Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1917-03-02
STAND BY THE PRESIDENT

COLut d llAcu ldUlI Will Tie AUeIueCi
World, and, of course, the request Of
the chief executive for authority to
meet any emergency in the submarine
controversy is seized upon by the
evening paper as an excuse for long
diatribe, betraying the abiding dis
trust of the president existing in the
World office.
For almost four years our otherwise
esteemed contemporary has regarded
Woodrow Wilson as a sort of usurper
who had secured the presidency by
accident, whose every act-be it for
belittled The World has persistently
refused to recognize the chief magis'
; trate of the nation in Woodrow Will
son, prefering to regard him as the
leader of party, the success of which
separated a good many standpatters
from their jobs.
One would suppose that the re-
election of the president, with an over
whelming popular majority would have
caused the World to revise its esti-
mate and accept that of the electorate.
But not so. AS said at the outset, the
habit has become fixed, and change is
beyond the ability of the standpatter.
To read the editorial in that paper
Tuesday, one unacquainted with the
record would be led to assume that
the president was seeking undue
authority for the purpose of driving
the nation into war. Yet, it is but a
paper was denouncing President Will
son in unmeasured terms for his ex-
IRENE patience in the effort to avoid
war. His "watchful waiting was
called a cowardly disgrace to the
nation, yet the editorial alluded to
berates him for Impotence, the con-
Guiding sentence being, why this
hurry?"
The deep distrust of the World for
the president is revealed in the follow
ing excerpt from the editorial under
consideration:
1.-THE President should not ask a
blanket grant. which is what his adj
dress to Congress yesterday amounted
to, but should outline specific course
and policy and should be limited by it.
If there is ground for war with Ger
many, he should say so and should ask
authority to proclaim it. If there is
no ground for war, he should call Con-
gress in special session and keep it
in the capital to grant him proper
authority when the time for action
comes. AS it is, he is asking Congress
to empower him TO act, with his prom
Use to commit no aggressive act the
only limitation"
There we have it. The word OF
President Wilson will be accepted
practically the world over save and
except only in the office of the Aber-
deem World, and there only is his
word to commit no aggressive act"
doubted
The Herald loves party newspaper
during a political campaign-when
such paper has sufficient intelligence
to accept the will of the people ex-
pressed at the polls, and the sue
cessful candidates as the constitutional
officials of the land. A political can
didate for president is a legitimate OBJ
En-. ioic h,vf union o10ptod hn
becomes the president not of a party
but of the nation, and, unless the
same be forfeited, entitled to the re-
spect due his high office. It is the
intelligence to recognize this fact that
largely marks the difference between
the United States and the Latin
American republics south of us. When
this fact becomes recognized in the
World office, broader spirit will
pervade the we'll written editorials of
~that paper
How great minds will differ? 1t is
suggested to those who have read the
editorial under consideration, that a
balm for the irritation engendered
may be found in the leading editorial
Of the Portland Oregonian OF the same
day. every whit as staunch a standpat
paper as the World: We reproduce
below a couple of excerpts from the
Oregon an article.
There can be no doubt of the re-
ception which will be given by the
great majority of members of Con-
gress and of the American peOpia to
President Wilson's request for anthor-
ity and means to protect American
lives and ships against ruthless attacks
by Germany. He will be given all
that he asks with unhesitating public
approval. and he will be trusted fully
to defend our right to travel the sea
unframed and unafraid. The author
ity he asks extends only to defense,
and he can be trusted to permit no act
of offense which Germany could con-
strue into one of aggression. The
President proposes simply to protect
our rights as a neutral Nation this
will not constitute war If war should
result, it will be on the initiative of
Germany, not of the United States.
The extreme forbearance shown by
the President during the last three