New-York tribune., 1918-06-26
poo.evelt Cites Wilson's
Activity in Wisconsin
and Michigan
Election of Ford
"Would Be Calamity"
Asserts President Must Be
Judged by His Test
Of Others
,so,o,oi Dispatch to The Tribune


KANSAS CITY. June 25.-Colonel
Theodore Roosevelt in his weekly ed
;.orial in "The Kansas City Star" dis
cusses the political situation. His
suhiect is "How to Adjourn Politics"
He says:
AIN the current North American Re-
view and its supplemental war week
" there are two strong and deeply pa
triotic articles on the Presidents re-
cent announcement that politics is to
he adjourned. When contrasted with
the injection of politics by the Presi
dent into the Senatorial contests in
Wisconsin and Michigan, never before
in any great crisis in this country has
there been such complete subordina-
ton of patriotism to politics as by this
Administration during this war.
"witness the activities of the or
rsnization under Messrs. Burleson
and Creel and the working alliance
between the Administration and the
Hearst newspapers, while Vice-Presi-
dent Marshall and Secretary McAdoo
give the signal for rank partisanship
Of an extreme type in their public
speeches. The various activities are,
Of course. correlated and directed tow
ard the same end
Wisconsin Interference
"ln Wisconsin the President inter
fered by a personal appeal for
the Democratic Senatorial candidate
against the Republican. He based his
appeal on certain alleged positions
taken by the Republican candidate.
Mr.. Lcnroot, during the two wears and
a half preceding our entry into the
not meet the acid test of patriotism
The President made the conduct Of our
public men during the two years and
a half prior to the war the test by
which they are to be judged, and where
be himself applies this test to others
he must himself be judged by it.
His supporters make the plea that
to call attention to the Presidents rec
ord during these two and half years
is to cry over split milk.
"But the Presidents attack on Lem
root was square reputation of this
plea when it applied to anybody except
himself. In reality, the "acid test" of
patriotism during these two and half
years is to be found in the use of
phrases like "too proud to fight" and
peace without victory" and the re-
fussl to act instead of merely talking
after the sinking of the Lusitania; in
the fatuous refusal to prepare, and in
the lnslstence on preserving an ignoble
neutrality between right and wrong,
between those who were fighting to
make the world safe for democracy and
liberty and those who were fighting to
overthrow both.
Tried by Past Conduct
Tried by the test of past conduct,
which the President applied to Mr.. Lem
root, he is himself found wanting. Mr..
Lenroot spilled teaspoonful of milk,
but Mr.. Wilson spilled a bucketful. and
heimust not call attention to the tea
spoon and expect to escape having at
'entlon called to the bucket.
The President has now personally
requested Henry Ford to come forward
as his personal candidate for the Sen
ave i'll Michigan. This action cannot
ohSiiSo eItHeT WIN lNe PreSl-
dents statement that politics must be
adjourned or with the reasons he al
leged for opposing Mr.. Lenroot. No
man was more intense pacifst, no
man struggled harder against pre-
paredness, no man was more eagerly
aalled as an ally by the pro-Germans
slai man Mr.. Ford during the two and a
aah years before we did our duty and
ssnHred the war. He is not a Repub-
mean; he is not Democrat He sup
ported Mr.. Wilson on the she kept us
out Of war" issue.
Purely Personal Politics
Mr.. Wilson can only desire his cleo
M MN on %1. grounds of personal politics, as
ar. Wilson wishes as associates NOT
stfong men, but servants, and from the
sstvants he demands servility even
s, more than service. have not the
snxa.est snxa political feeling when politics
comes into hostile contact with patriot
IAN and Americanism. There is no