Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-09-07
WILSON NOT CONSTANT.

WILSON NOT CONSTANT.
Senator George T. oliver of Penn
sylvania evidently takes no stock in
President Wilson's sudden protesta-
lions of friendship for labor. The
Pennsylvania senator accuses the
president of being able to make COM
plete change of front whenever po-
litical reasons dictate and he further
believes that the present anxiety of
the president to please the railroad
men, is no more indicative Of his true
feelings that were his recent protes-
tations of friendship for certain
citizens of foreign birth who recently
held a celebration in New York. In
commenting upon the presidents lack
of consistency, Senator Oliver said in
q speech in the senate on August %:
recall still another incident of a
most remarkable change of mind on
the part of this distinguished gentle
man which can not refrain from al
luding to. Some months ago the ami
able and stalwart senior senator from
Kentucky, Mr.. James, went to New
York to address meeting of Ameri-
can citizens of Hungarian birth, and
at the outset of his address he read
the following telegram from President
Wilson:
May l not send my warmest
greetings to the meeting. and will
you not express for me my very
deep and sincere confidence in the
entire loyalty and patriotism of
the great body of our fellow citi-
zens who have strengthened and
enriched America by adding their
energy to our own out Of the ma
lions which have Joined their
stocks to make great America?
This telegram, like all the presi-
dents utterances, Is happily phrased,
and it reads like the language of a
man whose heart is filled nigh to burst
ing with sympathy for these Ameri-
can citizens of Hungarian birth, every
one of them having a vote which he
hopes to secure; but I appeal from
Philip drunk to Philip sober,'' from
Woodrow the president, candidate for
the SURFACES of all men of whatsoever
sort, to Woodrow the historian and
student, seated in the recesses of his
library his mind unclouded by ambi-
tious visions and his calm judgment
unwarped by political aspirations.
have here very interesting book. It
is entitled "A History of the Ameri-
can People, by Woodrow Wilson, Phi.
d., Lift. D., LII. D., president Of
Princeton university" It was publish
ed in 1902 read from volume &,
page PIP. of that work:
The census OF 1890 showed tho
population of the country increas-
ed to 62,622,250, an addition of
12.466,467 within the decade. I'M
migrants poured steadily in as be-
fore, but with an alteration of
stock which students of affairs
marked with uneasiness. Through
out the century men of the sturdy
stocks of the north of Europe had
made up the main strain of for
eign blood which. was every year
added to the vital working force
Of the country, or else men of the
Latin-Gallic stocks of France and
northern Italy; but now there
came multitudes Of men of the
lowest class from the south of
Italy and men Of the meaner sort
out of Hungary and Poland, men
out Of the ranks where there was
neither skill nor energy nor any
Initiative Of quick intelligence;
and they came in numbers which
increased from year to year, as
the countries of the south of
EUROPE were disburdening them
selves OF the more sordid and hap
less elements of their population,
the men whose standards of life
and of work were such as Ameri-
can workmen had never dreamed
Of hitherto The people of the Pa
cific coast had clamored these
many years against the admission
of immigrants out of China, and
in May, 1892, got at last what
they wanted, federal statute
which practically excluded from
the United States all Chinese who
had not already acquired the right
of residence; and yet the Chinese
were more to be desired, as work
men if not as citizens, than most
of the coarse crew that came
crowding in every year at the
eastern ports,
1t will be seen, therefore, that in
1902 DR.. Wilson expressed in plain
words his opinion that these men of
the meaner sort" out Of Hungary were
possessed neither of skill nor energy,
and it would seem to be an enigma
how in 1916 these men or their sons
could enrich America by adding their
energy to our own" or "join their
stocks to our own to make a great
America" Is it not allowed to one to
have some doubt as to which of these
utterances expresses the real inside
opinion of our changeable president
about the sons of Hungary and Pc.
land?
MAKE CROSSINGS SAFE.