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

Today the people of this country can be divided
into two camps.
Those who wanted war at any price.
And those who hoped for peace, if peace could
be maintained, without the sacrifice of national
honor.
Now we are at war and We have the astonishing
anomaly of the leaders of the ''war-buzzards trying
to gnaw the vitalS out of our Commander-in-C Chief,
while the great majority of those who stood for
peace, while peace spelled honor, unfolding the
Presidents hands as Aaron and Hur upheld the hands
of Moses in his battle with Amalek
The present volcanic attack against the war pol
icies of President Wilson is no haphazard incident
1t is wellIaid plot nicely trained and strategcay
timed. Its purpose, no matter how Secretive its
sponsors how insinuating its methods how seductive
its arguments, is to give the Republican party ma
ority in the next House of Representatives and to
pave the way for Republican President in 1870.
From political point of this may be tolerable:
from patriotic aspect, in a national crisis like
this, it is odiouS and deteStabe.
The business of the nation today is to win the
war; and the political leaders, who for party gain or
personal aim lay the slightest obstacle in the way of
the happy conSummation of this business, clothe
themselves in diabolical livery and surround their
political Vaccinations with birthstone scent a sui
phurouS odor offensive to people who revere patriot
ism in politics but abhor politics in patriotism.
For months Colonel Roosevelt has been injecting
rotcs into the war through his articles in the Kansas
City Star and Metropolitan Magazine. With craft
and caution he has planted bomb intended to blow
President Wilson out of political existence, and in this
Guy FawkeS" plot he has had the unctuous assist
ance of Senator Lodge of Massachusetts,, and the
crafty support of Senator WadSworth of New York.
But cunning and righteousness cannot win contest
like this The mountain of truth is too big to be dis
coIored by such daubng brushes the facts too potent
10 be minimized by impish DISSEMINATION or distorted
by cunning castigaton.
The Bible saws, he who draws the sword shall
Perish by the sword. Well Roosevelt and his fol-
lowers first drew the political sword in this dispute,
and with their aSsumptive vaior they should not cry
for quarter before the blade of their own Tapler
For sixteen wears before the present Democratic
administration, the Republican party was the Gus
todian of the welfare of this nation and in all these
sixteen years it did but little to put this country on
basis of ADEQUATE preparation for war. Grover
Cleveland started the American navy on its way to
imperial strength but Theodore Roosevelt, as Pres-
dent of the United States, inaugurated naval pro-
gram that CuTtalleQ the ClcVeldHQ POHCy. NICdl d.
our navy is today it would be far greater STILL the
rolicv of Cleveland had prevailed and the plans of
Roosevelt buried in the Bottom of the sea. And as
il was with the navy, so was it with the army; for
Theodore Roosevelt left the army of the United
States weaker than he had found it seven years be-
fore.
No sooner, however had Woodrow Wilson, with
his panoramic view of the history of the world in
peacetime and in wartime, his thorough knowledge
of democratic aspirations and economic possibilities
his sympathy with the masses and his consideration
# the classeS-nO sooner had he become President
Of the United States than the wheels of progress were
set in motion to equip this nation as years before she
should have been equipped for the solution of press
ing national problems and the handling of contln-
pencies of an international nature.
The rehearsal of all the legislation of President
Wilson to carry out this progressive program would
lie superfuous here The world knows it by heart
L ensures him splendid place in the annals of states
manshp. 1t is the unmstakable triumph of the
democratic yearnng with which the heart of man
kind throbS and pulses today. And it carried Wood
row Wilson to a wonderful victory in t9i6 against
avalanche of money and labyrinth of intrigue.
His Federal Reserve Bank Law, which Mulha,
The famous English economist, said was of more
worth to the world than the Panama Canal, saved
this country with the advent OF the war, from the