New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-12
Shall We Rally Round the Colonel?

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: Rally around your colonel, boys, and
let the worst that is to be come" writes b..
Wheeler Whitmore to The Tribune. Presuma-
bly,, Mr. Whitmore means that if enough of
the boys were to rally around the colonel we
would be ready to take care of the worst.
On the other hand, some of us consider that
if enough of US were to rally around the
colonel and bring him back the worst would
then be with US. In his search for an issue
the colonel has seized upon preparedness"
as the most available thing in sight. Maybe
he is making some friends thereby, but he is
also making some enemies. Would it interest
Mr.. Whitmore and others to know that there
are those who are now watching the colonel
to see in what political direction he proposes
TO Jump in order that they may be able to
lump in the opposite direction?
This number includes many who were
strongly with the colonel three years ago.
Perhaps it will be remembered that in 1912
among the coloneps first and strongest sup
porters were many. social workers and others
who saw in the Progressive platform some
real hope for the working out OF their social
betterment policies through political chan
nels.
low does it stand to-day? Because these
citizens, then so cordially welcomed to his
fold by the colonel, do not now share his
preparedness notions, they have become cop
perheads, poltroons and mollycoddles.
What are we to say of the sincerity or
the consistency-of a man who will preach
righteousness and in the same breath ndorse
,s,k ,taaN oh
paragraph as this:
"The unpleasant truth should be realized
that invading armies must, with other
Injuries, have women. AS result they
leave a large progeny-wrens in the nests of
the doves of peace. Hence, inasmuch as
soldiers are the pick of the manhood of their
country, they are likely to do about much
toward securing the survival of the fit in an
oremy's country as they would have in their
own country"
What, also, are we TO say of the consis-
tency Of a man who will preach righteousness
and at the same time indorse as capital
book" one which devotes some ten pages or
so to indiscriminate ridicule OF charitable
organizations and social workers, and which
strives by most grotesque system of logic
to prove that charity alone in times of
Ieace is more potent in securing the survival
OF the unfit than war could possibly be-?
The above quotations are from "Defenceless
America" by Hudson Maxim, and it was in a
letter from Colonel Roosevelt to Mr.. Maxim,
read by the latter at a recent peace-through-
preparedness conference, that this book was
advertised to the world in the following SEN
tence by the colonel:
at is a capital book, and / believe it is
safe to say that no wise and patriotic Amer
lean can fail to recognize the service that you
have rendered in writing it, I hope it will
have the widest possible circulation through
cut our country"
Mr.. Whitmore's appeal will fall upon many
deaf ears. 1t is distinct disappointment to
be obliged to leave the colonel after follow
ing him so long, but there will be thousands
who cannot follow him in such righteous
ness" crusade as this on which he has now
embarked
JONATHAN A. RAWSON, Jr.
New York, Aug. 7, 1915.