The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1915-01-21
PRESIDENT AT INDIANAPOLIS.


Any address of any president of the
United States very naturally attracts
the attention of the people of the coun-
try, and that of President Wilson, de-
livered at indianapolis on Jackson
day, was no exception to the rule, and
is has aroused unusual interest
through it's remarkable statements and
fragmentary construction.
That admirable poise and dignity of
speech that has stood the speaker so
we'll in the past was sadly lacking, and
his countrymen regret the evidence
that the responsibilities and care of
his high official position have told so
severely upon the temper, the tone,
and the thought of the President.
1t would not have been consistent
for President Wilson to have assigned
Andrew Jackson to a higher position
as leader and a statesman than did
Woodrow Wilson, the historian, so it
was possibly good taste in the Presi-
dent to dismiss the hero of New Or
leans with a few words of faint praise
in his address, and to devote nine
tenths of his time to defense of the
past of his own administration and
declarations as to his intentions for
the future.
This indianapolis address by our
President on Jackson day bears, in
many points, strong resemblance to
that delivered by President Andrew
Johnson on February %, 1856. There
is the same eager desire to declare per
sonal policies; to class those who may
differ on those policies as antagonists;
the same challenge to the legislative
branch of the government; the same
failure to comprehend the weakness of
his administration before the people;
the same looseness of expression and
strange grouping of issues, but this
latter surely arising from a totally diff
ferent cause than in the case of the
former President
AS the speech of President Johnson
was taken at the time to be an an
nouncement to the electors that he de-
sired election to another term as Pres
ident, so it is evident the auditors in
Indianapolis and the people of the
country at large have accepted this ad-
dress of President Wilson as a similar
notice to electors.
| Several journals and some public
/ men have seen fit to severely criticise
the views expressed by the President
in this address.
At this time The Post prefers to ex-
press it's regrets that such an address
was made, feeling positive that the
President did not do himself or his
party or his country the service that
was possible for him to render if he
had given greater consideration and
devoted more time to the preparation
of the address.
Neither the interests of the Presi-
dent, the party, nor the, country can
be advanced by executive pictorial
processes with the legislative branch
Of the government. The fate of An
drew Johnson's administration, honest
and sincere and determined as he I'M
odubtedly was, is most significant
reminder as to the advantage of con-
| ciliatory measures over those of the
ablest dogmatic pedagogues, even of
Presidents so able as Johnson, Gar
| field, and Wilson, all graduates from
mastership in that most honorable and
useful of professions.
| When the President put the amaz-
ing inquiry, Have not the European
nations taken as long as they wanted
and split as much blood as they pleas
| ed in settling their affairs, and shall
we deny that to Mexico because she is
Weak?" surely he did not expect any
approval of such barbarious PROPOSE
ton from the people of any Christian
or civilized country, especially from
those so far advanced in civilization
as the people Of the United States.
(, We trust that foreign peoples will
not construe the words of the Presi.
dent in formulating this inquiry as
Endorsement of blood shedding by the