The amiable
William Allen White hit off his disposition perfectly when he said
House's daily prayer was, "Give us this day our daily compromise."
When he split a hair between the south and southwest side, it was
not for logistic pleasure; it was to divide it with splendid
justice and send each of two rival claimants away happy in the
possession of exactly half of the slender filament, so that neither
would be empty handed. I never saw a man so overjoyed as he was one
day late in April or early in May when M. Clemenceau had left his
rooms in the Hotel Crillon with the promise of Franco-American
defensive alliance.
"The old man," he said, "is very happy. He has got what he has been
after. I can't tell you just now what it is. But he has got it at
last."
He had been the donor, for Mr. Wilson, of the exact southwest side
of a hair, the promise to submit, without recommendations, an
alliance to the United States Senate, which had little prospect of
ever being accepted by this country. The sight of the French
Premier's happiness made him radiant.
It was not merely because representatives of foreign governments
found Colonel House easy to see when they could not gain access to
President Wilson that kept a throng running to his quarters in the
Crillon; it was because there they found the line of least
resistance. There was the readiest sympathy.
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