Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-08-27
Roosevelt at Plattsburg.

| Will IDS SdLSu
from Secretary Garrison a telegram
of rebuke for Gen. Wood for permit
ting remarks to be delivered there, in
distraction of attention from the seri-
Gus work of the camp, Col. Roosevelt
declares: Not only did I never men
| ton the President, but I never men,
toned the administration l spoke
purely of the nation; of the people
of the United States"
This is an evasion which is I'M
worthy of the ex-President The facts
are against his attempt to justify his
remarks. Here are some extracts
from the text OF his speech:
| ut is an abhorrent thing to make
wanton Or an unjust war. But it
is an utterly contemplate thing to be
unable and unwilling to fight for ones
own rights in the first place, and
then, if possessed of sufficient lofti-
ness of soul, to fight for the rights
OF the weak who are wronged.
| For thirteen months America has
| played an ignoble part among the
nations. We have tamely submitted
| to seeing the weak, whom we had
covenanted to protect, wronged We
have seen our own men, women and
children murdered on the high seas,
without action on our part We have
treated elocution as substitute for
action. During this time our govern
ment has not taken the smallest step
in the way of preparedness to defend
our own rights. Reliance upon high
sounding words unbacked by deeds
is proof of a mind that dwells only
IN the realm of shadow and OF sham.
Under The Hague convention it
was our bounden duty 70 take what
ever action was necessary to prevent
and, if not to prevent, then to undo,
the hldeous wrong that was done to
Belgium. We have sfirked this duty.
We have shown spirit so abject
that Germany has deemed it safe to
kill our women and children on the
high seas.
Most assuredly it will come to us
if we succeed in persuading great
military nations that we are too proud
to fight, that we are not prepared to
undertake defensive war for our own
vital interest and national honor"
1t is impossible to read these words
without seeing in them a direct
charge that the course of the Presi-
dent and the admins tration has been
weak and unpatriotic, in the failure
to enter the war as protest against
the violation of Belgium, in the fail
ure to fight Immediately upon the
sinking of the Lusitania and in the
failure to move during the past thir-
teen months in the direction CT an i'm
mediate enlargement of the army and
| the navy. No evasion, no disclaimer
OF direct mention of the President or
the administration, can excuse Col.
| Roosevelt from the charge that in
his Plattsburg speech, as in others
delivered during recent months, he
has attacked the government of the
United States in a manner to arouse
public feeling against its course.
| Good taste alone should have kept
Col. Roosevelt from speaking as he
did at Plattsburg, in the very pres
ence OF the government, on its very
ground, in the hearing of the men
whom it is training for possible mill
tary service. Patriotism should long
since have withheld from his lips
criticisms and sneers against the
| course of the administration ridicule
or the President and a contemptuous
quotation of his very words, and
other expressions calculated to rem
| der more difficult a task such as sell
dom has fallen to the lot of an Ameri-
can chief executive to perform.
With Col. Roosevelt at one end of
| the line seeking to rldicule the pol
| icy OF the government and BY rabid
jingoism endeavoring to drive it into
war, for which, as he truthfully but
Unexpectedly asserts, it is ill pre-
pared, and with Col. Bryan at the
other end hampering the administra-
ton by his public scorings OF its poll
cleS in dealing with foreign nations
and doing his utmost to prevent the
! spread of a sentiment for rational
military preparedness, the country is
| confronted with a lamentable spec
tacle. Fortunately, neither man rep
resentS the dominant American spirit,
and the country may thank a merci-
full Providence that neither of them
is guiding the affairs of the United
States at this time.