The Washington times., 1917-04-28
L. Observation-Disclosures

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speech which Senator La Toilette
made in the Senate yesterday with
out regret that the privileges of the
Senate permit utterances whichwould
be reasonable if made by a private
citizen. If that speech does not give
aid and comfort to the enemy it is
impossible for any combination of
words to do so.
The speech was ostensibly in op-
position to the selective draft meas
ure which will nevertheless pass both
houses of Congress today. 1t was
really a harangue against war and
any training for war. For example:
That our boys will enter upon
the actual killing and being killed
only after some months of train
ing for the atrocious task does
not mitigate but rather increases
the horrors OF the bloody work
proposed just in proportion as II
increases its efficiency.
II this means anything, it means
that La Toilette would prefer to
send our soldiers to the trenches un-
trained. Certainly Germany would
prefer this also. The Senator's high
regard for the enemy is equally
we'll displayed. He says:
We have declared war against
a government and q people with
whom we have always previously
lived in perfect friendship. We
have made ourselves distrusted or
feared by other governments.
If the Senator thinks that we have
lived in perfect friendship with Ger
many from the date Of the invasion
of Belgium through the friendly epi-
sodes of murder at sea, beginning
with the Lusitania, he must have
confined his communications and his
reading to those who are now alien
enemies resident in the United
States.
The first conspicuous action Of the
Administration in showing the ron-
partisan character of patriotic serv-
ices was the appointment Of Elihu
Root to head the commission to Rus
sia- La Toilette affects to believe
that "he has been designated by
President Wilson to go over to Rus
sia and see to it that the provisions
of their' constitution shall insure
equality to all" The crassness of
this conception Of the mission to
Russia does not relieve the folly Of
its expression.
In the delicate situation in which
a newly constituted government,
freed from tyranny by revolution,
finds itself, the accusation that Sec
retary Root was continually placing
obstacles in the way Of allowing Rus
sian political refugees to secure an
asylum in this country, whether true
or false. was deliberately designed to
embarrass the Government to which
Senator La Toilette has sworn al
legiance, and to help German in
trigue in its plans to prolong the
war by securing a separate peace
with Russia.
Finally La Toilette declares that
under the new doctrine which now
we are going to draft an
army to go to Europe and shoot
into the German govern
ment." II the Senator's words are
finally conveyed to Germany, and are
not discounted there as they are uni
versally in the United States, we
can easily imagine how the German
will use them to stifie
the efforts of the people to secure a
democracy, which just now is the
best hope of a speedy peace and of
the saving of thousands of American
lives.
In his reply to La Follette's
speech on the declaration of war,
Senator John Sharp Williams used
these words:
The man who says that is
knave or a fool. He is knave II
he knows better and says IL any
how, and he is fool If he does not
know better.
We move to amend by suggesting
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