The Washington herald., 1915-04-20
Modern Presidential Prescription.

No man who member OF the Order OF
Masonry shall ever be elected to public office in
this country" the edict sent forth by group
of politicians in previous age of REFORM We
have well-nigh forgotten it, number OF our
Presidents having since then been members of
that order but there it is written in the political
history of the United States OF America The
foolish prescription of the anti-masonic organi-
zation is not more foolish than the later pro-
scriptions by men who say thou shalt not" to
men and parties and government of The people.
But foolish such prescriptions. men will
indulge III them when they very earnest or
have been bitten with the ego bug which leads
to mental arrangement more surely than any
other disease.
The Rev. P. A. Baker and the Rev. F. c. Din
widde have just delivered such prescription
against the President of the United States, the
most famous statesman in the Republican party,
and number of other men whose public service
has commended them to great many people
Messrs. Baker and Dinwiddic assume to speak
for the Ant-Saoon League of America, and the
temperance people, and they publicly prescribe
all men who voted against the Webb-Kenyon
law, and the national prohibition amendment to
the Constitution, who favor States rights in
dealing with the liquor question.
"The people have become impatient with
trifling public officials high and low" declare the
Jerenahs, and none of them shall be con-
sdered for the Presidency in the next national
campaign. This bars out President Wilson, Sec
rotary Bryan, Speaker Clark and Oscar Under
wood from the Democratic nomination.; former
Senator Root, James R. Mann, Senators Burton,
Weeks and La Toilette from the Republican NOM
ination, and some men who have been called pro-
ore audD hut he in
rights and local option. The Democrats are re-
duced to a choice between Capt. Hobson and
Claude kitchin, and the Republicans 10 Gov.
Willis Senator Cummins
If the politicians should take this pronuncia-
mento Of Mcssrs. Baker and Dnwiddic seriously
the campaign will be simplfed by asking these
two gentlemen to make the selections, one being
Republican and the other Democrat and then
fight it out between themselves. 1t is possible
however, that the politicians may overlook the
statement not give it more consideration than
did the politicians who disregarded the pro-
scription OF the anti-Masonic organization,
those who paid little attention the prescription
OF the Know NJ thing or American society which
wrote the obituary of William H. Seward and put
the bars up against Abraham Lincoln. Salmon P
Chase and many others few years before Lincoln
became President and invited Seward and Chase
into his Cabinet.
Messrs Baker and Dinwiddic may be entirely in
earnest, and they may have authority to speak
for the Anti-Saloon League but so the
fifteen or twenty millions OF people who will vote
next year, at the primaries and at the election
may ignore this rather extensive prescription
Americans stiff-nccked people when they
receive such messages from above, since they
have been taught to suspect bosses and formulate
their own opinions and select their own leaders
One of the wisest of politicians long ago ad
vsed that it was always better to start a move
ment among the people at home than to start it
among the so-callcd leaders in Washington or
elsewhere, because Our politics grows from the
schoohouse and the crossroads up toward the
national convention and the Capital. If these
gentlemen really desired to keep President Will
son, Senator Root and the others whom they pro-
scribe from getting into the race next year, they
ought to have started their movement out on the
farms and in the workshops that the voters
might be persuaded that they were doing it.
Isaiah and Jeremiah dead and they have had
successful limitations where democracy has
thriven. Prescription is rcd rag to patriotic and
manly men, and it is just hateful when pro-
nounced by the Anti-Saoon League leaders as
when declared by the anti-Masonic and Know
Nothing leaders, or any other political proscrip-
tionsts that have got the ego germ into their
system to persuade them that they say thou
shalt not"