West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1916-09-07

this perplexiag business. but not In
purpose or object.-From President
Wilson's speech of acceptance.
This is the Presidents own judg-
ment upon his Mexican policy. II
might well serve as the historians
Judgment upon the Wilson administra-
ton as whole.
Mistakes the President has made:
mistakes in men; mistakes in method:
mistakes in time and place and cir
cumstance; but no mistakes in pur-
pose or object. We might 20 even
further and say no mistakes i'm fun
damental principle.
And what an administration of deeds
IL has been!
Four years ago Il would have SEEM
ed unbelievable that any President.
devoting all his effort and energies to
questions Of domestic policy alone,
could by any possibility accomplish
what Woodrow Wilson has accom-
plished since March 4. 1913. Yet this
extraordinary program of legislation
has been carried through I'm the midst
OF more serious foreign complications
than any other President has had ia
| meet.
The President has not only kept the
country at peace as a result OF his
foreign policy. but he has made peace
the better worth while TO every Amer
oil ,NutI -
class.
| The Presidents political enemies
are fond of saying that there has been
no leadership under his administra-
ton. There has never been such com
plete and masterful leadership unGcE
any other administration. There has
| hardly been "A month in the last three
and half years in which Mr. Wilson
has not accomplished the seemingly
impossible.
1t has not been the leadership of
brag and buster and the big stick, but
the leadership of principle. character
and superior intellect. 1t has been
the leadership described by Gov. Sam
uel w. Mccall of Massachusetts in
one OF his Yale lectures on "The Lib
erty of Citizenship"
Our great Presidents, like Wash
ington and Lincoln. have in important
crisis kept themselves behind and not
in front of the people. just as the
General who is really a soldier directs
i hiG ha -
impetuously waving his sword at the
front"
The test of leadership is its results,
and the results of Woodrow Wilson's
leadership are without precedent as a
contribution to the general welfare,
with the solitary exception of Lin
coins services in saving the union.
The attacks upon his foreign policy
the President meets without apology
or evasion He has no excuses to
make for refusing to recognize Mr..
Hughes martyr, the sainted Huerta.
who betrayed the very comrades he
served" who "traitorously overthrow
the government of which he was a
trusted part" The President will re-
cognize no title based upon intrigue
and assassination" He is still more
interested in the fortune of oppressed
men and pitiful women and children
than in any property rights whatever. :"
He is still with the people of Mexico
who are striving, however blindly and
clumsily, for rights that are funda-
mental to life and happiness" From
that position he will not be moved.
The President may be wrong in his
Mexican policy, as Mr.. Hughes and
Mr.. Roosevelt and Mr.. Hearst so loud
ly assert, but if he is wrong he is
wrong with the Declaration OF indie
pendence, which is the best of COM
pany to err with
To the criticism of his dealings with
the European belligerents he is equal
ly direct and definite. The peace that
he has maintained has not been a
peace at any price, but peace with
a purpose. and he has never lost sight
of the United States as the indispen-
sable servant and benefactor of civili-
zation in the difficult days of restora-
ton. He but states the fact when he
says "the record is clear and consist
ent throughout" Those who profess
not to understand it lack the mind or
the heart to understand il.
More important than the Presidents
answer to the critics of his foreign
policies, more important than his re-
cital of the record of his administra-