The Washington times., 1916-04-06
COLONEL RoosEvRLTs TERMS

COLONEL ROOSEVELI'S IEKmS
"If Roosevelt had been President,
we would have gone to war over the
Lusitania," declares one man, who
is certain that war would be the
supreme misfortune, no matter what
the occasion.
"If Roosevelt had been President,
the Lusitania would never have been
SUNK" retorts the man who believes,
with Roosevelt, that "you don't in
the long run, avoid war by making
other people believe you are afraid
to fight for your own rights"
That debate has been going on for
months past. People who do not
know how skillfully Roosevelt han
died the relations of this country
with Japan when he was President;
who have not been privileged to un-
derstand the real international sit
uation at the time the American
battle fleet was sent into the Pacific
and thence on around the world,
have in some cases been unable to
realize that he was in truth a great
peace President. But his rule was,
most emphatically, peace with honor;
peace with all self-respect.
Yesterday, in quite an impromptu
fashion, the former President stated
the terms on which it would be pos
sible for him to be the Republican
candidate for President this year.
The circumstances were such as to
make the declaration peculiarly
pointed and candid. A man who ex-
poets that he will be delegate in
the national convention called at
Oyster Bay and intimated that, as
he might conclude to support Mr..
Roosevelt, he felt entitled to know
more of the Roosevelt views on pub
lie questions. In the presence of a
group of friends, Mr.. Roosevelt
stated his position in terms that will
not be misunderstood.
1t was an appeal, not for support,
but for a national realization of the
national danger. 1t was renuncia-
ton, rather than the confession Of
an ambition. It was the clear state
ment of a determination, whether
as President or as private citizen, to
keep on fighting to sustain the in
tegrity of this country before the
world; to protect every citizen and
every interest; to insist that there
shall be no divided loyalties among
Americans, but rather that all of
them must be Americans first and
last, with no second choice.
What Colonel Roosevelt said yes
terday was merely extension of what
he had said in the famous Port Of
Spain statement. There is still the
insistence that if the country wants
Roosevelt, it must want him with a
full understanding of his attitude.
There will be no uncertainties, no
pussy-footing.
No man has contributed as Roose-
welt has to making the country I'M
derstand it's danger. He believes it
faces a crisis, and a good many
other people believe the same thing;
a rapidly increasing number, it must
be added. The nature of the crisis,
the possibility that it may eliminate
either before or after the end of the
present war, is better realized than
ever before. For this much accom-
plished, the nation is indebted to
! Roosevelt. He stands for full pre-
paredness, for unity at home, for a
vigorous policy toward the outside
world. He does not believe we have
had any of these things under the
present regime, and he does not want
to be President if the country pre-
fers the shilly-shally attitudes of the
past to the. program he is urging
upon It.
1t is now for the country to de.
eide. If the Republican party does
not want Roosevelt on the platform
he has laid down, it does not neeC
to take him. But if it does not take
him; if, instead, it takes some mar
whose views are practically unknown
on all present questions Of the fore