The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1916-10-26
TRYING TO BLINDFOLD THE
PEOPLE.
From Minneapolis Tribune


The great slogan of the Democrat
party in this campaign is: "He (Wil-
SOM has kept us out of war;" and by
that sign they hope to conquer.
Now, if he has kept US out of wal
and, in doing so, has done something
that should blind us to all other facts
of the situation, let us give him credit
for it, for all it is worth. But if he has
not kept us out of war in the sense
that he has done nothing eXtraOrdi-
nary to prevent it, and if what he has
done has not been well done, ought
we to close our eyes to all the real is
sues of the campaign?
In the first place, to be kept out OF
war implies that somebody was trying
to get into war. Who was it? Mr..
Wilson does not tell US; if he could
he probably would.
Of course, keeping out of war does
not refer to Mexico. That is under
stood. Everybody knows we are at
war with Mexico and have been off
and on for two years or more. There
is a sort of truce on now, but we have
100000 men under arms on the bor-
der and $4,000 more on Mexican soil.
But this is just the beginning of what
we are morally certain to have on our
hands little later as the result OF
our having destroyed the only constl-
tutionally formed government Mexico
has had since this administration
came into office. When the European
war ends, we will either abandon the
Monroe doctrine and leave Mexico to
the mercy of nations who are not in
different to the murders of their cit
liens by Mexican revolutionists and
the destruction of their property, or
we will get busy in Mexico making
good to Great Britain, France and
Germany for the injuries inflicted up
on their citizens while we have beer
waitfully watching the sufferings in
flicted upon our own because of the
anarchy and ruin our Mexican policy
has brought about.
But never mind about that war. 1t
can be only a small affair in these
days, and doubtless the Democrats
would insist that it does not count, III
though it is already costing us $15,-
600 month. No, the Democrats do
not care about this war on our South
western border. They mean the great
European war.
All right Let us see about that
Anybody here want to go to war with
anybody in Europe? Nobody seems
to want to. Mr.. Wilson has not NAM
ed anybody who has expressed a de-
sire for war. 1t must be, then, that
the idea that anybody here was being
kept from going to war is mistake.
How about the people on the other
side? Anybody over there been crazy
to go to war with US? 1t could hardly
be Germany. Germany has all the
war on her hands now, and has had
from the beginning, that she can at
tend to. It would have been silly for
her to pick a quarrel with us at any
time and turn all our resources Of
men and money over to the support
Of her enemies; and Germany is not
silly.
And the Allies-have they shown
any disposition to go to war with US?
Not that anybody knows of; nor has
there been a time since the war be-
gan, nor will there be until the war
ends, when they could afford to. They
need US too badly. We are feeding
and clothing them and providing them
with munitions. 1t would be silly for
them to go to war with US, cut off
their source of supply and all these
things which they need so much and
array them against themselves. And
they, too, are not silly.
Now, if we did not want to go to
war, and Germany did not want to go
to war, and the Allies did not want to
go to war, what an awful job it must
have been to keep us all from doing
none of us wanted to do!
This, of course, is not to say that
on account of the war, difficult sit
uations have not arisen. They have.
But difficult situations have arisen be-
fore when those with whom we might
have had trouble were not one-half or
-hundredth part as busy as they
are now.
When, for instance, Mr.. Monroe
promulgated the doctrine which bears
his name, he threw down CHALLENGES
to four great Europena powers at one
time-Austria, Prussia, Russia and
France, known as the Holy Alliance
But they did not see fit to take it up,
although they had at the time no war
on their hands. True, he was secretly,
if not openly, backed up by England
Just as, during the past two years,
war by either side against us would
have forced us into an alliance with
the other, a situation which no Euro
pean power could view without alarm,
and which it would make great con-
cessions to prevent. But Mr.. Monroe
did not have any war and he was the