Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-09-08
PEOPLE STRONG
FOR PRESIDENT
THROUGH WEST
Show Less Patience for
Politicians Who OBJ
struct Peace.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
Copyright 1919 by The Argus)

Enroute to Omaha, Neb., Sept. 8.
President Wilson elicits friend
| lier response, a heartier greeting
and a progressively earnest enthu-
siasm for the fundamentals of his
errand as he moves through Mis-
souri,, Iowa and Nebraska in that
section of America, where go hand
in hand a contempt for party poll
tics and an impatience to remove
for all time the obstacles to a per-
manent peace.
Nothing seems to strike the big
audiences as more apropos or apt
than a denunciation of the party
maneuvers that keep the American
public perplexed and bewildered
about national and international
policy. One might have thought
| the roof was coming down when
the president Increasingly remarked
| to a packed auditorium of $4,000
people at st. Louis that he some
times wishes both parties might
be smothered in their own gas"
And again at Kansas City and
again at Des Moines, Mr. Wilson
took occasion with excellent effort
to say that the treaty and League
of Nations were by no means a
party matter.
Seek Information.
But the trouble is a didatic state
ment like that, while it proclaims
principle which the people like
to hear, doesn't leave them any
better informed as to why the
treaty is being blocked than they
were before Wilson came. They
haven't forgotten the criticism
leveIed at Mr.. Wilson himself in his
selection of peace commissioners to
represent America at Paris nor are
they unmindful of the fact that the
Democratic party in the senate
supports the treaty and league al
most to a man and apparently seeks
no reservations or amendments
whatsoever, while the Republican
party disagrees almost entirely
with that viewpoint and wants
either to tack on explanatory res
ervations or amendments or to kill
the whole thing, treaty and all.
Fails to Draw Line.
The president has set out to fight
the xtremists-those who want
neither league nor peace treaty,
those who say the peace terms are
too cruel and that the world would
be better off if the whole pact
failed. Those are the men whose
argument Mr.. Wilson is seeking to
tear to pieces but he has failed
thus far clearly to draw line be-
tween the extremists and mild res
erVations Of his opposition and has
in thoughtless moments dropped
his reserve and spoken of the
amazing ignorance" of his oppon-
ents, a sequel to "pygmy-minded
and small-visioned men" which cpl
thets have not served hereto in
establishing friendly relations be-
tween the executive and legisla-
tive branches of the government.
Once. at Des Moines and Kansas
City, the president spoke of those
who were conscientiously opposed
to provisions of the treaty and were
exercising their legitimate right to
scrutinize its contents but before
he ceased his speech he had char
acterized their hesitation as based
upon ignorance and not honest
doubt.
Shares Friends of Germany.
But Mr.. Wilson's friends ask
why Mr.. Wilson should be so ten
der of the feelings of the men who
are passively or otherwise failing to
assert their disagreement with that
faction in the Republican party
which is to his mind misrepresent-
n hn Of
and as too cruel to impose upon
Germany.
They add that only a few months
ago the Republican party won a
congressional election largely on
the program of unconditional sur
render" and an assiduously spread
apprehension that the president
favored soft peace"
President Not Consistent.
But, speaking of inconsistencies,
it may be the strain of extemporan-
eous speaking or the saturation of
argument and thoughts carried
away from his visit to Europe, but
Mr.. Wilson is himself forgetting
from one night to another the sub
stance Of some portions Of his
SpeSCneS- rOE example, at IHe CoA-
iseum at st. Louis, he went to con-
siderable length to explain that
this was a commercial war" and
that Germany feared her rivals
would wrest her trade from her
but Saturday night at Des Moines,
the president, to make another
point said the bankers and business
men of Germany did not want war
but thought it "unspeakable folly"
Whether the president meant toI
convey the impression that mill
taristic group in Germany provid
to the business men that the way to
greater commercial success was by |
a war of conquest or whether Mr. |
Wilson thinks that in some of the |
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