Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1904-09-16
DEMOCRATIC TICKET.
Election. Tuesday. Nov. s. 1904.
WAR VERSUS PEACE.

WAR VERSUS fEACE'
Should Mr.. Roosevelt be elected
there are many who will be ready TO
argue that his election will be trl- |
umph of the military over the civil.
We hear it said now that the American
people never found fault with George
Washington for mast-heading the flag,
with Madison for his defense OF our
rights in 1872, with Jackson for his
achievements at New Orleans, with
Harrison for his Tippacanoe sue
cess. with Lincoln for b1fugiu5 on the
Civil War, with Grant for his success
full career as General, or with Nc
Kinley for precipitating the Spanish
American War; in other words, it is
argued that some of these would not
have been president but for his war
record, and that man without a aodr
record amounts to little, at least that
one without warlike proclivities is a
stencil in the nostrils of the American
people of to-day. If, therefore, a can
didate walks into the field in military
array, with a sword in one hand and a
pistol in the other. he is chosen over
him who walks into the field clothed
in the garb of an humble citizen. Sup
pose this were so, what possible bear
ing could such argument have on
Theodore Roosevelt2 Where has ne
any military record, and what possible
wsrlike deed has he. or is he to accom-
plish2 His war record is not as great
as that of thousands of boys of 16 who
lived forty years ago. The whole war
n which he participated and about
which so much has been written by him
was not equal to the smallest and most
insignificant battle of the Civil War.
IF Imperial tendencies are to be mis-
akeu for military success, and de-
sire to increase our Army and Navy
mists ken for real generalship, then
Mr. Roosevelt may somehow, be classed
as military man. If -cOnceit and
contempt for everybody and everything
outside of the Roosevelt family makes
General, then Theodore Roosevelt
il veritable Napoleon. If contempt
for the rights of the people and total
and thorough disregard for the Con
stitution and the laws of the country
axe criteriOns of greatness, then is
Caesar small and insignificant beside
our President. If inability to distin-
guish between white man and negro
in a just and proper sense, giving each
De an element of craftsmanship, then
is NestOr unworthy of remembrance
and Ulysses pigmy in comparison to
him. But as a matter of fact any
comparison of Roosevelt with Wash
ington or Madison, or Jackson or Lin
culn, or Grant or Mckinley. is SO much
like comparing a molehilI to noun
tain that the whole becomes absurd
and laughable.
ALI the country needs to disgust 1t
with him, is to see him. If the aver
age citizen could look upon him as he
thunders around on horse-back with
soldiers guarding him as they guard
theking, if he could observe him as he
boards train surrounded by secret
service men as an Emperor is guarded
when be goes abroad, if he could get
little closer and feel the atmosphere
that is about this individual, this self
conceited bundle of muscles and
nerves, he would not want him for any
known purpose. He would be afraid
to trust him aey where for any pur-
pose. But this man has bullied his
party into re nominating him, and
there being so many who vote the
Republican ticket and will vote 1t let
the candidate be honest or dishonest,
capable or incapable, black or white,
that possible argument avails nothing
and anything called Republican will
be preferred over everything called by
any 9th er name.