The vidette. (Iuka, Tishomingo County, Miss.) 1912-1967, 1916-05-04

policy Of the President during the
most difficult and critical reriod of his
tory since the Civil War as supreme
endeavor to maintain the highest
American ideal of peace with honor.
And theywould say of his ultimatum to
Germany as lie Matin Of Paris says of
it--voicing the idealism which makes
France and the United States forever
kin-''one of the nobIest acts in the
history of mankind"
They would point to his leadership
Of Congress as The solution of prob
lem that has so long We ed American
government, by which comprehensive
legislative programmes can be enacted
into law without the Presidents coer-
cling Congress or bribing it with pat
ronage.
They would point TO his prepared
ness measures as full atofement for
past derelictions on the part OF the Re
publican party, and as an example Of
leadership that knows how, in times
of national peril, to bring irreconcilable
political elements into harmony for
the public welfare.
They would point to the Admins
tration of Wilson as second only To
the Administrations Of Washington
and Lincoln in the record of mighty
achievement in behalf OF the Ameri-
can people.
All this and more would Republi-
cans say of Woodrow Wilson if ne
were Republican President. Why
should the fact that he Is a Demo
cratic President preclude their saying
it?
They have no Presidential candidate
of their own who measures up TO the
situation, and they do not know
where TO find one. They have no
issue. Why not nominate Woodrow
Wilson, as the Democrats are going to
do, and to give the world the most inn
pressive demonstration Of American
unity in great crisis tina it has ever
known?
We do not mean that the Republi
can Party should shut up shop or
make itself an annex to the Demo
cratic Party. That would be a calam-
ity, for party of opposition is essential
to republican institutions. The Re
publican Party could nominate its
own candidate for Vice President. 1t
could name its own candidates for
Senators and Representatives in Con-
gress, its own candidates for Cover
nors in the various States and for all
local offices. Only the Presidency
would be excluded for the time being
from the arena of partisan strife.
No other nation with leader like
Woodrow Wilson would be crazy
enough in the midst of world crisis
to change or to tolerate any attempt
to bring about a change. We know
ofno reason why the American people
should be less sane than other people,
or why they should permit their vital
interests to be bedevilled for the edi-
iication Of ambitious professional poll
ticians.
1t will always remain to the dis
credit of the Democratic Party that
in the strain and stress of the Civil
War it nominated a candidate for
President against Abraham Lincoln
and sought for partisan advantage to
discredit the Lincoln Administration
Surely the Republican Party at a time
like this cannot desire to emulate that
miserable example of Copperhead
Bourbonism. 1t cannot desire to
weaken the influence of the United
States Government abroad by a par
tisan campaign against the President
at home.
Republican politicians talk much
about patriotism, American prestige
and the national honor. DO they be-
lieve what they say? If so, they
ought TO welcome the chance TO nomi-
nate President Wilson. That would
be a supreme manifestation of pltriot-
ism. 1t would strengthen American
prestige in every capital of the world
as nothing else could do. 1t would
put the national honor beyond the
possibility of stain. 1t would reveal
to civilization a united Republic, eager
for peace, unafraid of war and deter
mined TO maintain the glorious ira
ditions of service To mankind which
it inherited from the Fathers.
What say you, gentlemen of the
Republican convention? Is the party
whose proud boast is that it saved the
Union great enough and patriotic
enough to help give to American
democracy new Union in this day
when civilization itself is hanging on
a cross of European imperalism?-New
York World.
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