French soldier come in to feed the cooties. She turned them loose on his bare arms, put them back in the glass tube after they had partaken of a meal from the arm of this drunken French soldier, and they all showed evidence of intoxication; the large cooties fought the small cooties, and then ate them up, proving that they were cannibals. She further experimented with them and said that if you gave a patient fifteen grains of quinine a day the cooties could not live; that it had a deleterious effect on them and would kill them if you continued administering the quinine long enough.
Lloyd-George quizzed me on the subject of the dosage of quinine and the amount that could be taken in cold climates and in tropical climates. He wanted to know whether there was any difference in the dosage of quinine administered in cold or tropical climates.
Lloyd-George said that Earl Grey was very fond of squirrels; that he (Lloyd-George) had been at his house, and that while Earl Grey was seated at a table, the squirrels would come in through the open window, jump up over the back of his chair and walk over the sheet of paper on his desk while he was writing, showing no signs of fear whatever. Lloyd-George would be seated at another desk in the same room and the squirrels would not come near him.
The President while speaking of atmospheric and climatic conditions said that it was a curious fact that one can put in more hours at study in this climate with less fatigue than in the American climate. He said that this explains why the Germands could devote so many hours of study but that they could not do the same kind of work in the American climate.
Just as he was leaving, Lloyd-George challenged the President and myself to a game of golf at the very first available opportunity. Lloyd-George said to me: “I have followed you with much interest, and I feel I know a good deal about you. I wish you would come to my apartment some evening for a visit. Incidentally, I would like for you to bring with you the secret as to how you have taken such care of the President through the trying times of these past years.” He turned to me and whispered to me: “What is the President’s best score and what is your best?” I replied that I did not care to commit myself as our contest was so near at hand.
After the luncheon party left the President conferred with Mr. Stone.
I left the house with the President at 3:15 for the Chamber of Deputies where the Supreme War Council held a meeting. Clemenceau killed over an hour reading a paper, which had also been translated into English, to be turned over to the various members of the War Council. Lloyd-George and th one of the Belgian representatives had a clash on the subject of Belgian reparations. Bourgeois also killed nearly an hour in talk. The President arose and insisted on less discussion and more decision; and for the next hour they really made progress.
The President returned hom a half-hour late for dinner, and immediately, before entering the dining room, conferred with Secretary of the Navy Daniels concerning the shipbuilding program. He then had a talk with Ray Stannard Baker.
The President and Mrs. Wilson and I had dinner alone. No reference whatever was made to the business of the day at the table. After dinner we had a small cup of coffee in the sitting-room. The President repeated a number of limericks, saying that some medals had been sent to him from which to select one for the French Academy. One copy is to be presented to the President and the other deposited in the archives of the Academy as a memorial of the conferring of the Academy degree upon the President. He then repeated the limerick:
For beauty I am not a star,
There are others more perfect by far,
But my face I don't mind it,
For I am behind it,
It is those in front that I jar.
The President retired to his study to look over some important papers, saying: “My dear doctor, I report to you. I feel as if my cold is cured. And I hope you will not give me any medicine tonight.”
This is a sample day in detail of what he has been going through practically every day since he has been in France.
The President had a second conference this morning in an adjoining room with the Finance Committee, consisting of Mr. Baruch, Mr. McCormick, Mr. Norman Davis and Mr. Lamont.
He invited Mr. Lloyd-George, and Mr. Melville Stone, General Manager of the Associated Press, and Colonel House to lunch. The President followed his customary rule by not talking business at lunch. The others started but he turned the subject through to other channels. Finally, Mr. Lloyd-George said: “Did you ever discover whether the MAINE was sunk by the Spaniards.” The President said that there were some special examining boards that had put in reports. But he added: “I think Mr. Tom Reed, who was Speaker of the House of Representatives, and a very able man from the State of Maine, expressed it pretty well on one occasion when there was heated discussion on all sides as to whether we should declare war against Spain. Mr. Reed was apposed to America making such a declaration. One afternoon while going home from the Capitol, he boarded a street car and sat down by the side of a fellow-Congressman, named Handy, who had just made an impassioned speech that day emphasizing why we should go to war. Mr. Reed said: ‘Handy, why did you make that speech today with such blood and desire to fight with Spain.’ Handy replied: ‘Well, didn’t she sink the MAINE and isn’t that cause enough to go to war.’ Reed said: ‘Now, Handy, your argument reminds me very much of a man I knew in Maine who went out shooting with a double-barreled shotgun and a setter dog; while going through the woods the dog treed a bear, and the huntsman fired both barrels at the bear. Seeing that the bear had a lot of fight in him, the huntsman ran; but the bear came down the tree and practically did away with the dog. But that dog never could convince the bear that he didn’t do the shooting.’”
Among other subjects discussed were Abraham Lincoln and Slavery. During the lunch the President said: “A Southern gentleman was once asked the question who, in his opinion, was the most remarkable man in America, and he replied: “‘Booker T. Washington.”’ The inquirer asked: ‘How about Theodore Roosevelt?’ The Southern gentleman answered: ‘I did think Roosevelt was until he invited Washington to dine with him; now I would not dine with Roosevelt.’”
The President paid beautiful tributes to Abraham Lincoln. He spoke of the debates between Lincoln and Douglas, and of the deep friendship which existed between these two men notwithstanding their differences of opinion on slavery. The President said that Douglas accused Lincoln of believing in social equality between the whites and the blacks. Lincoln replied to this accusation:
“My friend has misrepresented me when he said that I believe in social equality. I know him so well and I can say this to his face - I would not say it if he were not present. What I said was that every man was created equal and that every one was entitled to an equal start. That does not mean that I believe in social intercourse between the whites and the blacks. I did not refer to that, and my friend knows I would not favor that. But the thing that I would not say if my friend were not present is that this morning I saw his wife driving in a carriage with a black negro. Here Lincoln paused (it was at one of their joint debates), and the audience sat aghast; then Lincoln smilingly resuming said: “But I must finish the recital, Mrs. Douglas was in the rear seat of the carriage while the negro was on the box driving.”
