New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1918-05-08

apparent the mendacity and misrep-
resentation will be used to the limit in
order to detach from the Presidents
support every timid little business man
and property owner who can be reached
with tales of his surrender to those who
would tear down our most sacred in
stitutions. If the President were man
who permitted himself to be impressed
by the metropolitan newspapers, or if
he were in the habit of giving appoint
nents to the innumerable delegations
of leading citizens" whosin other times
have sought the ears Of the man in the
White House, he undoubtedly would
have been convinced long ere this that
his liberal policy was losing him the
support of the country and would have
to be sacrificed for the sake of unity
during the war 1t must be only be-
cause he realizes how deceptive is the
volume of sound produced by these
''vocal' elements of the population, and
because of deep faith in the great silent
majority of plain people, that he has
the courage and the confidence to steer
a straight course. The straighter that
course, the more obvious and outspoken
it's liberal direction, the surer and stonger
will be the popular response when the
President needs it at Congressional
elections and in other times of test.
That he realizes this was shown in his
letter to the New Jersey Democrats.
And in his Baltimore speech was there
not, along with his ringing acceptance
of Germany's challenge, plain hint
to our own imperialists who would
have 'the flag follow trade" into Mex
leo and other odd corners of the earth,
that his face is set against the practice
as we'll as against any single application
of it? f.:
Nothing is .surer today than that the
Wilson administration is a liberal Ad-
ADMINISTRATION or it is nothing, and that
the President has delib erately chosen
that this should be so. What do we
find in the tanks of those opposing him?
Gossip about presidential campaigns is
never reliable two years in advance of
the nomination. But Republican circles
are buzzing with plans for grand re-
union of the party behind Theodore
Roosevelt. Mr.. Roosevelt, the story
goes, is soon to make a speech coming
out strongly for "labor". Not organized
labor, mind you. not labor working out
its own salvation through Economically
organized voluntary groups. But labor
in the German conception - men and
women of burden who should be we'll
fed and we'll housed, in order that all
ground for complaint and all cause for
.restlessness shall be removed, men and
women protected by benevolent schemes
of legislation and insurance of the Bis
MARKHAM type Given that, and a sys-
TEN of permanent compulsory universal
military service "a cardinal plank, by
the way and you have nothing to
fear from those who propose fundamental
changes in our economic order, Mr..
Roosevelt, too, will have a plank or
two for the farmers, and for the tenant
farmers - probably some scheme of
land colonization by which we might set
up class of contented peasants, e@ch
with his cottage and two or three, or
even ten, acres of land. At least, it
will be good talking plank, and it will
not seriously threaten those entecprising,
virile, red-blooded Americans, who,
through superior ability, have preempted
for themselves more or less extensive
tracts of land which they now hold out
of use for themselves or their children.
One can almost hear solicitors for the
Republican campaign fund explaining
to puzzled men of wealth that t. csc
planks are all things the Colonel insisted
upon as absolutely necessary if they are
to get the farmer vote and the labor
vote and what might be called the let's
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS votes And hav-
ing claimed conservative fears, the So.
*icitor would hurry on to his really strong
points - the need of adquate tariff
restrictions, the necessity Of tenderly
nurturing our new merchant marine,
the Importance of foreign trade and for
eign contracts and concessions, and of a
big army and navy and a President not
':to proud to fight" to protect theme-a
President who had proved in Panama
and elsewhere that no squeamish senti-
mentality should stand in the way of
American enterprise. 49,. :
Was there ever a clearer or: more
crucial issue? Let is not borrow trouble.
But let us watch events with their prob
able bearings in mind. And let us be
ready,to decide rightly, in 1920, the most
nomentous question that has ever faced
us: are we, nation no longer self
sufficient, to enter upon our new world
estate aggressive, economically impe-
rialistic, measuring our greatness in,