The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1918-02-26


The business of republics is peace; the business
of autocracies is war.
Autocracy lives by the sword. The father and
grandfather of Frederick the Great said so; Fred
erck himself said So and so saith the Kaiser and the
Crown Prince too.
love and a craving for peace, however, form
the very genesis of Republic To this genesis
Republics are true; from this genesis Republics depart
only at the call of honor or the command of necessity
Hence it is, though critics may forget, the people
remember, that in eight months of war the United
States, under the leadership of Woodrow Wilson has
done twice as much, and even more, than England
and France did in the corresponding period of time
The accusations, the exaggerations the fabrcatons,
tie distortions of supercious censorS and envous-
tanged contemnerS of the 'Wilsonian policies wear
such fimSy gossamer covering as to expose this
political plot in all its naked hideousness
We make no claim that the administration has
created sunbeams out of cucumbers or performed
feats beyond the pale of human possibility; but we
co maintain that its efforts have been amazing, its
accomplishments beyond compare in the history of
modern warfare.
We have not whipped the Kaiser yet; but We will
whip him if eliminating critics do not dampen the
fires of enthusiasm or grease the tracks wherein
must ride our national chanots of war. We have
more men in France today than Roosevelt knows or
Germany suspects; and million more are waiting
for the ships.
We have an army 50 well cared for that the death
rate IN ranks for the four months ending January
I, 1918, averaged only rs per thousand death
rate, mind you, less than the death rate for of
Ike age IN peaceful avocat;ons at home. Compare
this with the death rate of 2014 per thousand under
Ill D. e Al l. Al.
ish-American war. Compare these figures, and then
applaud the Roosevelt charges, you can!
True, we have made some mistakes, but in the
magnitude of our undertaking, some mistakes
inevitable unavoidable. In balance though with
the wondrouS achievements, these mistakes have
been trivial and not worthy of the attention of the
who minimize their talents by trying to magnify
molehillS into mountains
And furthermore, unlike the Spanish-American
war; in which Mr.. Roosevelt was king-pin:
We have no army contract scandals.
We have no embaIned beef horrors.
We have no fat old generals going to war in car
rages and leading battle charges from easy rocking
chairs
We have no unpleasant gossip about the appoint
n1ent of political generals and society admrals.
We have no Round Robin Letters from presumP-
tuous and inferior officers demoralzng discipline and
exalting self.
In the face of these facts, the wild ranhngS OF
Roosevelt and his fellow political conSpTatorS are
boomerangs pestilentia to the ears and revolving 10
the sensibitieS of Others but harmful only to the
men who hurl them. On the estimation of thought
full people these critics make ndelble impression
They may ruffe the surface of the pool of comment
but thew stir not the depths of public opinion And
with Roosevelt Lodge and WadSworth as the CHIEF
creators of this curtain of camoufage political ire,
fed BY the tissues of ambitious Misrepresentation.
famed by the sinister winds of political oratory-
there stalks forth from memoryS closet the skeleton
of Ayers embalmed beef with its cOncomitant
stencil; there looms into view the Commander OF the
L. S. Forces in Cuba too fat to ride horse, going
into battle in carriage, and lolopng IN portable
bath tub while soldiers had medicines to con-
quer tropic ills;-there looms into view this self
same Commander of the u. S. forces in Cuba fight
ing his battles from the folds of soporitc
hammock while through the stupidity and careless
less of an inefficient military medical force our soldier
boys found typhoid fever more deadly than bullets
from the Spanish guns.
And so in view of these veritieS which political
manipulation can snatch from hstoryS page; in view
of the official funereal-hued glories and the
official scarlet-tinged scandals of the SpaniSh-AmeT
lean war; in view of Ayers embalmed beef of odor-
ferrous memory; in view of inferior ships purchased
by the government at superior prices; in view of the
stigma and disgrace that typhoid fever killed more of
our soldiers than Spanish bullets sent to their graves;
in view of the cable which Dewey cut to save the
ravy from the malefic influence of Republican politics
al Washington; in view of army contracts which
brought a blush to the cheek and rage to the heart