New-York tribune., 1918-07-18
Republican or Nothing

Republican or Nothing
The gathering of Republicans at Sara
toga is not nominating convention. 1t
should have nothing to do with the rival
ries of individual candidates. They may
properly be left to the party primaries
next September. The business of this
unofficial convention" is to write dec
laration of principles and convictions,
which we call platform. Its opportu-
nifty is to challenge the notion that par.
tisanship must be taboo in war time. To
do this it must elevate partisanship to
a plane high above common politics.
Partisanship may be either adherence to
a party or adherence to cause. Let this
distinction be clearly drawn.
The cause is unlimited victory In
that cause all people should be united.
Unfortunately, that is not the case. Vic
tory is still thing of many definitions.
In all countries at war with Germany,
and in both the Republican and Demo-
cratic parties, there are people who con-
fuse peace with victory. When they
think or speak of victory they imagine a
peace by parley, a peace of terms, a
peace in which the Allies will have won
the war, but in which Germany will not
have lost it,
We tolerate those who advocate every
kind of settlement with Germany short
of peace by the unconditional surrender
of the enemy. We have the reformed
paciists advocating peace by diplomacy.
We read with only passing Indignation
in our "intellectuaW publications that the
thought of literally destroying the Ger
phantasy.
All reservations as to the meaning of
victory retard the war; directly and in
directly, in a very dangerous, imponder-
able way. That such reservations do cx-
ist is notorious. Partly they survive
from the emotional confusion into which
we were betrayed by Democratic leader
ship before we got into the war Partly
they arise from the singular tenderness
of the Democratic Administration for
"intellectual' moderation And partly.
also, they come from a certain German
mindedness the subtle emanations of
which are often with difficulty distin-
guished from other currents of thought.
1t has been said that the problem of
the Republican party is how to support
the war and at the same time avoid sup
porting the party that is running the
war. That is not the problem at all. The
Republican party may shift this perplex-
ity. 1t has only to define victory, and
the means thereto, in terms so heroic and
unqualified that the Democratic party
will be obliged either to accept the Re-
publican platform or adopt a defensive
attitude
Let the Saratoga platform be a chal-
lenge to all the forces everywhere that
hold for an inconclusive peace by anv
name
Let it define victory in words which ad
NIT of no dialectics.
Let it say that the peace we want, the
only peace we will have, is a peace die
tated by the Allies in Berlin.
Let the Republican party call for the
utmost means to that end for an
army such as 120,000,0OO of the richest
strongest people in the world can afford
to raise; for sacrifices on the part of the
whole nation such as the government has
not dared to require for an effort twofold
threefold, ivefold greater than we have
dreamed of making; in short, for bend
ing the will of America to the single
idea of unlimited victory-and let the
Democratic party call that partisanship
if it can.
Let the Republican party make dis
loyalism of every degree and disaffection
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