Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-07-18
KEEPING THE PEACE.

In the July issue Of the Review of
| Reviews, L. Ames Brown contributes
an article on Wilson the Candidate"
/ The article is written without any at
/ tempt to magnify or to OverState Mr..
| Wilson's case. The author brings out
very fOrcibly the results accomplished
! by Mr.. Wilson by the policies he has
carried out.
! In referring to the keeping of the
! peace and safeguarding American
rights, Mr.. Brown places the issue
squareIy before the reader. Here is
| what he says:
Mr.. Wilson offers himself as a can
| didate primarily as the man who has
! preserved the nations peace in a time
! when war was revealing itself in a re
voting character never before pre-
scented to mankind. He has preserved
the peace and withal safeguarded
against the dangers Of Germany's
early, lawless submarine operations
the lives of those Americans who
travel on the high seas in the future.
For a year he relied upon negotiations
to procure these safeguards, despite
the fact that in this period the Lusi-
tania was destroyed and other lawless
depredatiOns were committed by Ger
many which aroused a substantial ele-
ment Of the electorate to disSatisfac-
ton with that patient course But at
the end he succeeded.
AT the end he achieved the purpose
which would have animated any other
president who had followed a different
policy. Surely it need not be restated
that had any one of those who offered
themselves as candidates against Mr.
Wilson at Chicago been president when
Germany began her Illegal submarine
campaign, his chief purpose would
have been to procure a permanent
abatement of the campaign. Mr. Viii
sons policy has succeeded then, and
his favor or disfavor with the people |
must rest upon their justification of
the means by which this end was
achieved. Imputations of weakness !
will not be permitted To obscure the (
fact that, faulty or not, heroic or not, /
his policy succeeded with respect 10 /
the principal wish Of every patriotic /
American in the crisis 1t was evolved /
to meet
"Maledictions against his 'ignoble' /
'yacillatiOn' Will not prevent an ap- /
probation of his ultimate attainment /
when. to borrow from a convention /
orator, the proudest spirit that ever /
brOOded over a battlefield had TO bow |
in acknowledgment of the recUtude ,
of the demands which our president ,
mainly
Thus far the opposition TO MI
Wilson has avoided the obligation of /
an unequivOcal statement
of the faults they charge against him.
The republican platform-makeTs lin
tied themselves to the easy task of
destructive criticism. Such avoidance
cannot continue, however, for I am
sufficient familiar with the campaign
plans OF the presidents supporters to /
know that they will force the fighting
with this clearly defined challenge
"They will not permit the opposi-
ton to rest its case upon mere asser-
tons of Mr.. Wilson's shortcomings. It II
is a parlous future which the country u
faces, and the voters intend TO come as
nearly as they can to passing upon
fixed quantities, to choosing between
certainties as closely as certainties /
can be Appropriated. Mr.. Wilson s
policy is expressed in cast and not in
seneralities. His policy. if he is re-
urned to Office, will not be different
rom what it has been since August, ]
1914. He will insist that definite, not
general, pledges be pitted against it. ,
The other foreign policy of Mr. ]
Wilson on which the country must {
pass is his Mexican policy. He has \
lealt with Mexico in the kindly spirit [
inspired by the possession Of superior q
power. He has encouraged the de- ]
of constitutional govern 7
nent there, the while that a feeling Of t
Iinship among all the nations Of this {
was fOstered He has en- y
10 maintain peace between {
hat troubled country and the United c
states. knowing well that d policy I
,ased upon the use of physical force / 2
.lways was accessible as an effective
asst resort" Ill