Cary T. Grayson Diary
Title
Cary T. Grayson Diary
Creator
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938
Identifier
WWP17215
Date
1919 July 3
Description
An entry in Cary T. Grayson's diary from the Paris Peace Conference, dated 3 July 1919.
Source
Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia
Language
English
Text
The President rested late this morning. He and Mrs. Wilson took a morning walk on the deck, spending quite a little while in the sunshine.
The luncheon guests today were Mr. Bernard M. Baruch and Mr. Vance McCormick. Among the questions touched on at luncheon were the labor problems, the legal profession and the composition of the Supreme Court. Reference was also had to college life, particular stress being laid on athletics. McCormick was captain of the Yalefoot-ball team at the time when Phil King of Washington was a star player on the Princeton team. McCormick spoke of the suspicions which arise in the minds of college students. The President then related an incident of Phil King’s suspicion about one of the Princeton players. The player had stomach trouble and went to New York to consult Dr. Delafield (a Yale graduate), who was a stomach specialist. The Doctor gave the Princeton player a prescription. It was just before an important match game between Princeton and Yale. When the Princeton player - I think Lee was his name - returned to Princeton with the prescription, Phil King thought it was his duty to vise the prescription, and the only thing he could read in it was “strychnine.” Whereupon, he said: “Look here, Delafield is a Yale man, and he may be tampering with our player.”
The conversation turned to individuals with whom the President and his associates had conferred with in Paris. It centered chiefly upon Premier Clemenceau, especially concerning his eccentricities and peculiarities. It was remarked how often the old man would sit in the meetings and pretend to be asleep. The President said, however, that he was wide awake whenever anything was suggested in the conference that was not in the interest of France. He was not hard to wake-up then. The President said: “Did you ever notice how he yawns at our meetings? Every now and then he would yawn as if he could not keep awake.” I noticed the other night, at the dinner given by the President of the French Republic, that Clemenceau would frequently yawn. He did not show any signs of being sleepy, for I noticed that he was very attentive to the ladies who were seated on each side of him. The President said that it was most amusing to see how he would come into the meetings some morning apparently really mad and all upset. He would blow up and go up to the ceiling. They finally decided to let him remain up at the ceiling until all his gas had escaped and he would then come down and join in the conversation as if nothing had occured. The President said: “While he has many lovable qualities, at times he is brutally frank in his statements. For instance, Baron Sonnino, the day after the Orlando government failed, said to the Big Four: ‘I will probably not be with you many more days, as I understand I will be succeeded by Tittoni.’ Whereupon Clemenceau spoke out and said to Sonnino: ‘You are a bad man but your successor is worse.’ He spoke this in a tone and manner no one knew whether he was joking or whether he was serious.” The President continued: “On another occasion Hymans, the Prime Minister of Belgium, said: ‘I wish there was something I could do for Belgium.’ Clemenceau said: ‘The best thing you can do for BelgiMum is to die or resign.’ ”
Clemenceau at one time said that the only reason he had his assistants and experts around him was to show them that they had a hand in things; that they were not completely ignored. He said most of them were not worth a cent. The President remarked that Clemenceau’s mind seemed to vary considerably. There were days when his mind appeared old, and then he would not make a mental move without calling for his experts. The next two or three weeks he would not have one of them around him, and he would simply say that they were no good. However, the ones he seemed to depend upon mostly were Leuchere and Tardieu.
The President had Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Lamont as dinner guests.
In connection with a newspaper report from New York received during the day that a certain newspaper misstated the proposition, the following reply was made:
The luncheon guests today were Mr. Bernard M. Baruch and Mr. Vance McCormick. Among the questions touched on at luncheon were the labor problems, the legal profession and the composition of the Supreme Court. Reference was also had to college life, particular stress being laid on athletics. McCormick was captain of the Yalefoot-ball team at the time when Phil King of Washington was a star player on the Princeton team. McCormick spoke of the suspicions which arise in the minds of college students. The President then related an incident of Phil King’s suspicion about one of the Princeton players. The player had stomach trouble and went to New York to consult Dr. Delafield (a Yale graduate), who was a stomach specialist. The Doctor gave the Princeton player a prescription. It was just before an important match game between Princeton and Yale. When the Princeton player - I think Lee was his name - returned to Princeton with the prescription, Phil King thought it was his duty to vise the prescription, and the only thing he could read in it was “strychnine.” Whereupon, he said: “Look here, Delafield is a Yale man, and he may be tampering with our player.”
The conversation turned to individuals with whom the President and his associates had conferred with in Paris. It centered chiefly upon Premier Clemenceau, especially concerning his eccentricities and peculiarities. It was remarked how often the old man would sit in the meetings and pretend to be asleep. The President said, however, that he was wide awake whenever anything was suggested in the conference that was not in the interest of France. He was not hard to wake-up then. The President said: “Did you ever notice how he yawns at our meetings? Every now and then he would yawn as if he could not keep awake.” I noticed the other night, at the dinner given by the President of the French Republic, that Clemenceau would frequently yawn. He did not show any signs of being sleepy, for I noticed that he was very attentive to the ladies who were seated on each side of him. The President said that it was most amusing to see how he would come into the meetings some morning apparently really mad and all upset. He would blow up and go up to the ceiling. They finally decided to let him remain up at the ceiling until all his gas had escaped and he would then come down and join in the conversation as if nothing had occured. The President said: “While he has many lovable qualities, at times he is brutally frank in his statements. For instance, Baron Sonnino, the day after the Orlando government failed, said to the Big Four: ‘I will probably not be with you many more days, as I understand I will be succeeded by Tittoni.’ Whereupon Clemenceau spoke out and said to Sonnino: ‘You are a bad man but your successor is worse.’ He spoke this in a tone and manner no one knew whether he was joking or whether he was serious.” The President continued: “On another occasion Hymans, the Prime Minister of Belgium, said: ‘I wish there was something I could do for Belgium.’ Clemenceau said: ‘The best thing you can do for BelgiMum is to die or resign.’ ”
Clemenceau at one time said that the only reason he had his assistants and experts around him was to show them that they had a hand in things; that they were not completely ignored. He said most of them were not worth a cent. The President remarked that Clemenceau’s mind seemed to vary considerably. There were days when his mind appeared old, and then he would not make a mental move without calling for his experts. The next two or three weeks he would not have one of them around him, and he would simply say that they were no good. However, the ones he seemed to depend upon mostly were Leuchere and Tardieu.
The President had Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Lamont as dinner guests.
In connection with a newspaper report from New York received during the day that a certain newspaper misstated the proposition, the following reply was made:
Original Format
Diary
Files
Collection
Citation
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938, “Cary T. Grayson Diary,” 1919 July 3, WWP17215, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.