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A PRESIDENTIAL MYSTERY Woodrow Wilson & The Apocalypse A Musical Mystery A By Hollis Thoms lmost one hundred years ago, Woodrow Wilson was President of the United States. He is considered one of the great presidents and his presidential papers, a massive collection, are in the Library of Congress in Washington: 278,700 items, 1,160 containers plus 35 oversize, 459 linear feet, and 542 microfilm reels. As a lover of presidential history, I have read much surrounding the presidencies of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I've just read the recently published book, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography by John Milton Cooper, Jr. (Vintage Books, New York, 2011) and visited both the childhood home of Wilson in Staunton, 14 PAN PIPES WINTER 2012 sai-national.org Virginia and his post-presidential home in Washington DC. The issues we are facing now in 2011 seem to be a repeat of the historical, social and political scene during Wilson's tenure as president: financial uncertainty, corporate greed and the push for regulation, political partisanship with sharp contrasts between Republicans and Democrats, and a world at war. Woodrow Wilson made the transition from a president who "kept us out of war," to one who entered the First World War to "make the world safe for democracy" to one who wanted "peace without victory" when the war was won, as he joined other European leaders in designing the Treaty of Versailles and proposing the League of Nations. I went online to look at the Library of Congress' listing of Woodrow Wilson's Papers and as I perused the index to the many microfilm reels, I came upon two reels that were listed as "Musical Compositions, 1918-1919." As a composer, this strange heading interested me immediately and so I decided to go to the Library of Congress (since I live about 20 miles away) and take a look at these two reels. I found many poems and pieces of music sent to Wilson, primarily when he was in Paris from December 1918 through July 1919 negotiating the Treaty of Versailles and the proposal for the League of Nations, which he would bring home to Congress for approval - and which, tragically, Congress would not ratify. Although most of the poems were written in French and most musical compositions were by French composers, there are a number of both in English. Amateur poets and musicians predominate, but a number were accomplished artists whose works had been published. These artistic endeavors portrayed Woodrow Wilson as a world savior and the American soldiers as liberating heroes, coming late into the war and ending it relatively quickly, hence saving Europe from destruction by the Germans. Wilson's coming to Paris was an extraordinary event. In his eyewitness account for the Associated Press, The Peace Conference: Day by Day-A Presidential Pilgrimage Leading to the Discovery of Europe, special correspondent Charles Thaddeus Thompson chronicles in vivid detail Wilson triumphant arrival: "It was just 3 o'clock this afternoon when President Wilson set foot on the soil of Europe, amid such a demonstration of popular enthusiasm and national sympathy as has rarely been accorded to a visiting ruler. The landing of the President was not only a grandiose spectacle with the setting of a colossal naval pageant, but it marked the first step on this eventful pilgrimage of an American president among the statesmen and affairs of Europe. Vast crowds watched the debarkment, and the fleets of allied warships roared their salutes as the last stage of the ocean journey was accomplished. The President stood on the deck of the harbor boat as it moved slowly toward the quay…The President gazed intensely-his first glimpse of France. As the boat touched the pier the strains of the 'Star-Spangled Banner' mingled with the cheers of the multitude. Mrs. Wilson came [down] the gangplank with General Pershing. She carried a large bouquet, and

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