The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1916-10-25
BY MILTON BRoNNER.

NEW YORK, Oct. 11.-(Stafi
Correspondence - I'm 70
Woodrow Wilson because he IL
getting us ready for war and
keeping us out of it,
This spigrammatic answer was
made by the most popular and
most widely read writer in Amer
ica-Irvin s. Cobb. His reply
came spontaneously.
There was no chance for a
frame-up of a lot of bright things
he was to say, because he did no,
know he was to be interviewed
until he was caught on the fly IN
front of the theater, where his lat
est play, Under Sentence is be-
ing produced.
IS EASILY INTERVIEWED
interviewing Cobb is a joy. He
is the same Cobb, modest and
friendly, with the same inexhaust'
ible fund of stories that he was
when working as a reporter il
Louisville.
Remember when we were kids
back in Kentucky, working for Il
bones a week, and no eight-houl
day, either?" he questioned.
Never mind ancient history
Why are you for Wilson,
"Well - Roosevelt has been
wrong on more subjects than any
man of his time. but after ! saw
the hell that is war In Europe
came back home convinced of the
profound truth of one thing Teddy
said: Speak softly and carry a
big stick!'
SAW BELGIAN TRAGEDY
81 was in Belgium when that
little country was invaded by the
magnificently prepared German
army.
81 saw towns in flames, women,
children and old men fleeing,
game little Belgian soldiers dying.
"All at once it occurred to me
that our American dream that no
one would ever attack us was
false unless we were prepared to
repel attack.
so | came back home rampant
for preparedness.
81 think | raised my feeble pipe
for it before 1t became propa-
ganda. | began to preach big
army, big navy, military training
in colleges and schools.
A PIONEER IN 1T
81 think | was about the first to
take the present war as a text for
preparedness.
81 sprung this on cold, aus
tere crowd of wealthy New York
'ers, and when THEY rose to 1t, l
knew people with warmer blood
would.
after that | went on a lecture
tour and whenever | talked about
preparing our country, got the
kind of applause George Cohan
got when he discovered the Amer
lean flag was a grand old rag.
AS TO THE BIG STICK
Now, as to this big stick bust
ness: The trouble with Teddy
and Charles Evasion Hughes is
that IL they had control of the
stick they would want to hit
someone with it to see whether 1t
would really break skull.
Judging by their speeches,
they would want to try it on Ger
many and Mexico, either or both.
II admire Wilson because he
has the inclination to get us ready
for serious eventualities and the
splendid ability to keep us out of
trouble.
IF there is one thing worse
than not getting ready for war, it
is getting us into one.
"Wilson may not be a 100 per
cent candidate, like Hughes, but
the plain people realize that he is
a 100 per cent president.
HIS MISTAKES
"They say he has made mis-
takes. Maybe he has. He is only
human, and very human. Maybe
he did mistakenly trust some of
those Mexicans, like Villa. If he
was deceived, he fell into a COM
mon fault.
1.-THE real progressive of this
country made some mistakes, too.
The most colossal one was believ-
Ing that Roosevelt was acting
on the level with
Them"
But how about this crisis that
Hughes and Teddy say is con-
fronting the country"