Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-02-25


MORE than once the incredible stupidity
A'I of the Democracy has Brought the ma
tion to the brink of disaster
At least once the national integrity has been
preserved only through the sacrifice of a
leader greater than his party. who swept
partisanshp aside in the great crisis, re-
pudiated the rank and file and steered
straight
But never in its long history Of blunders
has Democratic craftsmanship so vindcated
its reputation for erring in the lamentable
exhibition of itself which it has made in the
last few days at Washington.
There are solemn duties which organized
Government cannot escape. The most sacred
of them is the protection of its citizens in
their rights and privileges. If in the exer-
else of such protection it becomes necessary
to invoke force, to have recourse finally to the
sword, be the reluctance what it may, there
is nothing for a self-respecting nation to do
but to assume its responsibility Nature
abhors a gutter.
But 1t is not war toward which the Presi-
dent has been leading. He, on the contrary,
in seeking to vindicate our national rights,
has had his eyes fixed securely on peace
confident that finally it could be kept with
honor. Yet, in the most crucial hour Of
negotiations at the very moment when it
imperative that this nation should pre-
sent a united front, unyielding and unafraid,
there come forward a group of men crying
for a compromise struggling to give our
acquiescence to contemplated murder on the
high seas, and seeking by legislation to
strengthen the hands of our diplomatic
adversary and sanction aforetime his prom
ised aggressions.
We say to these gentlemen that 1t is the
mercy of God if they have not already
brought us to the brink of war They have
fulfilled the prophecy of Berlin that the
President did not have the nation behind
him; that the politicians, vote hungry, would
checkmate our national foreign policy. They
have fulfilled it, that is as best they could, but
not yet have they succeeded in their plans
If by any chance they should, if this nation,
broken and Inundated, should retire from the
lofty position it has assumed, the one aggres.
sion would lead to another, and yet to an
other, until that war which these gentlemen
so earnestly seek to avoid would be thun-
dering in their ears. If they shake at the
whisper of it. what would they do under the
shadow of it's reality?
The President is standing firm. He has
been greater than his party ever since he
undertook to lead it. The difference between
them now is immeasurable. For him there
be no turning back. If his party will not
follow let it stand still. There is enough
patriotism in the White House, backed by
some Democrats and many Republicans in
the Capitol, to assure a continuity of policy
which will countenance no humiliation of this
nation and no impairment of its prestige and
responsibilities.
1t Is no time to discuss the correctness of
the national view A year ago our policy was
stated definitely and without equivocaton.
1t has since been adhered to in principle No
concession on a vital point has been made
We stand, as we have stood for generations
for the law as It exists, for the safety of nom
combatants on the high seas against pirat
ical malpractice on the oceans, To recede
from that attitude. long acquesced in and
established, is so unthinkable a thing that did
it occur ourselves, our children and our chill,
dren's children would blush in memory of it,
The hysteria which has seized the Demo.
cratic Congress will, we believe, pass. It
cannot persist In the meantime let all good
citizens remain steadfast in support of the
President, in whose hands the national honor
has been placed, Above all, let them remem-
ber that there is no war in the Presidents
program. 1t is his opponents who march
straight TO Mars At the most, all the Presi-
dent contemplates is a severance of diplo-
matte relations. He does not even contem.
plate that, for unless this Government quits"
IL is reasonably certain that the Central Pow.
ers win recede from their position and launch
no thunderbolts against American citizens.
Peace is what the President aims for There
can be peace with honor; there can never be
peace with dshonor.
We have no quarrel with the pacihcists,
Their motives, we doubt not are good But
their method Of achieving the result at which
they aim is, We are convinced utterly and
damnably bad. They know what they want.
but they do not know how to get it, They are
playing with dynamite as il it were Fourth
of-July splitter. The point has been reached
when they must be curbed at Washington, lest