Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-10-27
PRESIDENTS PLEA STIRS
VOTERS OF COUNTRY
Call for Support of Democratic Candidates for
Congress Creates Political Sensation.
Action Unprecedented in Form 1t Took.

~ 70 POLITICAL incident &C.
N curing in recent years or.
mi indeed. in the memory Of
VI this generation, created
L such a sensation as was
caused by President Wilson's
appeal to his fellow countrymen" to
elect a democratic House and Senate
to support him in conducting the war
and negotiating prospective peace.
The action was unprecedented in the
form which it took.
1t had been forecast as probable
that the President, as election day ap-
preached, would write some letters to
candidates in which he would urge the
support of the democratic ticket. but
no one prophesied that the executive
would go to the length he did nor do
1t in that way. Democrats were de-
lighted; republicans were first dis
mayed, then indignant Democrats
expressed confidence that the appeal
would be effective and that it guar
l1nteed beyond peradventure demo-
cratic success. Some republicans felt
that the democrats were overcome
,dent in this position and predicted
that the appeal would prove BOOM
erang; that republicans all over the
country would be aroused to renewed
activity and that independent voters
would resent bringing up such an is
sue at this time.
The Presidents friends, in indors-
ing his action, claimed that he only
did In the most outright fashion what
had been done for other Presidents
Indirectly; that appeals had been made
to stand by Mckinley and to stand
by Roosevelt They said the Presi-
dent was bold enough to ask the
people to stand by him and explained
why he did so.
The republicans promptly came
back" at the President in a formal
statement prepared by the congress
sional leaders of the party, Senators
Lodge and Smoot and Representative
Gillett and Tess. They controverted
the statement made by the President
that the republicans in Congress had
opposed his policies and quoted from
the record of votes to sustain their
allegation that the republicans had
given numerically larger support to
war measures than had the democrats.
The President, from all information
obtainable took the step after con-
ference with party leaders in and out
:. of Congress. The democratic national
committee had approved it. One OF
the documents sent out by the COM
mittee during the week was an in.
terview with Senator Pittman OF
Nevada, in a measure forcastinS s'ich
an appeal and throwing a side-light
upon it's purpose. Senator Pittman
said:
and the great and vital task of read
justment is about to try the patience,
Justice and diplomacy of the states
men of the world. led by our own
President. The German people viii
Wilson. depose the Hohenzollern fam
lily, relegate to obscurity the mi1itar-
lists and establish a democracy based
upon universal suffrage. They will
accept such an armistice as Foch.
Haig and Pershing may prescribe.
This will place Germany at the mercy
, of the allies and will in effect be an
unqualified surrender. The greatest,
most brutal and destructive war in
all history will then be over. The
conduct of the war. therefore, cannot
be an issue.
DO the people of the United States
approve of the progressive principles
Of democracy established under
woodrow Wilson'S administration.
and will they support him in main
tanning such principles in the recon-
struction that must follow in the
United States after the war?
Unless the people of the country at
the coming election give the Presi-
dent a Senate that will follow his
leadership it will be impossible for
him to accomplish the adoption of his
program for lasting worlds peace.
And if the people of the United
States trust Woodrow Wilson more
than they do the republican leaders,
Trey must see that the President is sup
ported in both branches of Congress, or
in the period of reconstruction after the
war the great progressive legislation
that has been written upon our statute
books, under Woodrow Wilson's leader
ship. will be repealed or amended to the
satisfaction of the reactionary leaders of
the republican party. who now dominate
the republican minority in the Sem
ate and in the House of Represent
ativss.
Prior to the issuance of the. ap-
peal, President Wilson had written