Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-11-02

|
lVt wish it at all, nevertheless fear
that next 7th of November Mr..
| Wilson may be chosen president of the
United States. They can scarcely i'm
agine a greater misfortune to the
country-that is, any misfortune like
ly to happen-because they think Mr..
Wilson has made and will make almost
every misfortune possible. This is not
in the least because they have always
been his political enemies and thus,
stuck fast in party creed, would al
ways oppose on principle whatever
policy he pursued. They started on his
side. Not few are Democrats, and
all were for him in 1912. Four years
ago he seemed to them the very man
we needed: clear-sighted, cool-headed.
firm of purpose. 1t is no policy of his
that they oppose now; it is the man.
What they find, what has at first be-
wildered and at last estranged them, is
that MIR. Wilson has pursued no policy
at all. One day 1t was no more army,
another day great big army; one day
free trade, another day protection;
now Villa, next CarranZa; now en-
bargo next no embargo; now too
proud to fight, next punitive eXpe-
dition.
Mr.. Wilson's admission that he has;
made mistakes" does not bring these
men back to him, because, knowing
him at last, they know he will always
make mistakes, not old ones, but new
ones. To them he is like some toy
that you wind UP to run on the floor;
the machinery starts whirring, but
when the toy is put down it totters
round and round, and finally falls over
because something is wrong with the
wheels. Yet all the while the ma
chinery keeps whirring while it lies
on its side or its back. In these mems
opinions Mr.. Wilson whirs very
tef11 hi hut Il xtrlta ant
him on the floor. He whirred SO we'll
that four years ago they preferred him
to Mr.. Taft and Mr.. Roosevelt.
! Perhaps their final disenchantment
came after he had requested them to
be neutral about the European War
ment of the explosion, while we were
still stunned, before we understood
what the war meant, this was well.
Loyalty to the President was impera-
tive just after that explosion. But
soon we began to understand. BY au-
tumn little Belgium had been over
whelmed and mutilated, and the sacred
principle of free government derided
and hideously assailed - and not a
word from us to cheer on free gov
ernment in its struggle. Distinguish
ed Belgians came over and told the
President of women raped in public,
of babies impaled on bayonets, of
people burned with them. Still the
President was silent. BY then the
war was to his former admirers a
plain moral question, choice between
right and wrong, between the Declara-
ton of independence and the strict
est despotism: they could not stay
neutral in their opinions. But this
marked only an incident, after all, in
their awakening to the real Wilson
the unreal Wilson describes him bet
ter; for he now continued to go round
and round.
machinery to the Allies. Mr.. Wilson
begged him not to do this. since it
would not be neutral. "a singular in
terpretation of the rights of neutrals
to trade with belligerentsD Mr.. Nor
gan was going to lend some money to
the Allies. Mr.. Wilson begged him not
to do this, since 1t would not be neu-
trail. (Very singular again, particular
ly as soon a large loan was made to
Germany by some Chicago peopleD
But, most singular of all. Mr.. Wilson
presently urged that we buy from Ger
many her ships that lie idle in New
York harbor. and thus as nation fur
nish millions to Germany while Mr.
Morgan as an individual must not lend
millions to the Allies.
So Mr. Wilson tottered round and
round his position of neutrality, head
1ngl now IorWaru ana now backward,
butt getting nowhere. 1t was all of a
piede with Mexico. About Mexico Mr..
Wilson continued to say one thing and
do the contrary, and then to do the
contrary to what he had done first,
and then to say the opposite to what
he had said before that; having re-
quired our flag to be saluted by a gov-
ernment whose. existence he had de-
clined to acknowledge, and having
come away when the flag was not
saluted, and then backing Villa. and
then going back on Villa. all the while
lifting up and shutting down embar-
goes like gates at a railroad crossing
BY December. 1914, the men who in
1912 had voted for him had for some
time been huHnorously known as the
"Damm-it-yes Club; they wished
they could take that vote back. They
wished IL with energy and oaths. They
wish it more and more every day..