New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-11-04

"He has been claiming credit because
ir the case of Belgium he has pre-
served a neutrality that would make
Pontius PLATE culver with envy; and
yet in this speech last Thursday he
said that never again must we be neu-
trail lie has kept US absolutely un-
prepared; so that now we are az abso-
iutely unprepsred,. after he has been
in Office three and a half years, as we
were when he took Office; and yet he
now says that we must enter the next
war whenever one comesl
"He has looked on without single
throb of his cold heart. without the
least quickening of his tepid pulse,
while gallant Belgium was trampled
into bloody mire, while the Turk IN
ficted on the Armenian and Syrian
Christians wrongs that would have
blasted the memory of Attila, and he
has claimed credit for his neutral in
difference to their suffering; and yet
now, ten days before election. he says
the United States must hereafter re-
fuse to allow small nations to be ms
handled by big, powerful nations:
"Do il now. Mr.. Wilson. II you
mean what you say, Mr.. Wilson, show
that you mean IL by your action IN the
present.
There is no more evil lesson that
can be taught this people than to cover
I'D failure in the performance OF duty
in the present by the utterance Of gilt
tering generalties as TO the perform
ance of duty in the nebulous future.
With all my heart | believe in seeing
this country prepare its own soul and
body so that IL can stand up for the
weak when they are oppressed by the
strong. But before il can do so II must
fit itself TO defend its own rights, and
il must stand for the rights of its
citizens.
During the last three years and
half hundreds of American men,
women and children have been muir
dered on the high seas and in Mexico.
Mr.. Wilson has not dared to stand up
for them. He has let them suffer with
out relief, and without inficting pun
ishment upon the wrongdoers. When
he announces that In some dim future
he intends 70 stand up for the rights
Of others, let him make good in the
present by now standing up for the
rights OF our own people.
Germany Ignored Threat
"He wrote Germany that ne would
hold her to strict Accountability II
an American lost his life on an Ameri-
can or neutral ship by her submarine
warfare. Forthwith the Arabic and the
Gulhight were sunk. But Mr.. Wilson
dared not take any action to make his
threat effective He held Germany to
no accountability, loose or strict. Ger
many despised him; and the Lusitania
was sunk in consequence. Thirteen
hundred and ninety-four people were
drowned, one hundred and three Of
them babies under two years of age.
Two days later, while the dead mothers
with their dead babies in their arms
lay by scores in the Queenstown
morgue. Mr.. Wilson selected the mo-
ment as opportune to utter his famous
sentence about being too proud to
fight
"Mr. Wilson now dwells at Shadow
Lawn. There should be shadows
enough at Shadow Lawn; the shadows
of men. women and children who have
risen from the ooze Of the ocean bot
rom and from graves in foreign lands:
the shadows of the helpless whom Mr..
Wilson did not dare protect lest he
might have to face danger; the shadows
of babies gasping pitlfully as they sank
under the waves; the shadows of WON
en- outraged and slain by bandits; the
shadows of Boyd and Adair and their
troopers who lay in the Mexican des-
ert, the black blood crusted round
their mouths, and their dim eyes look
ing upward, because President wilson
had sent them to do a task and had
then shamefully abandoned them to
the mercy of the foes who knew no
mercy.
Those are the shadows proper for
Shadow Lawn; the shadows Of deeds
that were never done; the shadows Of
lofty words that were followed by no
action; the shadows Of the tortured
dead.
1.-THE titanic war still staggers to