Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1918-10-31
AN APPEAL FROM THE PRESIDENT.

President Wilson has made an appeal
to the people of the United States to
give him a vote OF confidence at the
election next Tuesday by returning a
Democratic Congress that will be in ac-
cord with the policies of his admins
tration. The statement is as follows:
"My Fellow-Countrymen - The
Congressional elections arel at hand.
They occur in the most critical period
our country has ever faced or is likely
to face in our time. II you have ap-
proved of my leadership and wish me to
continue to be your unembarraSsed
spokesman in affairs at home and
abroad, earnestly beg that you will
express yourselves by returning DEM
ocratic majority to both the Senate and
House of Representatives.
81 am your servant and will accept
your judgment without cavil, but my
power to administer the great trust as
signed me by the Constitution would be
seriously impaired should your judg-
ment be adverse, and | must frankly
tell you, because so many critical issues
depend upon your verdict. No scruple
OF state must in grim times like these
be allowed to stand in the way OF speak
ing the plain truth.
81 have no thought of suggesting that
any political party is paramount in
matters of patriotism. feel TOO keenly
the sacrifices which have been made in
this war by all our citizens, irrespective
Of party utilization, to harbor such an
idea. mean only that the difficulties
and delicacies Of our present task are Of
sort that make it imperatiyely nee
cessary that the nation should give its
under unified leadership, and that a
Republican Congress would divide the
leadership.
1.-The leaders of the minority in the
present Congress have unquestionably
been pro-war, but they have been anti
administration. At almost every turn
since we entered the war they have
sought to take the choice of policy and
the conduct of the war out of my hands
and put it under the control of instru-
mentalities of their own choosing.
This is no time either for divided
counsel or for divided leadership.
Unity of command is as necessary now
in civil actions as it was upon the field
of battle. II the control of the House
and Senate should be taken away from
the party now in power, an opposing
majority could assume control of legis-
lation and oblige all action to be taken
amid contest and obstruction.
The return of a Republican ma
jority to either house of Congress
would, moreover, certainly be inter-
preted on the other side of the water
as reputation of my leadership.
Spokesman of the Republican party
are urging you to elect a Republican
Congress in order to back up and sup
port the President, but even if they
should in this way impose upon some
credulous voters on this side Of the
water they would impose on no one on
the other side. 1t is we'll understood
there as we'll as here that the Repub-
lican leaders desire not so much to
support the President as to control him.
"The people Of the Allied countries
with whom We are associated against
VIRTUALLY arc 4ultC ldullHdE Will TIC
significance Of elections. They would
find it very difficult to believe that the
voters Of the United States had chosen
to support their President by electing
to the Congress majority controlled
by those who are not, in fact, in SYM
pathy with the attitude and action Of the
Administration.
So need not tell you, my fellow-coun-
trymen, that | am asking your support
not for my own sake or for the sake of
a political party, but for the sake Of the
nation itself, in order that its inward
unity Of purposes may be evident to all
the world
"ln ordinary times | would not feel
at liberty TO make such an appeal to you.
In ordinary times divided councils can
be endured without permanent hurt to
the country. But these are not ordi-
nary times.
"If in these critical days it is your
wish to sustain me with undivided minds,
beg that you will say so in way which
it will not be possible to misunderstood,
either here at home or among our as
sociates on the other side OF the sea.
81 submit my difficulties and myhopes
to you"
WOODROW WILSON,"