Lloyd-George said to Mrs. Wilson: “We think your husband is the most wonderful man in every respect of them all. And I don’t know what would become of our meetings in the moment of terrible tension, in this terrible crisis, when many of us feel that the future of the world is hanging by a thread - if it were not for his wonderful sense of humor that never fails to come to the rescue in the most trying time and in the most appropriate way. It gives a new breath of life to us all.”
Lloyd-George said that the President had given them great delight in England over the way in which he handled Judge Cohalan and the Irish on the night previous to his departure from New York for Paris. He said that the Irish question was absolutely impossible; that the Crown of England had allowed them to appoint their own delegates to come and state their desires and their wishes and how they wanted them carried out. They sent so many committees that they fought among themselves and were unable to reach any conclusion at all. The President interjected and said: “I gave you the solution of that question if you had only followed it out, namely, give them Home Rule and reserve the moving-picture rights.”
The subject turned to birds, particularly the English sparrow. The President said that the English sparrow in America was a menace, because it whipped away the thrush, the robin and other song birds. Lloyd-George was surprised to hear that, because, he said, “it was such a quiet bird at home in England.” The President said: “How do you account for the fact that it is so peaceful at home and such a fighter with us?” Lloyd-George said: “I think it is due to the fact that your climate is more energetic; that you have more champagne in the atmosphere.” The President said: “That might have held good in the past but it will not hold good now, because we are dry (prohibition).”
The President said that he knew of a case where the English sparrow had had a bad political effect. And he recited the story which Mrs. Wilson told him of a Congressman in the Ninth Virginia Congressional District, who had brought some English sparrows to his district with the object of killing out a certain species of moth. NHowever, the birds multiplied so rapidly and were so destructive to the other birds, that they became very unpopular, and when this man came up for re-election, his opponent used the argument against him that he had brought the sparrows into the community and that they had proven such a pest -- and he defeated him on that platform.
The President quizzed Lloyd-George as to how well informed he was on the cootie, telling him the story of the experiments of Miss with cooties. She kept them in a glass tube, and they could not live on anything but human beings. So she had a drunken French soldier come in to feed the cooties. She turned them loose on his bare arms, put them back in the glass tube after they had partaken of a meal from the arm of this drunken French soldier, and they all showed evidence of intoxication; the large cooties fought the small cooties, and then ate them up, proving that they were cannibals. She further experimented with them and said that if you gave a patient fifteen grains of quinine a day the cooties could not live; that it had a deleterious effect on them and would kill them if you continued administering the quinine long enough.
Lloyd-George quizzed me on the subject of the dosage of quinine and the amount that could be taken in cold climates and in tropical climates. He wanted to know whether there was any difference in the dosage of quinine administered in cold or tropical climates.
Lloyd-George said that Earl Grey was very fond of squirrels; that he (Lloyd-George) had been at his house, and that while Earl Grey was seated at a table, the squirrels would come in through the open window, jump up over the back of his chair and walk over the sheet of paper on his desk while he was writing, showing no signs of fear whatever. Lloyd-George would be seated at another desk in the same room and the squirrels would not come near him.
The President while speaking of atmospheric and climatic conditions said that it was a curious fact that one can put in more hours at study in this climate with less fatigue than in the American climate. He said that this explains why the Germands could devote so many hours of study but that they could not do the same kind of work in the American climate.
Just as he was leaving, Lloyd-George challenged the President and myself to a game of golf at the very first available opportunity. Lloyd-George said to me: “I have followed you with much interest, and I feel I know a good deal about you. I wish you would come to my apartment some evening for a visit. Incidentally, I would like for you to bring with you the secret as to how you have taken such care of the President through the trying times of these past years.” He turned to me and whispered to me: “What is the President’s best score and what is your best?” I replied that I did not care to commit myself as our contest was so near at hand.
After the luncheon party left the President conferred with Mr. Stone.
I left the house with the President at 3:15 for the Chamber of Deputies where the Supreme War Council held a meeting. Clemenceau killed over an hour reading a paper, which had also been translated into English, to be turned over to the various members of the War Council. Lloyd-George and th one of the Belgian representatives had a clash on the subject of Belgian reparations. Bourgeois also killed nearly an hour in talk. The President arose and insisted on less discussion and more decision; and for the next hour they really made progress.
The President returned hom a half-hour late for dinner, and immediately, before entering the dining room, conferred with Secretary of the Navy Daniels concerning the shipbuilding program. He then had a talk with Ray Stannard Baker.
The President and Mrs. Wilson and I had dinner alone. No reference whatever was made to the business of the day at the table. After dinner we had a small cup of coffee in the sitting-room. The President repeated a number of limericks, saying that some medals had been sent to him from which to select one for the French Academy. One copy is to be presented to the President and the other deposited in the archives of the Academy as a memorial of the conferring of the Academy degree upon the President. He then repeated the limerick:
For beauty I am not a star,
There are others more perfect by far,
But my face I don't mind it,
For I am behind it,
It is those in front that I jar.
The President retired to his study to look over some important papers, saying: “My dear doctor, I report to you. I feel as if my cold is cured. And I hope you will not give me any medicine tonight.”
This is a sample day in detail of what he has been going through practically every day since he has been in France.
Original Format
Diary
Files
Collection
Citation
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938, “Cary T. Grayson Diary,” 1919 March 31, WWP17121, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.