Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1916-02-11
REPUBLICAN PREDICAMENT.
IDes Moines Register


The predicament the republican
leaders find themselves in with regard
to the president is one Of their Gre
ating On Dec. 5. 1914, the president in
his message 10 congress said:
We are at pease with all the world.
No one who speaks counsel based on
fact or drawn from just and candid
Interpretation of realities can say that
there Is reason to fear that from any
quarter our independence or the in
tegrity Of our territory Is threatened.
Dread OF the power of any other nation
We are incapable Of"
The conditions had not changed in
any particular except for the better
W hen the president went to the Nam
haitian Club 10 announce that we must
arm, and everybody who knew enough
about politics to be graduate OF a
night school knew that he was shifting
his position for political effect.
But what did the eastern republic
cans doY Instead OF permitting him -
hold the hot end Of the poker he had
SO suddenly grabbed. they could not be
swift enough to take it away from him.
Mr.. Roosevelt with characteristic i'm
petuosity declared that the president
was not going half far enough, and the
eastern republicans hailed Mr.. Roose-
Welt as a prophet, ana so the president
was left exactly where he wanted ~
be and where he planned to be.
I. is easy TO explain the president.
The Washington correspondent OF the
SPRINGFIELD, Mass, Republican, an
eastern newspaper Of calm temper. hits
him off exactly:
nhlcrTer WASn-
ington affairs ventured the suggestion
that when President Wilson's fighting
blood is up, he moves audaciousiy and
has always done 80 during his political
career. There are periods when it be-
comes necessary for a president to
beat the tom toms furiousiy to COM
naand public attention. Roosevelt has
long been an artist In that line
But how are we to explain the course
Of the eastern republicans who had
known the Roosevelt methods for
twenty years, and who ought to be
equal to the demands Of any such Sit
uation, but who have allowed them
selves to be stampeded, and crowded
out on the end of limb where they
can neither get back nor drop of with
safety?
Some OF his supporters are trying to
get away from that .'incompara bly,
greatest navy in the world" as tho the
president had been guilty of gross
indiscretion. The president never timed
q statement better in all his long life OF
making phrases that count. What can
Mr.. Roosevelt say for anything bigger
than that? And how can Mr.. Roosevelt
fail back for anything lesser than that?
What are the eastern republican lead
ers going to put in the platform that
will leave the president out on the
limb?
II from the first they had said the
president was unduly excited, thaS
there was no occasion for his back
tracking on his previous declarations,
that the country was safe from at
tack, as everybody knew it was safe
from attack, the president could not
have gotten by with that Manhattan
Club speech. He would have been con-
yicted In the public mind Of playing the
game in a decidedly amateurish and
raw way. But they could not run fast
enough to relieve him OF the embar-
rassment by proving they were much
more alarmed than he pretended to be.
And now what are they going to say or
do?
The president Is now where he can
talk for peace against Mr.. Bryan and
for preparedness against Mr.. Roose-
welt He has all the advantage OF the
central powers in this war. His forces
are in the middle and the allies are
on both sides, divided and unorgan-
!. lied. II the republicans go towards
| Roosevelt, he will put the loud pedal
on big navy, II they go toward
Bryan, he Will put the loud pedal on
! peace. He is prepared and fortified az
| nobody would have believed he could
be IN the situation that confronted MIN
when Mr.. Bryan left the cabinet.
! There Is no use minimizing the Ell
feet of the presidents western tour
It has appealed to the popular imagi-
nation. It will not take Iowa on us
4 feet but there are many who can vote
/ for Wilson easier than they could pc
i fore. The president has but to SWING
4 about thru all the eastern and southern
i and western states to make repupli-
can nomination and republican Plat