The Washington herald., 1916-04-09
A Luacheon and a Moral.

Mr. Root and Mr. Roosevelt have lunched to-
gether, have announced that they have unched
together, have even told us what they talked
about They talked about preparedness. Many
people seem in doubt as to whether they really
talked about preparedness, but for our part we
believe IT. Does any .one suppose they talked
about the convention of 1912, or the recall OF
judicial decisions, woman suffrage, or Mr.. Gift
ford Pinchots views on conservation, or the neces-
sity for drastic inheritance and income taxes, or
the elimination OF sweating and tenant farming
or the educational value of the labor union
They talked military preparedness with perhaps
some reference to foreign policy.
What we witnessing is the attempt to form
"a coalition government in time of great national
emergency This at least is the way the matter
looks to those Republicans and Progressives who
to rnts bs po
the paramount issue, beside which all other con-
sideratons are for the time being negligible
What internal question, they ask, is even COM
parable to the need of reassuring American pres
tige in the world and of organizing American
military powers?
The man who is elected next November will
or just drawing to close, and the administra-
ton will have two supreme problems before it:
the adjustment of American foreign policy to the
situation in Europe, and the reconstruction OF
American social conditions to meet the revolu-
tionary changes in Europe. However unim-
portant domestic issues may look at this moment,
they will wear different aspect in the next five
years. This is the decisive reason why liberals
Progressive Republican coalition.
There is little doubt in our minds that Mr.
Roosevelt represents larger measure of qualih-
cations for the task ahead than any other man in
public life. His grasp of international affairs is
surer, his instinct for organization is better But
he is extremely impressionable man altogether
too likely to take his color from the people he is
most intimately associated with. Put him with
reformers, and he is agow with enthusiasm. Sur
round him with defense leagues, and he will go
the militarist one better. Great leader that he
is there few men easily led and the kind
of President he would make will depend largely
on the kind of people who have access to him
He is capable of standing for the whole
formula Of onscripton-imperialsm and -the-right-
of-wealth- -to-govern. He is capable of courageous
and ingenious assertion of the popular and ma
tonal need against selfish interests.
1t is the business of the Progressives to do
something more than nominate Theodore Roose-
welt. 1t is their business to fight for the posses
sion of his soul. If they elect him, they will have
to keep on fighting within the coalition. That is
why they dare not be hero worshippers believing
in Roosevelt at any price. To be sure they will
not gain his personal affection if they insist on
their own independence. Mr.. Roosevelt demands
kind of loyalty which many who admire him
will not give. But they pretty gullible citi-
zens who are so blinded by Mr.. Roosevets virtue
that they cannot remain openly and good-humor-
edly critical Of him.-The New Republic