Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-02-12
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
HERO WORSHIP
By BRIGGS
To the Editor of the Telegraph:


Not long ago since I read in an
Indiana paper a letter to which
would like to reply in The Tele-
graph. 1t was signed by one Ann
Clark Urmston, who seems to think
President Wilson the nations only
hero. She said: He will live and
go down in history q greater man
than Lincoln or Washington" Can
she tell us what makes Wilson so
great? Did he ever go out with
loyal men to face the bullets of the
foe, cross a river filled with ice foes
at night with an army, fight q we'll
trained enemy with half-clothed,
half-fed men, himself sharing their
hardships, bring order out of chaos
in a newborn country, as did our
immortal Washington?
Has Wilson ever freed a race of
people from bondage of slavery, as
did Lincoln? What has Wilson done
so heroic? He fooled the people
into electing him the second time
he was elected. He stayed quietly
and safely at home to send millions
of our boys "over there"-thou-
sands never to come back. The boys
faced trenches, the bullets, the
shells, the gases-the hell of war!
After it is over and no danger, Will
son, the heroic, must go when he
could have sent a commission and
when such a thing was unheard of
before as a President (trailing with
his wife in costly and exquisite sat-
ins and furs, to be honored by Kings
and rulers) to be the head of a peace
commission.
1t appears to some ordinary OBJ
servers that the ovations being ten
dered him in Europe are not so
much the worship of q great world
hero as an expression of thanks and
gratitude to the chief executive of
nation that offered help in their
time of need. He waited, with
trady hand, to enter the war till it
was nearly over.
Can Ann please tell us in what
Wilson is such q hero? He didn't
give up son to face Hun atrocities;
he didn't even furnish a son-in-law
He didn't offer to go himself and
give four boys, as did our late be-
loved Roosevelt. If Wilson is truly
great, the abuse or criticism will
not weaken him." as Ann fears.
He asked to have "the world
made safe for democracy" which
all of us loyal, patriotic men and
gave our dollars TO the Red Cross,
we bought Liberty bonds, we gave
our sons-then, when the President
"heroically" came out and requested
voters to send only Democrats to
Congress, people began to under
stand that by democracy" he meant
just the Democratic party. Ac-
cording to Ann, 1 suppose all the
thousands of voters who flung this
heroic" call for Democratic votes
to the winds and voted as they had
a right to vote in a free republic
should be called traitors" and
enemies TO their country. To
many minds 'our country and the
democratic party" do not mean the
same thing.
IF "he can be pointed out for a
decade (Which is ten consecutive
years) as the greatest leader of our
American people that time has ever
produced" some of us must change
our conception of what constitutes
a leader. If Wilson is one, the peo-
pie do not seem to follow his lead
ing with much docility.
Perhaps Ann Urmston. "just to
show them up" and "have their
names left to tell what they were,"
while she is waiting for the record
10 De produced, VIII show uD"
wherein Mr.. Wilson is zone of the
greatest heroes our country has ever
had"
When. we think of the great and
noble Father of Our Country, we
think with reverence and love:
when we think of good, old, honest
Abe. the emancipator, our hearts
swell with love and pride and an
awe for the great, loving, martyr
spirit that was second only to the
Savior.
When we think of Wilson, we
think he commandeered a big un-
dertaking-after he was forced to
by a big wave of public opinion.
When we think twice, we are fear
fully afraid he may get stuck in
the pud-not the mud of Flanders,
but that of political intrigue, and
perhaps cut a sorry figure after all.
MRS. LULA A. HARTWELL.