Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-01-18
LANE GIVES REASONS
WHY WILSON SHOULD
Be KEPT IN OFFICE
Cabinet Officer Boosts Work Of
Nations Chief Executive and
Declares He Has MADE
Good
BY FRANKLIN X. LANE.
(secretary of the Interior in Presidens
wilson's Cabinet.l
|ICopyright, 1916: by the Newspaper bn-
terprise Association.)


You ask why does the Democratic
party deserve the continued confidence
lOf the country? The answer is, because
liz has. made good; and l believe there
can be no fuller answer to your ques-
tiOn.
No one could have foreseen three
years ago that the life of this nation
been during this administration, and few
would have prophesied. l believe, that so
much would have been accomplished so
wisely and so many situations Of an un-
precedented character dealt with so sat
lisfactorily.
i This country Is growing more nom
partisan every day. It is asking for an
efficient and an honest government ana
is becoming more Indifferent as to the
labels which, for purposes of co-ordained
action, men bear.
And somehow IL matters very little
what any OF us may say regarding the
merits or the dement's of a party, for
minds are seldom brought to conclu-
sion by political speeches or political
articles The newspaper, which daily
tells the story of what is done, gives to
the citizen the basis for a Judgment
which he makes independent of partisan
appeal
PEOPLE THE JUDGES.
Il In a word, 1 think IL makes little
L difference what criticism is launched
against the administration or what any
lof Us may have to say in its praise. The
/ American people have judged il already
very decisively by the things which IL
has done, and one of the greatest things
which il has done has been to seriously
ldisappoint it's lugubrious opponents.
For, as / look back over the past three
years, 1 recoHect very distinctly the sad
tones Of those who prophesied calamity
Il misfortune should place the Democrat
lie party in possession of its government
al machinery; and one of the greatest of
these calamities would be a financial de-
lrangement in which credits would be
destroyed. our banking system imperiled,
and initiation follow demagogic legisla-
ftion.
The answer of the Democratic con-
lgress was the federal reserve act, which
sound men of finance and generous mind
ed opponents have characterized as the
lgreatest single constructive bit of legis-
llation enacted by congress in the past
fifty years, and one which in its first
year tided the country over the most
Threatening financial emergency in it's
history.
The NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. tariff bill
has had no adequate trial. 1t was in eff
fleet barely a year when the European
war came on which shut off imports
from nearly one-half of Industrial EU-
Erope Yet in that year of trial ii pro-
lduced as great revenue as was produced
the first year either under the Mckinley
bill or the Payne-Aldrich- bill. 49,
Its aim was TO make imports pay
revenue; not to use import duties to pro-
mote excessive profits for favored indus
tries. 1t is a misfortune to our indus
tries and commerce that the tariff has
become he football of politics, and those
who are wise wish a respite from agita-
Ition and legislation. Surely there can
be no great demand for new kind Of
tariff so long as labor conditions re-
main as they are now, with fewer men
out of work in this country than there
have ever been within a lifetime
THE ARMY AND NAVY.
/ The history of a year has turned the
mind OF this nation toward the necessi-
ty for the extension Of our army and
navy. -----
But can we have strong army and
navy without the menace of militarism
the upbuilding Of the war spirit and
the subordinatiOn. of our social and in
.dustrial life TO military and naval poll
cies and authorities? Australia and
Switzerland and Holland and the Argen-
tine Republic seem to have answered
that question in the Affirmative, and yet
all have gone further in preparedness
than IL is proposed we shall go.
AS TO our foreign affairs it is not yet
time to speak fully, for the history Of a
foreign policy cannot be written until its
results are revealed.
We inherited "a situation an Mexico
that was horrible I'm its facts and ap-
lparently impossible Of peaceful solu-
ton.
Force had it's advocates and has still.
Some see possibility of adding a new
strip 20 our southern border. 1t would
have been easy to have called on the
army to 90 In and settle things. But
when would we have come out?
. We said that Huerta would not receive
recognition and his government came to
70 an end.
II Carrsnza has the strength to main-
tain himself and Mexico re-establishes
itself. there is no American who will not
rejoice that the Wilson administration
followed a policy that has even now
brought to us the good will of all our
neighbors in the south as far as the
cape.
The policy of this country as to the
European nations at war is to abide by
sistent iteration and reiteration assert
and maintain the rights Of neutrals.
There is no nation not at war which
does not approve this position.
CASE OF LUSITANIA.
With less sanity we might have gona
to war with Germany over the Lusi-
tania, but when Germany at last declar-
er her intention TO wage war underseas
in accordance with the rules that had
governed as to naval warfare, that dan
ger faded.
Washington was excoriated by his own
friends for not casting his influence for
France in her day of struggle. And Lin
coin was as bitterly denounced for surren
dering Mason and Slfdell to England.
The long view, however. has justified
them both.
We can have war any day we wish IL
with Germany or England, or both. All
that is needed is TO magnify the signih-
canoe Of some breach of international
law and refuse to regard the case made
by the other side. The president how
ever. will not let wal. come about that
way.
We are enjoying peace and prosperity
I'VE are TO be prepared to protect our
selves as a people
These, then. are three words which
will characterize the life of this admin
I - d