Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1916-02-19
Roots Speech.


him as party man. AS an arraign-
ment of the Wilson Administration,
it must be regarded by the electorate
as a bid for fame, and a miserably
cheap one at that. Mr.. Root takes
the foreign policy of Mr.. Wilson and
riddles it with criticism, but he Of
fers no remedy except to pledge"
his party to a different course. May
we ask what course? All Republi-
cans are not jingoists, and the peo-
pie would have something to say on
that score. He means war.
1t is not necessary to defend the
wisdom of the Wilson policies to in
dictate their success. The purpose of
| the President has been to avoid war
from two quarters and he has been
successful in both. That he has made
no man less an American in state
ment of fact. To have taken any
other course than the one he has
| chosen would have meant war in
either direction. What other course
would have been better?
Mr.. Root brings up the ineficiency
of our internal affairs and alludes to
the depressed business conditions.
Can he point to time when any
tariff policy was in the act of being
changed that there was not depres-
sion? Every economical disturbance
has always unsettled business and al
ways will. Mr.. Wilson has not put
single bit of national legislation into
effect for which there had not been
insistent demand. The truth is, he
he has captured Republican thunder
and made good use of what they
would not put into effect. He has
been more progressive than the Pro-
gressives. There is no party that
would dare at this time to interfere
with the tariff radically, and none
that would rout out the income law.
What, then, do they propose? Will
they amend or kill the Federal Bank
ing Law? Not much. The tariff is
slowly adjusting itself, and the bank
ing law is a certainty in it's protec-
ton to business, and everybody
knows it.
Mr.. Roots speech was a master
piece of oratory, cool, adroit, eloquent.
No oratory would be effective if it
did not appeal both to reason and
passion. In places Mr.. Root is logical
only from the party viewpoint. Big
Business will, no doubt, approve of
all he said; but Big Business is not
going to cut off its nose to spite it's
own face.
Perhaps the weakest appeal made
by Mr.. Root were the citations
in the cases of Switzerland and Hol-
land, which he brought in to prove
his case against the American poll
cies. He said that what Switzerland
and Holland did when the war broke
out was to fortify their border lines,
bristle up and say, "Stand back!'
Is not this exactly what Belgium
did? Wasn't Belgium fortified?
Didn't Belgium believe Liege could
hold out against German invasion?
And doesn't Mr.. Root know that
Holland would offer puny resistance
to German attack? It would be
crushed like an eggshell, as Belgium
was. The attempt to say that the
! United States should have defied
Germany as Switzerland and Holland
did is laughable when one considers
the theatrical seriousness of the ut
| terance. America bears no grudge
against Germany, and no real cause
for any. Germany has no cause for
grudge against America and no
cause for any. Germany has acted
from sheer desperation, admitting
that her fight is for life itself. What
President Wilson has done in hold
ing his country aloof from a fool
war will be commended by posterity,
and no party cry can amend or
change this verdict. The idea that
this country is ridiculed abroad is
every bit nonsense. The real truth
is, the United States was never so
important factor in the worlds af-
fairs as at this moment, and no one
knows this better than Elihu Root,
who himself wants to be President.
The Republicans will have to in
vent some other kind of thunder to
make the people believe that Wood
row Wilson is weak. He has accom-
plished more and better legislation,
and kept his mouth shut about it,
than any other President in fifty
years. AS standpatter on his rec
ord, he can afford to smile at all the
Roots in Christendom.