The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1917-03-08
THURSDAY, MARCH 8. 1917
THE INAUGURAL.

In his formal inaugural address the
President undertook to promulgate as
the policy which will actuate the Coy
eminent of the United States during
the next four years doctrine that in
the present state of our foreign rela-
tons seems rather remote.
''These, therefore. are the things we
shall stand for, whether in war or in
peace: That all nations are equally in
terested in the peace of the world and
in the political stability of free peoples,
etc; the equality of nations; that there
must henceforth be no armed balance
of power; that government must be BY
the consent of the governed; the free
dom of the seas; limitation of arma-
Inents; a league to enforce peace.
The President, on these formal oc-
casions has happy way OF divesting
himself of all practical mundane af-
fairs and passing into the ethereal at
mosphere of completely reformed and
purified human nature.
A Presidential inaugural address is
supposed to bear upon the possibilities
of the next four years. Mr. Wilson
will hardly live long enough to see the
contamination of this policy he outlines
1t deals primarily with the part this
nation is to play in formulating the part
other nations are to play in the man
agement of their domestic and mutual
relations. We may or may not be call
ed upon during the next four years to
consider formally whether we will un-
dertake that part. But for the time
beng the public mind is taken up, not
with the business of regulating or as
sisting to regulate the world, but of
protecting our own national interests.
The atmosphere of the moment is not
bit Utopian. Indeed the country is
freely using the word Treason" in
reference to the action of a dozen
United States Senators who prefer to
live in Utopia to letting the United
States get down to earth.
1t is not to be denied that the doc
trine the President enunciates is one
that calls for grave thought He is
the President; and as President he has
the power to turn the nations head
toward the goal he names and perhaps
i even to carry 1t little distance along
% the road. But when we read, side by
~, side, this inaugural and his Peace
ro;League address to the Senate, the one
q 9th its statement of policy, the other
18th all its careful analysis of the posi-
n European Governments must take
~ re we would venture TO make their
otuoN RS part of our own, the whole pro-
seems too distant to be of i'm
RS. Newte gravity. The President can
lesburg, write his words there must be
st when tthout victory" Yet now we
rother, Mr.. tically inevitable participation
,,o~ e, Co. The thousand and one con-
;c Furnace between his analytical con-
d the course we must logically
our immediate national
ends should nearly suffice to demonstrate
the danger Of getting the future ahead
of the present,
The Presidents real inaugural, we
hope and believe, was delivered on
Sunday. "a little ,group of willful
men, representing no opinion but their
own, have made the Government of the
United States contemplate This is
business. The correction of that con-
dition, the resolute pursuit of the aim
their defeat Of which made the Govern
ment contemplate, viii take up not
little of the time of this Admlnistra-
ton. The prime necessity of the Adj
ministrauon Is to see that that be done
and done without faltering.
It is well, perhaps, TO try to keep our
eyes on that star of hope which the
President persists always in pointing
to. But it throws faint light enough
on the black and rocky road along
which we must travel before we can
reach it. baltimore News.