Weekly independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1887-1914, 1914-05-08
WILLIAM RANDOLPH
HEARST AND WOODROW
! WILSON COMPARED

lately been inviting comparison be-
tween two men Woodrow Wilson
and himself land between two
standards of patriotism-his own
and that of Woodrow Wilson says
the San Francisco Bulletin. This
he has c0ntriyed to do by his Writ
uous assaults by methods long ago
disavowed by honorable men, upor
the presidents personal integrity.
II he has possessed any sense of
humor, he must have fought shy of
such comparison.
No act of President Wilson since
the day of his inauguration has had
any larger natio,al significance to
Hearst than its possible result in
opening up joint in TIE Presi-
dents armor through which to
stab. That was the Hearst desire
from the day when William j. Bryan
charged into the convention at
Baltimore, rallied the progressive
elements in the convention about
him, and took the nomination from
Hearst's favorite, Champ Clark, to
give it to Woodrow Wilson.
The free tolls controversy was
siezed upon as an excellent oppor-
tunity to discredit the president.
This was question calling for calm
and dignified consideration. There
were arguments of honor and ex-
pediency on both sides. Opinion
in the country is Diversified, for SEN
timent in the interior states was
for the most part against exemp-
ton, and in the seaboard states in
favor of exemEiIn. Presi ie:t
Wilson was president of the whole
country, coastwise and Interior. was
bound in duty to come to no rash
or hasty conclusion.
But the president did one OF the
most courageous things and one of
the most dangerous things that
public man can do. He changed
his mind. This is the worst charge
against him. His actions we're con-
sisient with an obscure plank in
platform with which not one voter
in a thousand could have been
familiar. And to little minds IL
consistency Condemns itself.
No reasonable man, whatever his
opinion of the soundness ri the
presidents decision, can doubt the
sincerity and integrity of the presi-
dents motive. No national eXecu-
tive since Lin !oln has given evil
dence of loftier conception of the
obligations of his Office. He stands
head aud shoulders above the ethi-
cal traditions of his party.
Every public man in Washington
knows this and William Randolph
Hearst knows it. If it were not true
the presidents control over con-
gress which is essentially the result
Of his moral md intellectual quail
ties, would vanish in The twinkiing
of an eye.
Every assault upon the presi-
dents personal integrity in the tolls
controversy, on the part of men
familiar with the actual situation
in Washington, is therefore, Moth
ing short of lie. 1t is q lie to ac-
cuse him Of lack Of patriotism; it
is lie to accuse him Of lending
himself 10 the Vaccinations Of in
terested railroads. The men who
make these charges know that they
arc not true. Hearst knows that
they are not true. He is making
them in the hope that through them
he will br able to influence voters
whose only information rrgar ding
the situation at Washington must
come from the newspapers. He
long ago learned the axiom Of pbsy.
chology that lie sufficiently re-
pcated will at last gain believers.
The dictionary defines patriot
as zone who loves and Is devoted
to his native country and its well
fare"
Hearst has shown his patriotism
by striving with all his might to
embroil his country in friRhtful
war: by conspiring to bring about
the horrible deaths of thousands
upon thousands Of Mexican and
American soldiers in order that n
few greedy investors may profit;