Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-29

Erepident. OF course II MIR. Wilson hat
really meant to disregard politics h,
Weusa st once bave constructed n coaii.
eoen. non-partisan cabinet, calling tn,
oeet nen of the nation TO the highest
anA most important offices under him
without regard to politics. He did moth.
ing ~ the kind. In the positions mos
vital to the conduct of the war. and In
the positions now most important IL
connection with negotiating peace. ht
retained or appointed men without the
e1iGhtest fitness for the performances OF
the tasks, whose sole recovmendatior
was a supple eagerress to serve Mr.
Wilson personally and to serve MIR vii
sons party insofar as such service bene-
lted Mr., Wilson.
Wilson Casts on Mask
II am glad that Mr.. Wilson has now
cast off the mask. His appeal is now to
pure partisanship. BY his actions tsince
ne announced that politics were au-
3ourned) he had already repudiated his
words: for he had already interfered
for purely political reasons in the elec-
ton contests in Wisconsin. Illinois.
Michigan and many other States. Now
he openly by formal announcement repn-
diAtes all pretense of putting the public
welfare above party. Now he declares
u
Aepubiicans. although lie admits "thn,
ehey have been unauestionably pro-war,"
ere to be excluded from any share In
eentrolllng the war.
Nor is this all. He makes his appeal
on behalf of the Democratic party. But
he is careful to qualify II SO as 10 eX-
clude all Democrats who put loyalty to
the nation or even loyalty to their party
principles ahead of adherence to the ad-
minietration He in no way discrim-
mates between Democratics who are pro-
war and those who are anti-war lie
asks the exclusion from Congress of the
man who is INSTRUMENTATION. without
the slightest reference 10 whether he is
pro-war or anti-war. loyal or disloyal,
patriotic or unpatriotic, The one test
he. Imposes is loyalty to himself
s '"The President of the United States
repudiates the position of being Presl-
Gent Of all the people, and substitutes
for II the position of partisan leader
ship Of one political faction; while even
in this faction he makes serviie adher-
ence to his administration the test OF
membership and of the moral right of
any man to do his share in the great
work Of national self-government.
Lincoln made no party test lie ap-
pealed to all loyal men OF all parties,
ne ASKED tnat tNt TEST VI lltl'77 IVA
Congress be- not adherence to his per
eonal administration. but unconditional
support Of the war. Mr., Wilson applies
the most rigid party test. He explicitly
repudiates loyalty to the war as test.
He demands the success of the Demo-
cratic party, and asks the defeat OF al
pro-war men If they have been anti
admin stration. He asks for the defeat
of pro-war Republicans. He does not
ask for the defeat of anti-war Demo-
Gratis On the contrary. he supports
such men if. although ant-war. they
are pro administration. He does not
ask for loyalty TO the nation. He asks
only for support of himself.
There is not the slightest suggestion
that he disapproves of. disloyalty to the
nation I do not doubt that he does feel
some disapproval1 of such disloyalty but
apparently this feeling on his part Us so
tepid that it slips from his mind when
he contemplates what he regards as the
far greater sin of failure in adherence
70 himself.
Much Unlike Lincoln
''Contrast with this the position of
abraham Lincoln. In the darkest days
'of the Civil War. Lincoln declined out
right to make any party appeal or to
apply any party test or any test save
tkst Of loyalty in the prosecution of the
var and loyalty to the Union and to
hbeety. In March. 1862 he advocated
sending to Congress only unconditional
supporters Of the war making no ref
erence to any party; and in June of
that year, in answer to some correspond
<nts who signed themselves as Demo
Gratis he expressed his regret that they
had not called themselves American
citizens saying. In this time of ma
tional peril ! would have preferred to
meet you upon a level one step higher
than any party platform and in Au-
gust. in the only political letter he
wrote that year he appealed to all those
who maintain unconditional devotion 10
the Union and in this appeal he eX-
plicitly included his own political friends
with those of his political enemies.
whom no partisan malice or partisan
hope can make false TO the nations life
He thus explicitly based his appeal
TO pro-war men. without asking about
their attitude toward himself. Again
and again he appealed to all loyal men
and TO all friends of union and liberty
and in 1854 he accepted his nomination
~ coming from the unconditional Union
men.
II ask all patriot Americans to con-
President says that IN the present Con-
gress the leaders of the minority al
though unquestionably pro-war have
been administration These lend
era supported the administration when
. declaratiOn of war was needed. They
supported II when there was "a demand
fer the draft. They supported it when
hys sent the army overseas. They sup
ported every demand for money wheth.r r
by taxation or by loans. They supported
= er gave II initiative and guidance on
every issue where II stood for vigorous
spgesecuti0n Of the war; and they sup
perted II OH these issueS when half the
lsadeFs OF President wilson's own party
4 aopesed him when he had committed
y h1Npsen to war measures-and yet Presi-
Int Wilson now makes a partisan APP
.peat in favor of the Democrats who
npposed the war measures and against
y ~ Republicans who supported them.
OaIy Asked Efficiency
Nov, what does Mr.. Wilson NEAR
Dhen be speaks of these leaders as being
although pro-war. yet 'anti-admin
4 fffration'? He means that when tn
var Department was administered witt
after ineficiency they investigated tn
matter and insist ed upon efficiency, IL
neans that when they found that moth
- effective was being done in ship
2 ouilding they insisted that the work b
6noedad up. He means that when the,
und that $500. 900. 900 had been spen
airplanes and yet that not an air
|nno had reached our soldiers al tn
~ they insisted that our soldier
sud get the airplanes for which tn
1Dole had paid Mr.. Wilson regard
Il ~ ti-administration' 10 deman