542 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS the debating club he won recognition, not only for his knowl- edge of the principles of government^ but for his ability in forceful and convincing presentation of his convictions. It is recorded that he refused to participate in a contest that would in all probability have resulted in making him the representative of his club in the annual college debate, be- cause he drew by lot the side of the question in which he did not believe. It is significant that it was a protective tariff that he refused to defend. But his abilities were shown in other directions than debating. He was elected to the board of editors of the college paper and later to its managing ed- itorship, besides serving as president of the Athletic Com- mittee and of the Baseball Association. A crowning honor to his undergraduate career came in his senior year, when he had accepted by the InternationcU Re- view ^ a journal of high standing, an article on ^^ Cabinet Gov- ernment in the United States.** For those who have been surprised at the emphasis from the White House on open deal- ing as the essential quality in the conduct of public affairs, it may be interesting to read in that article written by the under- graduate Wilson that secrecy is the evil that corrupts govern- ment and that Congress should do its work as though the whole country were present and looking on. So well does the youth foretell the man. A year of law study in the University of Virginia followed immediately upon graduation from Princeton. Writing for publication in journals, debating, and singing with the glee club served to break the monotony of hard study on law and rigorous class work. But near the middle of the second year indigestion sent him home for a period of rest and reading. Without returning to the University of Virginia young Wilson, looking about for a field in which to exercise his legal talents, hit upon Atlanta, Georgia. There he set up a part- nership with another young man, Edward T. Benick, who was beginning the practice of law. It took just eighteen months of waiting for clients to convince Wilson that his future was not bound up in securing justice for litigious individuals. The law had appealed to him at all events as merely an open-
