Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-01-21
Watserson Cuts Loose from Wilson.


Watserson Cuts Loose from Wilson.
The most severe criticism of Presi-
dent Wilson's Jackson Day address
comes from the highest source in the
Democratic party, an utterance by
Henry Watterson, editor of the Louis
Vile Courier Journal, the grand old
man Of Democracy. Mars Henry
parts company with the President SO
soon after reconciliation because the
lofty" position announced at In
dianapolis is not craftsmanship He
says (and twice as much more of the
same general tenor):
1t is when the President reaches
Mexico, in his Indianapolis address.
that he appears really. and may l not
add without disrespect, hopelessiy at
sea. | regret that 1 must here part
company with him. He is. and he
has been from the beginning, wholly
wrong. Declaring himself an en-
thusiast. d reckless" enthusiast
about human liberty" he begins the
ueItHce Oh ms altlluut toward MEXICO
al follows:
l hold it as a fundamental principle and
so do you. that every peop.e has the
right TO determine its own form of gov
eminent; and until this recent revoIu-
ton in Mexico, until the end OF the Diaz
reign. 80 per cent. OF the people il Mexico
never had a look in" in determining
who should be their governors or what
their government should be- Now | am
for the 50 per cent. 1t is none OF my
business, and it is none of your business,
how long they take in determining it.
1t is none of my business and it is none
of yours how they go about the business
The country is theirs The government is
theirs. The liberty, Il they can get it,
and God speed them in getting it, is
theirs. And SO far as my influence goes
While ] am President nobody shall inter
fere with them.
Excuse me, Mr.. President. it is
your business 10 protect Americans
and American interests everywhere,
not less in Mexico than in Turkey or
Timbuctoo. Your attitude is most
Gisinterested. 1t is lofty to a degree
1t may be humanity fled from cart n
and gone to heaven. But it is no.
craftsmanship. Suppose ii had been
applied by the early English, French
and Dutch settlers in America to
what they might have called the IN
dian problem, how far would civiliza-
ton have advanced; Let it be agreed
that they first fell upon their owl
knees and then upon the aborigines''
that they robbed the Indians right
ana ieft-does it not remain that the
scattered and warning tribes were no.
only unequal to governments but
were unknowing and unteachaDle
VIVA to do with their own or of any
kind Of progress!
Now the eighty per cent. of the
people in Mexico, of whom the Presi-
dent speaks, are just as barbarous,
and incapable. They embrace tribes
OF Indians equally ignorant and wide
apart. These are spliced with ne
groes and mestizos, forming in the
aggregate population four fifths
mongrel.
II IS not true that they never had
look-in." They have had u hun
dred years of 'look-in," preferling the
anarchism OF brisandage. TO which
profitable outlawry invited them. to
liberty, peace and order, for which
they possessed neither the inclination
nor the aptitude. They know and
teCosHlZe only the rule of force.
Mexico teens with riches the Maxi-
cans cannot develop or enjoy, but
which invite the cupidity of the for
eisner. Thus has grown up a BODY of
bandits, posing as patriots who find
nghtlng the best-paying employment.
and are ever at the service of rival
groups of capital. Castism in Ger
many is not firmer in it's seat than
1feeoootlng in Mexico. Among the
leaders 1t is but choice between cut
threats.
Mars Henry might consistently