The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1916-10-20

Convention which was dominated in
every respect by the same reactionary
leaders which Mr.. Roosevelt four
years ago and since had so roundly
denounced in his hatred of the Presi
dent, he eats his own oft repeated
declaration that he would never go
back to the Republican party.
No President has been as sorely
tried since or before Lincoln's time as
has President Wilson.
:, mo President save Lincoln has ever
been confronted with problems so
many or so vital to the life of the
Republic.
The trouble with Mexico was ca
legacy of the Taft administration.
In this County are many citizens
of foreign birth and foreign national
ity, who have become American citi
zens True as they may be to their
American citizenship and to the
American flag, they respectively are
not and can not be impartial or dis
passionate judges i'm the considera-
ton of Americans duty as q neutral
nation.
The cry has been that our Country
has been unprepared. Why should
Mr. Wilson, or the Democratic Party
be blamed for this. The Republicans,
for sixteen years prior to Mr.. Wilson's
administration, had been in unbroken
control of our Government. Why did
they not turn over our Army and our
Navy and all branches of the Govern
| ment, prepared for such emergencies
You can't get ready in day.
More has been done, under the few
years of Woodrow Wilson, to prepare
this Country for defense; more done
: to upbuild our Navy; more done to
/ increase and get prepared our Army,
, than was done during all of those six
teen years.
, And as to our candidate for United
States Senator, l cannot say too
? much. David J. Lewis is man from
the ranks. He has served his party
, and his people and his State faithful
= ly at Washington in the United States
, Congress. He has a reputation which
! is nationwide. His ambition is not
for political advantage, but that he
may continue in the future, as in the
! past, to think out and work for those
7 measures that are in the interests of
the great body of the American
people.
| And now. my friends, considering
OIL VI LACSS WIFI Lie
across the broad Atlantic Ocean,
7 down into the trenches, in Austria in
! Germany, in France and Belgium,
: see the great mass of maddened,
senseleSs humanity, engaged in so
/ dreadful carnage that the very
= thought dazzles the Judgment and
sickens the sightseeing the widowed
t women, the orphaned children, the
& Wppnino nntbnrc uyhn Wi ho
| comfOrted, the starving children-such
t suffering as the world has never be-
fore seen or read of; and go down
| into Mexico and see what a useless
! war with that country might mean,
: that your son and mine might be sac
ritlced, that our mothers might be
orphaned
With Woodrow Wilson, my Presi-
dent and your President with cool
ness and wonderful poise guiding our
ship of state safely through the
stormy seas which now seem to
threaten the whole universe, firm,
when it is necessary to be firm, con-
clllatory when cOnciliation will in
honor gain his point, while other ma
tions rush to war still plotting our
ship of state into a haven of peace,
happiness and safety. l know you
all with your hearts thankful and
full Of praise feel like crying out with
ne. Would to God that these stricken
Countries of Europe had at their head
the cool head and keen foresight of
our great President Woodrow Wilson
and this bloody war, this awful crime
upon the civilization of the Goth CEN
tury, this most serious assault and
reflection upon Christianity itself
would never have happened Mary
land must DO her duty, our country
demands, the world needs Woodrow
Wilson as the next President of the
United States"
Discussing the foreign policies of the
Administration, Mr.. Lewis said:
1T should be remembered always
that the European contagratiOn start
ed III d quarrel with which we had
nothing to do. We can only become
involved in it through its incidents,
through its flying sparks and embers
as they are thrown by the fury of the
contfagratiOn to the cis-Atlantic or
American side. Should we then pa
tiently resign ourselves to putting
these sparks out by diplomatic adjust
ment and negotiation, cOnfining the
confiagration to Europe, or should we
treat them as causes of war, making
the cOn1lagration general?
In discussing this grave subject
keep in mind that, except where the
United States has been able to sus-
tain it, the great structure of inter-
national law has fallen to pieces I'M
der the stress of the momentous in
terests at stake in the conflict This
happened once before in modern times. |
1t was during. the Napoleonic wars.
Then, too, the whole of Europe was in :
like conf1agration and what with the /
British orders in council and the De-
cree of Milan the law of nations went
down. And the sparks from that con-
tiagratiOn, they, too, fell on the Ameri- |
can side. Thomas Jefferson was Pres
ident. What did he do?, Just what
Woodrow Wilson has done. Het too,
like the truly great man he was, re-
sorted to diplomatic adjustment to
keep the confiagration off the Ameri-
can continent. No statesman need
apologize for following in the foot
steps of Thomas Jefferson
Contrary Policy Means War.
But what would contrary policy
mean? 1t would mean our interven-
tion in the war. And since the sparks {
fall upon all neutral nations, it would ]
mean that all nations would inin thn (