The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1915-06-03
THE VOICE OF THE RULERS.

THE VOICE OF THE RULERS.
The people of the United States
are the rulers-the real rulers
what they say is what goes.
For days past the Associated Press
has furnished column after column,
AMI page after page of telegraph
summarizing the editorial express
sions of the larger daily papers of
the United States on the crisis be-
tween the United States and Ger
many. But this same Associated
Press has paid no attention to the
country press-the bone and sinew
of American newspaperdom, and
American justice.
One would think to read the great
metropolitan newspapers, that the
people of the United States are thirst
ing for war. 1t is mistake. Great
metropolitan editors are clamoring
for their readers to clamor, that is
all. There are plenty of the larger
dailies that apparently are not only
willing but eager that the public
mind should be inflamed, that hasty
and tremendous pressure should be
brought to bear to distract and dis
tress the administration at Washing
ton. and that the natural consequence
which is war--should follow. We
do not know, and will not attempt to
guess, whom or what those newspa-
pers represent, but from our own OBJ
seryation of the country press of Mis-
souri,, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska,
which is our own section, it is plain
to be seen that these great blood
thirsty papers do not represent the
people of these states.
Right here in st. Joe, where there
are one hundred thousand people,
The Observer has not heard of half
dozen people who think that war is
necessity. 1t has not heard enough
war talk to cause even ripple of
excitement. The people of st. Joe
are peaceful, temperate and satisfi-
ed to allow President Wilson, who is
in receipt of all information, to
Judge for them.
And the country editors in those
states above mentioned They do not
talk that way-they do not feel that
way. They are day by day with the
actual people-and The Observer
would rather have and trust the edi-
torial expression of live Missouri
weekly than that Of New York
daily with half million circulation.
And this is why: The country edi-
tor does not sit in gloomy and ma
jestic solitude in the labirynthine
recesses of newspaper Office and
evolve public opinion from his inner
consciousness. He is little subjected
to back door influences. He goes
out on the streets and talks to the
farmers, into the stores and offices
and talks to the merchants and pro-
fessional men, to the places where
men are busy building and produc-
ing and talks with the workers
and then he goes back to his desk
and in a paragraph writes public
opinion as he has found it. His opin-
ions are part and parcel of the COM
munity in which he lives, where ev-
cry man is an acquaintance and
where public opinion is a real and
vital thing.
and almost without exception
these paragraphs and opinions as the
observer sees them day after day
are of the same calm tenor. There is
noi,cea BILE a remarkable unanimity,
of spirit and temper. 1t is toIer-
III
per that are manifested. There is
comm endable lack of violent preju-
dice. The tone is more ''pro-Ally'
than it is "pro-German.' 1t is en-
tirely "pro-American." And, party
lines are invisible, quite. There is
but one Nebraska newspaper, so far
as we know, that is STOPPING SO low
as to attempt to play politics with
q crisis that involves everything
that America holds dear and
That newspaper is the Lin
coin Journal Apparently it is alone !
In its shame.
Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and
Kansas people, and they include the
best and most enlightened people in
the country, have not been seized by
the war madness They are willing
to trust the government at Wash
ington. They are prepared to stand (,
firmly by it in any measures that
Developments may make necessary.
But they are not crying for vcnge- !
ance and vendetta, they are not
hankering for bloody bones, and
they have not the least disposition
TO influence toward war president (
whose whole energies are being di-
reeted toward the preservation of I
IN honorable peace. Though dis
tressed by wars awful horrors they
are not excited. Though resentful
of wars barbaritics their resent
ments do not carry them to the
point where they are ready ito in
lict an entire nation and nations.
Their natural disposition, even un- T.
Ter provocation, is that of friendli-
less toward and sympathy with all.
We cannot help but feel that I
Wilson in this his hour Of
rial would reap much more of real te
lenetit, more of consolation and en-
ouragementS and Inspiration from . ]