E ^: Why The U- S- President Must Not Wear Uniform BY WOODROW WILSON President of the United States WITH A PEN PORTRAIT OF THE PRESIDENT BY GUIDO BRUNO PRIVATELY PRINTED NEW YORK, 1918 Why The U- S» President Must Not Wear Uniform BY WOODROW WILSON w President of the United States WITH A PEN PORTRAIT OF THE PRESIDENT BY GUIDO BRUNO PRIVATELY PRINTED NEW YORK, 1918 Copyright 1918 By Guido Bruno Why "Bruno's Bohemia" For September Omitted the Cover Design WE intended to publish on the cover of our Septem- ber issue an etching of President Wilson by Mr. Wall. The etching shows President Wilson in United States uniform. Mr. Wall conceived his inspiration dur- ing an address delivered by President Wilson before the United States Spanish War Veterans at a convention held in Atlantic City in 1912, when Mr. Wilson was Governor of New Jersey. In this speech, the President emphasized that he had never been a soldier or had any military training, but that he was nevertheless a fighter in the cause of righteousness. With this in mind, and in this great period of the world's history, the President being the Commander-in-Chief of our civil and armed forces, Mr. Wall did not think it inappropriate to picture him in military fashion. President Wilson's letter which we are reprinting on the cover page of our September issue is sufficient expla- nation why we are abstaining from publishing the por- trait. No greater or more significant words could have been spoken by the Supreme Chief of our armed forces at this time than are set down in his letter. THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON, D. C. 8 July, 1918. My dear Mr. Wall: I warmly and sincerely appreciate the sentiment which led you to make the etching of which you were kind enough to send me a copy, but I feel bound, in replying to your letter of June seventeenth, which was laid before me only the other day, to say that there is a sense in which putting me in uniform violates a very fundamental principle of our institutions, namely, that the military power is subordinate to the civil. The framers of the Constitution, of course, realized that the President would seldom be a soldier and their idea in making him the Com- mander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States was that the armed forces of the country must be the instruments of the authority by which policy was determined. It is for that reason that we can so truly say that our organization is in no sense and can in no sense be militaristic. I do not think this is a mere formal scruple on my part. I believe it goes to the root of things, and I am sure I may thus candidly express it to you without creating the im- pression that I do not fully appreciate the motive and the idea of your etching, by which I am very much compli- mented. Sincerely yours, WOODROW WILSON. Woodrovv Wilson: A Portrait A student. .1 teacher. The past li-c'es in the present- History and life are closely iniked. . I quiet observer of life, who reads, z<'ho listois, zvho lends his ear to every voice. He n'ci