The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1915-10-30
TURNING PATRIOTISM
TO POLITICAL ACCOUNT

TO POLITICAL ACCOUNT
That Woodrow Wilson is the Demo
cratic party, and that he is Congress
and that he is the State Department
and all the rest of the Cabinet has
been well known for some time.
But that he claims to be virtually
the whole nation also was not known
until he disclosed it in his speech to
the d. A. R. at their silver jubilee.
The propriety Of using the occasion
for making a speech such as the Presi
dant' s was has been seriously question
ed by many of the ladies who heard
him; but it is among politicians that
the speech created the most widespread
interest. With one accord they recog
nize that the President was sounding
a campaign slogan, and there is a Sc
rious division of opinion regarding the
probably results.
In effect, the President declared that
Re wants an immediate lineup on the
question, lis America first or is it
notg'' He voiced his opinion that in
all the political agitations of the
years which are Immediately at hand'
1t viii be necessary for every man to
make his position known.
Now, it is evident that the only
"hne-up" and the only political agi-
tations" which are Immediately Z
hand are the "'line-up" and the
"agitations' which will develop from
the Presidents campaign for ~re-elec-
ton. Mr.. Wilson is held to be trying
to make it appear that the only way
to demonstrate patriotism in that con
nection is by voting for him.
Never, within recollection, has a
President gone so far in seeking to
identify his own personality and his
W political fortunes with the fate of
the nation. Washington is thoroughly
familiar with the type of mind which
hfe u the White House tends to de-
velop. We know perfectly well how
the isolation of the Executive Man.
sion, with no one seeing the President
whom he does not wish to see and with
no one telling him anything except
what he wants to hear-we know ner-
tectly well how this sort of a life
breeds the idea in a Presidents min
that he is a sort of superman, that his
opinions are always correct, that his
actions are always wise and Just, that
he is, in short, infallible. Even the
Judicial Taft was not always immune
to the microbe of such an idea-and
Washington well remembers when the
White House echoed with r~hapsodies
on the superiority Of ''my policies as
developed by "a man of my type"
Washington can remember MANY a
President who has believed that his
fellow citizens who did not vote for
him were misguided, or short-sighted.
or unjust. But Washington cannot re-
call a President who has believed that
his political opponents were unpatri-
otto or un-American.
Yet Washington interprets Mr.. viii.
sons speech to the d. A. r. as mean
ing nothing short of this; and Wash
lngton believes that the President has
thereby raised an issue which will pur.
sue him TO a fatal political end.
The President even now has no clear
cut majority mandate from the people
OF the United States. Only forty-two
Der cent of the electorate voted for
hlm in 1912, and the indications are
tfat no more will vote for him in 1916,
while the divided opposition which
blessed his fortunes three years ago Is
no longer in existence.
Yet the President is trying to assert
that he embodies all of the patriotism
and all of the spirit of nationality
which the country possesses. and that
whoever does not give him complete
political support is traitorous and I'M
American. This is the foreign doctrine
of lese majestic transplanted to Amer
lea. There are speedy evidences that
this exotic plant will be blasted in the
hot indignation of the millions of
Americans who did not vote for Will
son before, who do not propose to vote