Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-06-02
BAKER SAYS A REPUBLICAN
IS MAN WITHOUT A CAUSE
War Secretary EuIogizeS Will
son and Calls Roosevelt
the "Great DetraCtOr"

COLUMBUS, Ohio, June secretary
of War Baker, in an address as chair
man of the Ohio Democratic convention
here today, declared the Republican par
ny is IAN aggregation of factions agreeing
upon no set of principles and compared
it with the Democratic party which he
said had carried out a wise and definite
program in economic measures. national
preparedness and foreign policy The
party will be continued in power to ma
ture it's program, he predicted.
Secretary Baker praised President
Wilson for pressing enactment of the
federal reserve and rural credits sys-
TENS, tariff reduction. Sor upholding
American ideals in dealing with Mexico,
and for steering the United States away
from participation in the European war
He expressed satisfaction that the pre-
paredness program had been moderate.
Attacking the Republican party, Secre-
tary Baker said:
ITO speak of a man as a Republican
today Identifies him with no cause, as
cribes to him no opinion; and whether it
afiliates him with progressives or reac-
tionaries or both cannot be told until
after the national convention in Chicago
next week"
He declared that Senator Harding, OF
Ohio, who will preside at the Republican
believes the tariff should be the issue
in the coming campaign. while other Re-
publicans favor an attack on the foreign
policy of the present administration.
Opposition camps divided into those who
believe the administration has been too
bellicose and those who fear it has been
too peace-loving, he said.
Then there is a third group the
secretary continued, headed by the
Great DetractOr. who. shifting from po-
sition to position on the nations foreign
policy, selects at each time apparently
whatever vantage point seems to offer
an opportunity for making difficult the
position of the president and congress.
I'm other words what used to be
strong coherent. logical organization
known as the Republican party, is now
so far as, its leaders are concerned, an,
aggregation of factions. agreeing on no
set of principles. advocating no national
policy. the only common bond of union
being a willingness to pool issues to
win And this party is about to meet
In convenention at Chicago to select
whatever candidate looks best at the last
moment and whatever principles prom
Use to weather the storm until Novem-
Der
I'm contrast to this. the Democratic
party, having lived through years oe
doubt and hesitation. with n central
philosophy sometimes more a yearning
than a program. now presents a natura!
policy, evolved by a great leader. well
coined by his party associates as the
real expression of their political ideals"
President Wilson was the subject If
this praise from the Secretary:
when the history of this age comes
to be written. the great fortune of the
American people and of the world will
appear to have been that our destinies
were inthe hands of a man patient
wise and just, who save past
all the minor annoyances ami
through all the cross-currents
Of feeling. who resisted every i'm
pulse toward impetuous judgment. and
thereby accomplished these great things:
First, that he saved the lives of count
less Americans who by any other course
would have been devoted to death in
battle: second. that he preserved the
civilization of the twentieth century
against the last great assault which
would have been made had our country
too been swept into the general catas-
trophe: third. that he indicated and pre-
served unimpaired the rights of neu-
trails and restrained the zeal of belliger-
ents from sacrificing International law
to the supposed necessities of their mil
itary plans; and fourth, that he saved
up the moral energies of great and
free people to place them at the dis
posal of mankind when they rested
from their work to destruction and be
gan to reconsider the possibilities OF
life.
His has been the one sane and Sc
rene spirit which will redeem this age;
and when the election comes it will be
found that the people of America, what
avar +beir Cy-poOatbips in the F,urODea0
realize that the one indispen-
sable exponent of the mind, the friend J
illness and the ideals of America in the
renla king of the old order in the Old
World. is the finest type produced IN
this age by the new order in the New
WILSON"