The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1916-12-14
ROOSEVELT ANALYzES
RESULTS OF ELECTION
INFLUENCED BY PROSPERITY
AND A DESIRE TO AVOID
WAR.
(Theodore Roosevelt in Metropolitan
Magazine).

IRENE closeness of election, rendering
us at this moment unable to state
without question who the next presi-
dent is to be, while the senate is dem
ocratic and the house closely divided,
| is not a satisfactory outcome of the
campaign. To men who feel as the
present writer does, and who hold
their convictions with feryor of in
tensity, and who wished to see the
American people repudiate Mr.. Will
sons policies by an overwhelming ma
jority, the disappointment is naturally
keen.
Real Issue Not Made Clear.
AS in all such cases, the result is
more easy to explain than 1t had been
to foretell. The appeal made for Mr..
Wilson was one which would tell very
strongly with good honest citizens
whose preoccupation with their own
pursuits was such that they could not
be expected to look deeply into our in
ternational relations and the general
world conditions. This appeal was in
it's essence that we should vote for Mr..
Wilson because he had kept us out of
war and because we were prosperous.
1t would have been highly creditable
to the average man If he had possess
ed the vision and disinterestedness to
disregard such an appeal; but the fact
that he did not disregard 1t merely
means that We were not able to make
the issue clear to his eyes. 1t does not
mean that he would remain morally
obtuse if he could be shown in con-
vincing fashion where his duty lay.
No sensible man wishes to go to war
if he can honorably keep out of it;
and when to this natural inclination is
added the fact that the man is very
busy and is puzzled about the issues
involved, he is certain to cast his vote
on the side that he is told will guar
antee peace. Evidently people tend to
look at the dreadful crimes committed
in Belgium and Armenia, in the sink
ing of the Lusitania, and in Mexico. as
analogous to disasters such as an
earthquake or fire; as properly excit-
ing discreet sympathy, but not as
calling for any action which would
jeopardize the comfort and well being
of those not Immediately concerned. l
do not approve of this attitude. / am
merely stating it. Insofar as our peo-
pie permanently observe it, they will
steadily tend to the Chinese level. 1t
may need a serious shock to wake
them from it. Yet am sure that it is
possible to wake them, and that when
thoroughly aroused they have the fur
Their possibility of showing the great
qualities of the men and women of
the revolution and of the civil war.
Men Prize Material Well Being.
Again, every man does and ought to,
prize a material well-being To prize
it is only wrong when permitted to get
out of perspective, and to become the
sole end of life, instead of merely one
of the means to the end-important,
but to be sacrificed without hesitation
by all lofty souls, when it's retention is
clearly incompatible with some higher
good. We are at the moment well off.
The cost of living is very high; and
| the government is rapidly becoming
unable to pay it's debts; but business
man, farmer and wage worker are all
Iproftably busy. Under such circum-
stances only men of unusual insight
and foresight will make a political
change because of just concern about
the future conditions. They do not
pay much heed to the forecasts of pol
iticians. We have permitted our poll
ticians, our candidates for public Of
flee to treat the promises made in par
| ty platforms and on the stump with a
cynical indifference which now re-
fleets itself in a similar indifference
on the part of the voters. When pub
lie men are readily pardoned for max
ling any promise which they think will
secure public favor before election,
and for repudiating any promise which
they think it inconvenient to keep af-
ter election, it is impossible to expect
THAT the voters will not finally grow
skeptical about all promises, proph-
.ecies and statements made during the
course of campaign.
Adamson Bill Effective.
In addition to these counter claims,
there was the fact that the Adamson
bill unquestionably produced a great
effect in Mr.. Wilson's favor in all la
Dor circles. 1t was taken as an indi-
cation that in any conflict between
capital and labor, Mr.. Wilson would
support labor, without an over-nice
scrutiny of the merits of the case or
the future effects of his action.
Moreover, there was a real blurring
of the issues, because for the first
three years of Mr.. Wilson's term the
leaders among his nominal party OPP
ponents either feared to criticise him
at all, or else split, half Of them as
sailing him because on some given
policy he had gone too far, and the
other half because he had not gone fa1
enough. When a public man who had
for three years praised each of Me-
49, n .