New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-27
The Shame of 1t

after the outbreak of the Great war that
It was the moral duty of the United States
not to prepare for possible emergencies
growing out of the war. Under the intiu-
ence of his Secretary of State, Mr.. Wilson
at that time committed the country to a
policy of unpreparedness, the fruits OF
which we dimly perceive to-day and to-
morrow we shall know in full bitterness.
There were, when Mr.. Wilson spoke
three men high in the service of the
United States who perceived the folly and
the madness of the course Endorsed by
the President and framed by William j.
BRYAN. These men were Lindley NJ. Gar
rison, Secretary of War; Major General
Leonard Wood and Rear Admiral Brad
lev A. Fiske. In the face of the Presiden-
tial utterance these three men, with such
strength as they had and such opportunity
as came TO them, appealed to their fellow
countrymen to face the facts as they were
In the larger sense these men succeeded.
Such preparation as we have to-day, IN
significant as it is; such beginnings as
Plattsburg made; such preparations as
were forced upon a reluctant Secretary
of the Navy in consequence of Rear Ad-
miral Fiske's warnings-these are due to
men who declined to follow the words of
the President to their logical conclusion.
What happened to the Secretary of
War we know. Lindley NJ. Garrison was
driven out of the Cabinet, sacrifice to
political intrigue in the House of Repre-
sentatives and to the Bryan influence in
the country, because he would not sacrifice
principle to politics; because he would not
accept sham preparation for real pre-
paredness; because he would not indorse
lie, having seen the truth.
And now, to-day, comes the first act I'M
der the new conditions. Mr.. Wilson's Sec
rotary of War has paid the outstanding
debt and sent Major General Wood to Cow
entry. The rising tide of patriotism In
this country, which the Administration
sought so long to dam and turn back, is
row canalized for Administration pur-
poses. General Wood is made the victim
of the work he did, and an administration
which could not forget or forgive has
sought to deprive an able soldier of any
possible credit in time of national crisis
merely to crafty long outstanding grudge
which had its origin in his patriotic eff
fort. Coincident with this, Josephus Dan
iels, calling up our navy officers on the re-
tired list, has deliberately refrained from
calling up Rear Admiral Fiske, whose abil-
ity, whose knowledge, whose vision have
already established him as one of the con-
spicuous figures in the navies of the world.
What shall one say Of an administration
which, at the moment when the country
is rising to face peril the extent of which
no man can measure-when all that is
high and noble and self-sacrifcing in the
spirit Of Americans is coming TO the sur
face--seizes this occasion to crafty its
private grudges and satisfy it's petty spite?
What shall one say Of a Secretary of
War and a Secretary Of the Navy who
stoop TO such meanness, who make them
selves the ready agents and the willing
servants Of a policy Of reprisal directed at
men whose offending consists in having
sought TO prevent the chloroforming of the
intelligence and the patriotism of the
country in a world crisis? How shall one
speak Of course which offends against
every standard of right, of justice and Of
patriotism?
And tomorrow the President Of the
United States is going 10 ask us 10 give
our sons and our brothers to the care Of
a Secretary Of War and a Secretary Of
the Navy who stand forth disclosed in
their full character by such an act as that
which marked our entrance into world
strife. Is it not enough for US TO send
those who are dear 10 US 10 face the enemy
without having 10 know that the greatest
peril which overhangs them comes not
from the front but from the rear-comes
not from the enemy but from those men
whom political ezigency has placed in
charge of the departments Of defence in
this perilous time?
The people Of the United states are pa