New-York tribune., 1916-02-12
A Moral Disaster.

Il is the moral. not the political. aspect
Of Mr.. Garrisons resignation which makes
it fatal thing. The strongest man in the
Cabinet has not quit because Of differ
ence of judgment, Of opinion. Of personal
views. He has left because he would not
and could not be a party to the betrayal Of
public trust and national security.
Mr.. Garrison's choice was clear. He had
formulated a policy for national defence.
Mr.. Wilson had accepted it and written it
into his own message. This policy repre-
sentec Ny Garrison's convictions. It's
essential conception was that no real ma
tional defence system could be erected
upon national guard foundations. Every
careful student of military history agrees
with this view. Every student of Ameri
can history knows how fatal American re-
lance upon the national guard system has
proven in the past
Yet despite the fact that the President
had accepted his Secretary's view on this
point. despite the fact that he had adopted
the view as his own. Mr.. Garrison sud
denly discovered Mr.. Wilson was ready 70
compromise ON this vital question purely
and simply for reasons Of political expe-
diency. As candidate for reelection Mr..
Wilson felt the need Of procuring the pas
sage of some legislation which should seem
TO insure national defence. As Secrc-
tary Of War, as an honorable and patriotic
citizen, Mr.. Garrison could not lend his ap-
proval 10 a programme that was a sham,
merely because of the political necessities
of his chief.
This is the true meaning of the break.
Mr.. Wilson has again abandoned a princi-
pie to serve a political end. He has again
revealed that opportunism which led him
frst 20 assail and then TO embrace Bryan.
II is the vice which is expressed I'm a
"strict accountability proclamation fol-
lowed by an "infercntial disavowal" policy.
Only year ago Mr. Wilson bade the
nation put aside all thought Of defence
lest it should lead it to lose its opportunity
for moral influence in a world given over
10 the wickcdness of war. Twelve months
later Mr.. Wilson was journeying over the
country calling the nation TO arms and de
manding a navy greater than that of Great
Britain herself.
Now, ten days after his appeal to the
nation to support policy of national de-
fence to meet a peril of absolute immi-
nencc, Mr.. Wilson is revealed by the Gar
rison correspondence as on the point Of
accepting for political reasons a pro-
gramme of national defence which is a
sham, and worse than sham; which is
not merely a lie, but "a lie revealed on the
most disastrous Of our battefeds.
Here Is the point where Mr. Garrison's
resignation strikes deep and wounds
fatally. There is nothing new in the asser.
tion that Mr.. Wilson is insincere. an op-
portunist. man who puts personal ambi-
tion above all else; the charge has been
made frequently enough. But there is
something not only novel, but deadly. in
having the charge made and proven bv
the correspondence of Mr.. Wilson's own
Secretary Of War; the witness for the de
fence has thus established the case for the
prosecution.
Nor can any one fail to perceive the
light the Garrison incident throws upon
the German affair. 1t is easier to under
stand how the man who wrote strict ac-
countablity' could say "too proud to fight
when you know that the man who accepted
the policy Of federalized national defence
system was prepared to abandon that
policy and its champion to earn political
advantage in Congress.
The difficulty that underlies all Mr.. vii
sons various troubles is the same We
went to Mexico to obtain a national salute.
We sacrificed lives and scuttled out be-
cause Mr.. Wilson was warned by the poll