The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-10-23

Sounds ridiculous, doesn't 1t? 1t
has never seemed possible for this
noxious growth to take root In
America, and now, of all times.
when our blood is freely mingling
in the woe and welter of Europe In
a finish fight with autocracy, the
mere suggestion is as gall and
NORWOOD. Wherefore we some
times marvel at significant develop
ment.
No nation has ever been more
united in loyalty and devotion than
Is ours at the present time. No
party, no clan nor faction worth con-
sidering is calling for peace that
does not adequately guarantee the
general welfare undisturbed by the
designs of king. prince or potentate.
No president-no ruler OF eminence
in history has ever had such support
in the prosecution of war. Because
of this tendency to unusual invest
ment of power and evidence of conf
dence extraordinary in the executive,
partisan flunkeyism arrogates unto
itself the right to assume that 10y
atty Of the citizen finds its only
complete expression in the approval
of every executive act and state
ment; that when the president
speaks .'he who dallies is bastard
and he who doubts is damned"
This spirit finds expression more
or less definite in resolution Of
fered in the senate Of the United
States proposing "a blanket endorse
ment of the president in whatever
course he may adopt in dealing with
Germany and her allies Such au-
yroc
president Of the United States Wash
ington, nor Jackson, nor Lincoln, nor
Mckinley were ever given carte
blanche in any such fashion. Such
surrender of popular judgment-such
abdication of coordinate authority
might have been consistent in Russia
and Germany, but the proposal is in
sulting to enlightened democracy.
Upon what meat doth this our Gaze
sar feed that he is grown so great -
so much greater than any predeces-
sor or. any ruler of free people?
Autocrat is defined as one who is
invested with or assumes unlimited
authority in any relation" Shall we
so designate Woodrow Wilson? Is
any American good enough and big
enough to take over a grant of au-
thority signed in blank by the
American people?
President Wilson bids fair to take
rank among limited number Of our
greater presidents. He is a man of
large intellect and commanding per-
sonality He has rapidly grown in
knowledge and power under great
responsibility. This growth has been
in spite of, by no means because of
servile sanction on the part of trucu-
lence or time-serying. Virile man
hood, strong leadership, is not /. de-
veloped by this process. All the COM
manding figures Of democracy have
reached the heights of power along
the rugged paths of searching criti-
cism The schoolmaster and the
preacher may grow in influence with
out encountering the blows of an
tagonism, but political leaders in
democracy who go far forward must
bear upon their devoted persons the
scars Of fierce contention.
The weakest point in the strong
armor Of Woodrow Wilson is his
inclination to avoid broad counsel.
In the dark hours Of the travail of
the colonies Washington gathered
his generals about him and was i'm.
measurably strengthened by their
admonition. When the fate of the
union hung in the balance Lincoln
counseled intimately with his full
cabinet Of intellectual giants. widely