New Britain herald., 1918-10-30
GERMAN VIEW OF ELECTION.
What the Enemy Would Think of the
Presidents Defeat.
New York Times)

article which appeared in the Cologne
Gazette of Aug. II:
Little by little the winter Of dis
content is setting in for Wilson. the
dictator. At the beginning of No
vember the people will, in the Con-
erosion elections, sit in Judgment
| over him and his war policies. The
| entire House of Representative with
It's 435 members, is facing new
election, and of SO Senators one-third
is to be elected
What the verdict of America will
be has been apparent since the Spring
of 1917. The three or four special
elections for the House of Represen-
tatives the Senatorial election in
Wisconsin, and, above all, the Mayor
| atty election in New York city of last
| November show which way the tide
| Is turning; all of these elections went
! against Wilson, in spite of the intol-
| cradle pressure of his party machine
| Most significant was the first special
| election in New Hampshire, where a
Democrat who had died was sup
| planted by a Republican. At that
| time Wilson had borrowed for the re-
| duction of the citadel the biggest gun
| German city Of Chicago who as Dem
ocratic Party whip in the Senate and
| mouthpiece of the President is class
| ed as highly important parsonage.
| Lewis carried his artistic red Partisan
wig up and down the State conjuring
the good people of New England by
| the, at that time still effective, for
| mula that the election of Repubh-
| can would mean a reputation of Will
| sans war policies and tend to weak
| en- considerably the conduct of the
| war. But the election went against
| Wilson, Notwithstanding the fact
| that the New Hampshire bacl1woods-
| men are anything but pro German;
| their English descent alone would
| not allow of that.
| However, quite a different con-
| struction must be placed on the New
| York Mayoralty election. John Pur-
| roy Mitchell, who was killed some
weeks ago while training for the
| aviation service, was. as Mayor, one
| of the main baiters not only of Ger
many but also of the German-A Amer
| leans of his city. He was the author
| of the outrage of the so-Called 10y
! atty lists, which during a house to
| house canvass. in 1917, every Ger
| man-Am erican was compelled to sign
| if he did not want to lose his position
| in the municipal or even private bus
| mess houses. A similar act of moral
| coercion has never been committed
| either by the Spanish InquisitiOn or
| by the New England witch roasters
| of the pious city of Salem. And Will
| son eXerted all his influence for the
| continuation in office of his friend
| Mitchell. It was all in vain; Mitchell
l hoc
| before been recorded in the political
| history of New York. And if the
| German Americans had not been so
| utterly bereft of all good political
| sense as they always have been, they
| might have driven home this defeat
| much more forcefully; for, with
| some slight support from their side,
| the Socialist, Hillquit, would have en-
! tered the City Hall as Mayor, and
| with him the most prominent Oppon-
| ent of all that war folly.
| But even without this searchlight
| Wilson RECOGNIZED the seriousness of
| the situation. With what fear and
| misgivings he approaches the great
| day when the people will voice public
| opinion, and how desperately he
| strives to turn the verdict in. his fav-
| or, may be cleaned from the report
|
| ing edition. His personal interfer-
! ence with the elections is a new de-
| parture even for America and one
| NAV be eager to know how the par
| ty leaders of both sides, the bosses,
| are going to take it. One will hardly
| make a mistake in assuming that
| Wilson has stirred up hornets nest
| when by his letters he attempted to
| create an atmosphere unfavOrable to
| the Senators and Representatives
| who had proved refractory. That sort
| of thing has never done any President
| any good though 1T has never been
| practiced before but on the smallest
| scale. But Wilson extends his die
| tatorial power now over everything.
| He not only wants the sole control of
| the Government and the conduct of
| the war in its thousand ramifications,
| but in addition he also aspires to ma
nipulate the elections, thus curtailing
| the opportunity of people of one
| hundred millions to exercise to the
| limit it's constitutional rights. Will
| sons methods are the act of a des-
| perate man. No one knows that bet
| ter than himself. That he takes
such steps shows how he distrusts the
| future And just as he has in 1917,
| thought les than nothing of internal
| tiOnal law when it suited him to do
| So he also puts aside the Constitution
| the moment it becomes inconvenient
| to him 1t is trial of strength
| which Wilson thus provokes. If he
| succeeds. his dictatorship rests upon
| foundation enabling him to pro-
| claim himself the Car Of America,
| without fear of encountering opposi-
| ton but the probability is that he
! will not succeed In any event, the
November elections will have a signi-
| hcance such as they never had before,