Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-04-17
MR.. ROOSEVELT SCORES
W0MAN'S PEACE PARTY
Former President Denounces Its
Platform as Both Base
and Silly

Denouncing as silly and base a de-
mand for peace which makes no men
ton of Belgium's wrongs, Theodore
Roosevelt, in a letter to Mrs. Julie
Barrett Rublee OF this city. assails the
platform of the woman's party Tor
constructive peace. A very large pro-
portion of ultra pa cifists are Influenced
by physical cowardice. declared Mr..
Roosevelt. who adds that there is
nothing more repulsfve than to see
ness in the abstract when they dare
concrete
serts. the copperheads of the north
held exactly tho views about peace
which are set forth in the platform
YOU inclosed. and to a man they voted
against Abraham Lincoln. They did
all they could to break up the Union
and to obtain the triumph of slavery,
because they put peace as the highest
of all gods. just exactly as it is put
by the people who have constructed
that paper you sent me.
Both Base and Silly"
"I speak with scientific accuracy
when I speak of this movement as both
base and silly. 1t Is silly because IL is
absolutely futile. 1t proposes to go on
with just the same kind of futile agi-
tation which, by the experience of
century. and. above all. by the expert
ence of the last thirty years. has
proved wholly useless and on Inc
whole slightly mischievous.
Not one particle OF good viii be OBJ
tanned by any such action as that out
lined in that paper you sent.
Il assume. of course. that YOU are Tor
peace in reality and not merely for the
name of peace, and that you are for
peace based on justice and right and
not for peace that consecrates success
full wrong: for peace that consecrates
wrong may be actually worse than any
war
Cites Wrongs of Belgium.
above all. it is base and evil to
clamor for peace in the abstract, when
silence is kept about concrete and hid
eous wrongs done to humanity at this
very moment Belgium has been tram
pied into bloody mire. Frightful wrongs
have been committed upon the men,
women and children of Belgium.
THE Belgians have fought valiantly
against their oppressors. Yet this pa
per you inclose does not contain one
protest against the commission OF such
wrongs as have been committed on
Belgium, and does denounce war in
such fashion as to include in the con-
demnation the Belgians just as much
as the oppressors of Belgium.
Scores Ship Purchase Bill.
I'VE have before us that concrete
case Let the people who advocate the
platform and principles you Enclosed
hold a meeting specifically to denounce
the invasion of Belgium by Germany
and to demand that in the interests of
peace the United States do what it can
to put a stop to those wrongs. Let
them denounce Messrs. Wilson and
Bryan for trying to force through the
ship purchase bill. which was in the
interest of the power that Wronged
Belgium. and in spite of the fact that
their action might tend to bring US
into war with the powers that have
sought to defend Belgium.
Let them do something to show that
they mean what they say and that they
are really striving for righteousness.
Until they do this let every wise and
upright man and woman refuse to have
anything more to do with a movement
which is certainly both foolish and
noxious, which is accompanied by
peculiarly ignoble abandonment OF ma
tional duty and which II successful
would do only harm, and the mere at
tempt to accomplish which rightly eX-
poses our people to measureless con-
tempt"