Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-04-27
A Call to Patriots
George Harvey in THE North
American Reviews" War
Weekly.

on the battle line; her men and
bows. her women and daughters at
home are working. giving. hoping,
and praying for victory, in this,
the darkest hour of the great in
vasion.
Shall we at such a time impair
the power and strength OF the ma
ton through partisan strife among
ourselves when every ounce or the
energies which we Gan rally is re-
uuired to meet the beseechIng calls
OF our bleeding allies to help, help,
help, in their desperate ard heart
repding struggle against the COM
mon foe?
United we stand, divided we
fall"
No country has better reason
than our own to realize this immu
table truth; none has needed 1t in
the past at greater cost in the
blood of men and the grief OF WON
en-. Can nothing be done to avert
the calamitous effects of q bitter
political contest throughout the
union. already beginning and bound
to rage with increasing virulence
'till the polls shall close ia Novem-
| ber
Forget patriotism (God forgive
us,) for a moment and heed only
partisan considerations.
What has the Democratic party
to gain from contested election
next fall? 1t already has a ma
jority in the house-small but suf-
ficient; suppose that majority
should be increased to fifty or a
hundred, what of it? Mr.. Clark
would continue to be speaker, there
would be no changes in chairman
| ships of committees and the new
members would be as ciphers eX-
cept in voting. True, such re-
| suit might be heraIded as a strik-
/ ing testimonial of approval of the
administration, but that is all
There would be no practical advaE-
tage. And if the opposition should
win, what then? Surely, in the
words of the late Mr.. Holman, itdis
better to be safe than sorry.
Weighing possibilities in the bal
ance, clearly the Democrats have
nothing tangible to win and much
perhaps to lose from the hazard of
an election.
What of thet Republicans? Sup
pose they should carry the house,
what would they have won? Com
| mittee chairmanships, clerks and
doorkeepers and-a speaker, pre-
sumably Mr. Mann, who voted for
! the McLemOre resolution and for
pretty much everything else that
the Germans wanted. They would
acquire no real power-not even
control of the great appropriations
which have already been made
chiefly and would be completed be-
tween November and March In
point of fact, they would not be in
a position to oppose any measure
proposed by the president because
they would have been elected I'M
der pledges to uphold vigorous
prosecution of the war. For this
very reason, moreover, they could
not even maintain successfully
that their majority should be taken
as a rebuke to the administration
unless the choice of a virtual pro-
German as speaker should be so
regarded,-and surely that would
be neither palatable nor popular.
Allthey could claim would be that
they had been elected simply and
solely because they were Republi-
cans
The only thing under the sun
that the Republicans could win by
carrying the house would be the
privilege of dividing the RESPONSE
bility for the future conduct Of
tie war,-thus barring them COM
pletely from making a clean-cut
issue two years later, when the ex-
listing government as a whole must
make an accounting to the people
and either stand or fall upon the
record made with full authority.
No less surely than the Demo-
Gratis, though-for quite different
reasons, the Republicans have
nothing to win and much. perhaps.
to lose from a contested election.
But the country and the cause
have a great deal, very great
deal, perhaps everything, to gain
from an agreement between the
two parties to reflect practically
all of the present members. Let
us enumerate a few of the ad-
vantages:
l. 1t would avert the bitterness
of nationwide Campaign.
2. 1t would make the issue.
wherever an issue might be raised.
one of loyalty pure and simple,
with no such differentiations as
disgraced thE Wisconsin campaign
and might easily have produced e.
Socialist, prNGerman senator.
3. 1t would not only achieve spe-
cifically but would signify notably
TO our allies a splendid unity in
purpose and determination.
4. 1t would eliminate the dan
gerous participation In a political
contest of two millions of soldiers
in camps scattered from Flanders
to California.
5. 1t would obviate the waste of
hundreds OF thousands, possibly
millions, of dollars in useless cleo
pioneering when every penny fs
needed to win the war.
8. 1t would save at least a davis
time consumed by anywhere from
ten to fifteen millions of men in
simply voting, to say nothing of
many days OF campaigning. Tins
increasing the country's productfv-
ity by this means alsHe bv more
than a hundred millions of dollars
z. 1t would release for speaking
for Liberty loans and other war
purposes, not only the hundreds
OF the chosen representatives of
the people, but also thousands of
others who otherwise would be