New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-05-25
IMAGINATION IN POLITICS
The Rooseveltian Vision VS.. Handsome
Passion for Pretty Phrases.
. The Editor Of The Tribune.

Sir: The whole art and mystery OF magma
ton consists in seeing. For the dullard moth
ing exists that does not lie close before his
eyes. The vision OF him who has imagination
goes TO the heart of things, and just because
he can look so far he is wonderfully well
aware OF the so-caled facts. IL is his imagi-
nation. his vision, that is hourly bringing
Colonel Roosevelt nearer TO the solidihcation
Of popular sentiment which may disconcert
all the politicians and win at Chicago>a vic
tory even greater than that of which his
most sanguine supporters now permit them
selves to dream. The organization of the
Republican committee which visited him on
Monday is symp,omatIc. The members OF it
see. SO do the thousands of voters behind
them.
When Colonel Roosevelt announced that
his countrymen could not draft him for the
campaign unless they were in heroic mood he
was only asking them to let fall the scales
from their eyes. There never were any sim
pier issues than those which have confronted
the American people during the last two
years. The war in Europe, the Mexican and
Philippine questions, the Lusitania, hyphena-
ton, preparedness-the things have re-
|
ing Of pro and con, no esoteric illumination.
The moral points involved in them have sure
| ly been as plain as the proverbial pikestaff.
But each and every one of them has been
yeloped by President Wilson in a cloud of
words. And such wordsl Future antholo-
gists will make much of his "too proud 10
! fight" but it is to be hoped that they will
rot overlook that other gem liberated in his
recent speech at Charlotte: AT the outset
there was at the heart of the men who led
the movement for independence a very high
and handsome passion for human liberty and
free institutions" The italics are ours. Hand
| some, forsooth!
! Would the founders OF this Republic have
known what the President was talking about?
More probably they would have wondered if
some precious Literary man. had not strayed
into their midst, to translate their hardy emo
tons into pretty phrases. But they would
have understood these words, spoken at Oys-
ter Bay:
! now hold and shall continue to hold this
great time of crisis in our country's his
tory, because il is great crisis IN the history
of the world. II we are unprepared, II we are
split and sundered by rivalries Of creed, of
section and national origin; if our country's
action is to be conditioned by helplessness
without and the hyphenate within, the career
of the United States as a great factor in the
worlds civilization is at an end. There is no
use of being for half measures Of American
ism and preparedness.
Here are facts, clearly recognized and
faced, and here is imagination. the power to
seize the spiritual meaning of facts, to reck-
on with their ultimate consequences. II is
for the voter to realize his own opportunity.
All the heroism necessary for him is the hero
ism of seeing clearly, of distinguishing be-
tween the true and the false, the strong and
the weak, the insensate fact and its living
implication. IL does not need the seventh
son of a seventh son, born with a caul and
lowered with the left hind foot of rabbit,
TO ferret out the difference between Ameri-
canism and Fordism, between preparedness
and handsome passion for strict neutrality
in thought and word and deed.
The American voter is in some sort put TO
test in this matter. We have been called
a Smart" people, and few of US really resent
the epithet We like to believe that we know
what we are about, that we can't be fooled,
that anybody who wants to deceive US must
get up very early in the morning Well, are
we going to pin medal on Mr.. Barnes as the
champion early riser? Are We going to sit
still while the hyphenates roll their poison
gas over US? Are we, indeed, too proud to
fght-whch is to say, too unimaginative to
see? Germany is losing the war through
variety of causes, but chiefly through an i'm
measurable stupidity, dating back to the day
on which the operations of her imagination
were suspended and she planned a conquest
as senseless as it was wicked. The facts of
Europe were there for all men to see, but
Germany could not see them. The facts of
America are to-day absolutely naked to the
eye. To ignore them is not only unpatriotic
but stupid.
What the German diplomats failed to per-
ceiye before hostilites began was the spirit
burning beneath surface conditions in Eng
land and France. President Wilson's failure
is traceable to exactly the same error. To
this day, as his Charlotte speech so pathet-
ically shows, he cannot apprehend the real
significance of what is going on in Europe,
and he is as blind to the truth at home. He
can see that millions of voters in the United
States do not want war. He cannot see that
except for the hyphenates and the pacifsts
with heads like deserted pill boxes-those
millions are concerned to prepare themselves
against war; TO make America secure through
making her strong, and this because they are
men, men with courage, love of country and
the spirit of self-sacrifce in their souls. The
tremendous effectiveness of Colonel Roose-
yelts speech at Detroit, which, incidentally
blew the Ford chariot to bits, was due in
great measure to It's hard common sense. But
we believe it rested even more upon the ap-
peal which he made to all that is right and
fine in the American consciousness. He could
make the facts vivid to his countrymen be-
cause he could interpret to them their own
better instincts, touch their imagination, show
them their duty in the light of those ever
lasting principles which alone make life
worth living. +. c.
! New York May "a, 1916.
Patriots.
] To tina Editor IF Tho Tribune