Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States from 1913 to 1921, was scrupulous to the degree of fanaticism on the point of avoiding any personal or family favouritism in appointments or the awarding of war contracts.①
A caller at the White House quite casually mentioned that the firm headed by a distant relative of the president had received a building contract. Although this might readily have been accepted as a legitimate and purely coincidental transaction, the president said in great agitation, "It must be stopped at once."
The nation could well have used, in his successor's administration,② so high a degree of integrity, yet the action created a family breach that was never healed.
伍德羅．威爾遜一九一三年至一九二一年任美國總統。他在職務委任、戰爭合約審批等事宜上①，謹慎得近乎過分，唯恐有偏袒個人或家人之嫌。
一個白宮訪客無意之中，談到威爾遜一名遠親掌管的公司，獲許承辦一建築合約。這宗交易，一般不會視為不當或是當局有心的安排，威爾遜卻非常緊張，說道：「那合約必須馬上終止。」
威爾遜之後那一任政府，能有這樣的廉潔，美國當受用不淺②。不過，威爾遜干預建築合約一事，卻令他和那遠親的關係永遠破裂。
①威爾遜率領美國參與第一次世界大戰。
②威爾遜之後的哈丁（Warren Harding）政府，因貪污及用人為私，聲名狼藉。