New-York tribune., 1918-11-03

- the attention Of the Capitol this
N week. The two subjects were not
unrelated, since the Republicans,
struggling for control of the two houses
of Congress at the election next Tuesday,
have virtually taken their issues for the
campaign out of the peace terms laid down
by President Wilson.
Just prior to the appeal made by the
President for House and Senate of his
own party there had been period or
really remarkable lack of political activity.
It is true that under the surface the poll
ticians of both parties, and particularly OF
course. the candidates for Congress and for
state Offices, were doing all that they couid
to insure the success of themselves and
their party associates. Tons Of speeches
and literature were being mailed out broad
cast in the hope of influencing the voters
put there was restraint, brought about
by ths war, which was most unusual for
October of a Congressional election year
This was accentuated by two added cir
cumstances, the Liberty Loan campaign,
which did not close until October 19, and
the epidemic of Spanish influenza, which
from one end Of the country to the other
resulted in public meetings being taboo.
In many states the congregation of as many
as twelve persons was forbidden.
Then came the Presidents appeal, as
serting that no scruple of good taste, at
such time as this, should forbid plain
spsaking-and the lid was off. Since that
time the political pot has boiled, and the
oldtime politicians on both sides have gen
timely welcomed the lapse back to former
methods. The President himself has been
attacked as he has not been at any time
since the 1916 election, or since before this
country entered the war.
But out of it all has come one clear
point, which every one here hopes will be
emphasized not only in Great Britain.
France and Italy, but in Germany, and that
is that there is no division of sentiment
about the prosecution of the war; There
is division with regard to peace aims,
but there is no division as to the vigorous
movement of troops to Europe, and no pro-
posal by any one to slow up any of the
war activities
In brief, in time when there is every
sort of opportunity for the practical poll
tician, when it might be thought that there
is every shade Of public opinion which
might be appealed to with public Office as
the reward Of the shrewdest political guess
er, no one is guessing that the people want
peace before Germany is forced to accept
peace terms that are entirely satisfactory.
The country has demonstrated so forcibly
in the last month that it is eager for Ger
many to be fought to a standstill and until
she is ready to surrender Internationally
that no politician has thought she could
profit by making an appeal to the hitherto
supposedly large pacifist element. On the
other hand, men whose war records have
not been satisfactory, in both parties, have
been defeated in widely removed states.
The obvious thing, it is pointed out, for
q minority party to do when majority
party is conducting war is to oppose the
war at the ensuing election. This has hap
pened three times in American history.
But this time tho party out Of power has
contented itself with drawing up plat
form for the war and for the peace terms
which is more sweeping than that laid
down by President Wilson.
The Republican party has been absolute
ly committed by its leaders to unconditional
surrender and a dictated, not negotiated
peace.
Count Won BernstorfY, the German Am
bassador, while in this country counted
heavily on the political strength of the
pscifist element. 1t has virtually disap.
peared.
One Of the big events Of the week was
the making public Of the long awaited
Hughes report, made by former Supreme
Court Justice Charles E. Hughes, the Re.
publican candidate for President in 1916
on the AIRCRAFT expenditures and delays
Tho report shows some waste, some error.
in judgment and some very flamboyan
press agent work by the aircrafters, but i
removes, in the general opinion Of the Cap
itoi, the ugly suspicious which had been en-
tertained by many on worse things,
Perhaps the big surprise of the report
was an attack on Henry Ford, the auto
mobile manufacturer, who tried to get tn,
European armies ''out of sthe trenches b,
christmas" early in the war, and who il
~s''NS A"A t"e SeH"te III Mlcnlgan
FORD was criticized in the report for no
removing Germans from confidential worl
on the drafting of plans for the Liber,
motor.
American shipworkers were given assur
ances this week by both Chairman Hurle,
and Director General Schwab, of the Ship
ping Board, that the shipbuilding industr,
OF the United States was to be no war O.
emergency project to be abandoned at tn
conclusion of the war On the contrary
the chiefs Of the Shipping Board declare
the United States will be "absorbincl
interested" for years in the constructio,
and operation of ocean tonnage
Keeping his pledge to relax the domest;