The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1917-11-02
FRANK E. HOWE Editor and Pub
Friday, November 2, 1917.
COMMENT RESERVED

FOR tnat reason most newspapers ana
public men refrain most of the time
from criticism of the conduct of af-
fairs at Washington.
There is urgent need OF improve
ment there and this country ought to
have coalition cabinet made up
from both parties. 1t has been
found essential in the other countries
at war and until it is done here the
country is exposed to abuses that
might he corrected.
The partisan administration of af-
fairs brings favoritism to sections
where the dominant party is strong |
est. The Rutland Herald discusses
the matter calmly and without pas
sion as follows but most of the news
papers of the Republican states OIL
the north reserve some warm COM
ment on the issue until peace per-
mits freer comment without giving
comfort to the enemy:
The Atchison Globe says:
President Wilson has not kept this
| country out of war but, so far, he has
| kept Theodore Roosevelt out of It.
The spectacle of the United States
| electing president on an anti-war
| issue and now rallying behind him
| when he has declared war on
| grounds no greater than when he was
elected, is due, more than anything
else, to the determined loyalty OF
American newspapers.
This may seem like yain-glorious
| attitude. but it is not Probably most
| American newspapers were against
| President Wilson as a candidate and
most OF them knew that war with
| Germany was as inevitable as sun
| rise. But, once elected and finally
embarked ON the stupendous project
of making the world safe for democ-
racy, the newspapers of the country
| have stood behind Woodrow Wilson
and are making him a war president
despite his previous record.
The newspapers have had TO swal-
low the attitude of the, Wilson admin
| istration in regard to Theodore Roose
welt. Gen. Leonard Wood and practi-
cally all men of thatftype who might
be likely TO achieve a large part in
the conduct of the war
For purposes of public welfare and
to avoid fomenting and keeping alive.
fairly Just feeling OF resentment.
the press of the nation has swallowed
I the elimination of Roosevelt, the
transfer and over-passing of Wood
the destruction OF state regiments
and many other policies that. in time
of peace, they would be thoroughly
justified in making political and per-
sonal issues against the president
So we say. with fairly reasonable
sense of certainty, that the news
papers. more than any other agency,
have assisted in the transformation
of a peace president into a war presi-
dent, when politics, pure and simple,
have accounted for many faults and
injustices of his administration.
Since he has become such a war
president party lines have been COM
pletely wiped out when 1t came to
supporting his policies. In fact, when
his own committee absolutely refused
to father CONSUMPTION, now recognize
led as the most important war policy
ever adopted by the nation, it was a
| republican congressman who carried
the fight into the House and helped
| the president to a decisive victory
| Yet has the executive every ac-
knowledged the Importance OF the
service or recognized Mr.. Kahn or
| other republicans as patriotic factors
in that victory? Has he ever taken
republican leaders into his confidence
or considered appointing big republi-
cans to any post of responsibility?
Has the Harnesses of a bipartisan
cabinet ever dawned ON President
Wilson?
The answer of his party leaders
would undoubtedly be that the presi-
dent does not take even them into
his confidence, that he is so occupied
| with big problems that he is above
| politics, yet one way and another,
the color of politics tinges hundreds
| of acts of his administration, acts
that newspaper men all over the
country know about, yet do not pub
| lish.
All this, we say, the newspapers OF
the nation have overlooked, and, on
the contrary, they have stood with al
| most unbroken ranks behind every
| public act of the president and Con
| gress that bears on the successful
l prosecution of the war
Woodrow Wilson will probably go
down in history as a war president
| and none Of us would for moment
| seek to minimize his services, but it
| is just as we'll for this generation to
remember the debt the country owes
to the newspaper press, which, with
every incentive to revolt, has stood
Loyalty behind him and the war which
he inaugurated with his official act,
despite the trite and misleading slo-
gan which took him into office
Rutland Herald