The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1918-04-06
QUIT PLAYING pOLITICs-wIN THE WAR

The people of Wisconsin will tomorrow elect some man to
fill the vacancy in the United States senate caused by the death
f. Davies, democrat; Irvine L. LenroOt, republican, or victor
Berger, Socialist. Berger is a German, born in Austria. HE was
for a time editor of a German-language newspaper in Mil
waukee, was one of the organizers of the socialist party In
America and was the first socialist elected to congress. he
was, if he is not now, secretary for America of the Information
al Socialist Bureau at Brussels. In other words, he is the
logical leader of the kaiser's Bolshevik movement in America,
a m movement that has for its object the Generalization OF the
forces of democracy, as we have seen them rendered helpless
in Russia and an easy prey to the German armies OF conquest
When La Toilette. a renegade republican and pro-German
sympathizer, Joined with Stone, Reed, Hitchcock, Varoamah'
Hardwick and others of the presidents own party to oppose
his war policies the republicans r~epudiated La Toilette ana
gave the president more loyal support than ne received from ms
own party in the senate. When the senate dalhed win ls duues
a republican governor called the legislature in special session
and urged its members to place the state on record against the
disloyal course of La Toilette, and they did it, a thing the presi-
dents party in Missouri has never yet even limited OF DONG 10
Reed or Stone. Then the Wisconsin republicans in primary
defeated La Follette's candidate and nominated Irvine L. Len
root, as strong a loyalist as there is in congress in either party
or in either house. The democrats nominated Joseph +. Dawes.
Davies had Just gotten a lot of free advertising out of his
service as a member of a "non-partisan," "non-pollhcal" trade
commission, to which the president had appointed him. II
there ever was a commission created in the history of this re-
public whose duties were by nature a bar to political activity
on the part of its members it is this trade commission. In or
der to give the people confidence in their courts many states,
most states, have disqualified their judges from seeking or &C
|cepting any office other than a judicial office, not only during
the term for which they were elected or appointed, but for a
considerable period thereafter. Too many judges had been
influenced by considerations other than those of equal and ex-
act Justice, by desire to win the favor of those who controlled
political nominations, by comparison of the number OF votes
that lay on either side, and by ambitions that led beyond the
bench. And no twenty judicial positions combined offer the
opportunities or temptations that one seat in this commission
holds ont to the man whose ambition outweighs his scruples.
Congress made a fatal omission when it failed to incorporate
in the act creating the new federal trade commission an in
Ihibitory clause that would have have effectually prevented the
use of the commission as an incubator for political ambition.
Before the five members and their attorney have fairly warm
ed their seats two of the six, the chairman, Harris, in Georgia,
and Davies, in Wisconsin, are candidates for the senate and
the commissions attorney, Heney, wants to be governor of
California. Ye gods, what a spectacle! And the people are
asked and expected to yield unquestioning confidence and
obedience to this great court of arbitration-the greatest in its
opportunities for good that congress has ever devised-and to
accept it's DEGREES as the voice of Justice, blind and deaf to am
bitidn and every form of temptation and selfish appeal.
But back to Wisconsin: There was great fear expressed
at Washington and throughout the land that a division of the
loyalist vote in that strongly pro-German state might result in
the election of Berger, and so Davies and several of his party
leaders wanted Lenroot to withdraw. And when a committee
of loyaists from both the big parties tried to see Davies on the
subject of united action he was conveniently out of the state.
But Lenroot had received more votes in the primary than both
the democratic candidates combined and 1900 more than
Davies. Why should the high man withdraw? And in these
circumstances the one campaign document that has been given
the most conspicuous place in the contest is a letter from the
president in support of Davies. Will the president do as much
for Harris and Heney? They, too, are seeking office at the
hands of his party.
England, in time of war, has her coalition cabinet, in which
all shades of political opinion are merged for the common de-
tense, France has hers, and SO of Italy. Washington. in the
early days of the republic, followed a like policy, as did Lincoln
when secession threatened the Union. But there is a growing
number IN America who feel that President Wilson would be
stronger with the whole people if he were to keep both eyes
and both hands on the war while the war lasts and permit po-
litical candidates to fight their own battles, without lending
the prestige of his high office to either. Certainly a president
who was elected on the issue that "He kept us out of war" is
not in the strongest position to use the issue of a war for parti-
san advantage. Especially when that war, almost before his
Inauguration, gave the lie direct to the issue on which he was
elected.