Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1915-09-10
President Wilson,. Bloodle., Victory
(Ctica go Tribune)

= + : y {. - o.
President Wilson. Bloodle.. Victory
Chicago Tribune)
President Wilson has had the fortune
of making his uncompromising policy
stand. 1t is an extraordinary triumph
not only for the American nation but
for him personally. In the face of re-
suits it is of no consequence to say that
if the party in Germany headed by
Admiral Won Tirpitz had prevailed we
should have had war instead of an ami
cable arrangement facing us.
Results count, and in this case the
president has all the results on his side.
It is useless for his critics to point to
the consequences on the other side of
the probabilities. They didnot happen.
The presidents attitude undoubtedly
conformed to the average Americans
idea of national Importance, and the re-
suit comedies with that estimate. We
do not know what considerations moved
Germany. They may have been con-
siderations of expediency or humanity.
They may represent the triumph of
diplomatic Germany or militant Ger
many. Whatever they represent in
Germany, they stand in the United
States for the clean cut triumph Of
American principles against great odds.
The critics Of Mr.. Wilson'S scheme
merely bow to and acclaim the fact
that he has arrived at the desired end
without use of the methods which they
thought necessary. He has avoided the
ultimate although he used the ultima
tum.
The result was the test. He met
that test. The method is no longer Of
any Importance.
springfield, Mass, Republican,
The president has been Enthusiastically
right in his policy since the war began.
Neutrality was the only sound policy to
pursue. The even handed maintenance
of neutral rights was the essential
corollary of the policy so wisely adopt
ed, and essential to the equilibrium of
the whole theory Of our neutrality has
been the safeguarding not of Belgium's
neutral rights, but of our own neutral
rights against impairment from any
quarter. The president has tried to do
this with patience as well as fairness,
and his efforts have been approved I'M
mistakably by people that have de-
sired to keep out of the European con-
flict.
In dealing with Germany on the sub
marine issue, the president is consist
emily maintaining his neutrality policy
as whole, which rests upon inter-
national law in the specific case of I'M
heralded submarine attacks on mer-
chant ships is worth saving because the
dictates of law coincide with the die
tates of humanity. The question is not
simply one of protecting in their rights
those reckless Americans who insist on
travelling in the passenger ships of a
belligerent; it is question of the most
elementary humanitarianism and as well
question of holding fast to a neutral
policy which submission to the German
governments assaults on the plea of
military necessity" would shatter to
fragments.
The president is assailed at from too
many sides. He is ignoble and weak;
he is also reckless and eager for war.
His "parleying" is paltering and
craven; his stern insistence on the rec
ognition of the rights Of American non
combatants on the high seas is plung-
ing his country into the abyss of
European militarism and economic de-
vastation. The criticism in its various
aspects becomes absurd when pieced
together, and the bulk of the Ameri-
can people recognize the fact. The
president is the one leader who has
thus far offered the nation a policy at
once patriotic, cautious and consistent
with the underlying desire of all the
people-Which is the maintenance of