Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1917-07-06


ingon. And III the next place. President Will
sons strenuous efforts to keep this nation out of
efforts maintained for well nigh three years,
had the hearty approval of the people generally
and particularly those of this state. if our good
friend remembers what happened last November
Likewise he knows that it was more than year
ago, nearly year and half that President Will
son urged upon congress greater measure of
preparedness. particularly to the navy. than
had ever been attempted in any previous year of
the nation history, laid out "a program for the
construction within five years of the same number
of drcadnaughts. battleships and naval vessels as
would have been built in twenty years under the
Republican program previously prevailing, and
put through plan for the reorganization of the
army, both the regulars and the national guard,
basis twice their previous size.
He knows these things but he forgets them
He knows but overooks the earnest desire the
American people had had for peace He knows
but overlooks the fact that the people generally
did not realize the seriousness Of the European
situation and our relations to it and had to be
educated up to it. He knows but forgets that last
December Secretary of State Lansing said in
public statement, ''The United States is on the
verge of war; and that the American people
paid almost no heed to that warning.
He knows but forgets that as long ago as
February of last year, when President Wilson
toured the Middle West to arouse it in support Of
his preparedness program and thus gain needed
support for it in congress, he said, in address
at Topeka February 2, 1916:
''We are not going to invade any nations
rights. But suppose, my fellow countrymen,
some nation should invade our rights. What
then? have come here to tell you
that the difficulties of foreign policy
daily increase in number and intri-
cacy and in danger and would be derelict
to my duty to you if did not deal with you
in these matters with the utmost candor, and
tell you what it may be necessary to use the
force of the United States to do
He repeated the warning at St. Louis the next
day:
''The danger is not from within, gentle
men, it is from without; and am bound to
tell you that that danger is constant and i'm
mediate not because anything new has hap
pened not because there has been any change
in our international relationships within re-
cent weeks or months, but because the danger
comes with every turn Of events"
Even then the president was endeavoring to
arouse the American people to the fact that the
war was fast coming upon u.s. Yet the vast ma
jority failed to realize it.
Likewise this editor friend of ours knows but
forgets that American naval investigators, bound
to secrecy to all except their government chiefs,
were with the different European naves from the
outbreak of the war, and that military observers
were with the armies in the field, with the Ger
man as well as the French and English He knows
but forgets that the naval war college for three
years had plotted and planned the American
navy's part and it knew just what to do and did
it as soon as war was declared. He knows but
forgets that the army general staff had done the
same thing for the army and because it had done
so it set new mark last week for the world to
wonder at in the transportation of large con-
tingent of troops and supplies the Atlantic
ocean to Europe.
We do not want to chide our friend, but we do
want him to keep his memory in better working
order and likewise all others who may be bur-
dened with such notions. We want him to re
member first of all that the presidents chief task
at home was, not to scare the people into war nor
to harangue nor cajole them into it, but to lead
them to the issue by such emphatic logic of
events that they would give, they have given,
the fullest measure of support to their govern
ment when the break came, knowing it to have
been inevitable.
Prompt action now will save the state trouble
later in dealing with the l. w. w. The time to
stop it, of course is before it gets started into
any serious depredatons and the action with
which it is stopped can hardly be too severe.