New Britain herald., 1916-05-10

pean situation as well the policy in Mexico. His speech also included a defense of the present tariff and the measures for preparedness. Presi- dent Wilson was compared with Abra- ham Lincoln for his exemplificatiOn of patience and the speaker severely criticised Senator George P. Mclean for his arraignment of President Will :son and the democrats and Wilson. offered no substitute or beneficial change and their policy was destruc- tive rather than constructive.
 The Keynote Speech.
 MT. Cummings spoke as follows. Gentlemen of the Convention:
 We assemble upon the eve of an- other presidential campaign. Mani festly the hour is critical one in the affairs of the country and of the world. We have been blessed by m abundance of prosperity hitherto un- known in our history. For nearly two years there has been progressing in the old world the greatest war zknown to mankind. All the great nations of the Eastern Hemisphere are involved, the foundations of the governments of several hundred mil lions of people are imperilled and, indeed, the destinies of the human race are at stake. How far and into what quarters this confagration may spread no man is now so wise as to be able to foresee. Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Italy, Turkey, Serbia. Montenegro, Bulgaria, Belgium, Portugal and Japan are already victims of this unparalleled, international cataclysm while Roumania, Greece, Holland Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden are armed camps: with all the normal functions of national existence kdisturbed or suspended awaiting, with anxious concern, their turn to be summoned.
 Our country is the one great nation In world that has not been drawn into the awful vortex of war. We not only have peace and prosperity but we have them under circumstances that emphasize their priceless worth and the folly of taking any action that may imperil them. And yet, such are the necessities of partisan ship, politicians who place party and not America first are criticising the administration, maligning the presi- dent, slandering our public officials
  of leadership. It is a spectacle rs amazing as it is discreditable. It does not require the vision of a seer to know what judgment history will pronounce upon those small minded critics who, in the period of great national crisis. placed party above national honor and with every device known to envy and malice ungeneT- ously sought to add to the burdens that events had placed upon the shoulders of the President of the United States
 Partisan Criticism.
 A characteristic form of this cri- ticism is found in the address deliver ed by Senator Mclean at the publican state convention, held ct Hartford on the eleventh of April. I think that even the most ardent ad mirers of the eloquent and versatile senator will not contend that his ad- dress was a work of constructive statesmanship. Seizing adroitly upon minor details in the work of the ad- ministration he magnified them out of all proportion to their real con- sequence. overlooked the great ac- movements Of the last three years and demanded return of the republican party to power without suggesting. throughout his entire address, any definite policy or indicating what al formative course the administration cou1d have pursued which would have more completely accorded with the dignity and the traditions of America.