The sun., 1919-09-10
Sick, but Not Unto Death.


THE SUN thinks it understands
President WILSON'S formulas of ex-
preston and general facility Of rhe-
t0rical phrase well enough to avoid
excessive alarm at his proclaimed
willingness to die for the League Of
Nations and the covenant. 1t Is
merely his way of speaking. We re-
member an earnest advocate of low
duties at the custom houses, back in
Mr.. CLEvELAND's time, who partly
astonished and partly amused his fell
lows in great New York club by aris-
ing from his easy chair and declaring
that he was ready to go to the stake
for Tariff Reform. Nobody took his
proposal seriously. Nobody believed
him in the literal sense. The fiery
honors of martyrdom were never to
be his. He is still uncharred, we are
glad to announce, and Is eating three
meals day with good appetite, as
we hope WOODROW WILSON will be
doing twenty-five years hence.
Nevertheless If the President had
Informed his fellow countrymen that
he was about the sickest man In the
world over the whole business to
which he has been devotihg his per-
sonal energies and the nations time
and money, we should be inclined to
accept the statement without reserva-
ton or amendment. The signs of his
WEAKNESS of the project are multiply
ing. They are becoming more pro-
nOunced as his Pullman car wheels
roll up mileage. In the way of argu-
ment, of explanation, of reasoned ex-
position of the complexities and per-
plexities of his main subject he is
now producing scarcely anything bet
ter than the forensic material which
the New England vernacular describes
az "empt'in's.' The tranquil self
complacency of his earlier habits Of
utterance Is fast disappearing. His
vituperative references to the Senators
OF the United States are becoming
more frequent and more bitter. One
day he tells the Senators opposed to
his demand for an unamended Wilson
ian treaty and covenant to put up
or shut up; they are certainly not
going to "shut up" and they are put
ting up" to the best Of their patriotic
ability, the sort of compact which
his self-determined and systemati-
cally secret diplomacy at Paris failed
TO negotiate, and which the manifest
interests of the nations future vel
fare and safety and independence re-
quire Of the treaty making power
sworn to a constitutional duty.
Another day his selected epithet for
the high officers of the Government
who look to their consclences and
oaths and not to his self-determined
DEGREES for guidance in political duty
Is Contemplate CUTTERS; and this
from a politician who, ever since his
entry into public life, has quit prin.
ciple after principle, and promise af
ter promise, and policy after policy
with the time serving stiffness of O
well oiled weathercock The Senators
who insist on making the treaty OF
peace what it should be-or, at least
as nearly what 1t should be as Is pos
sible under the embarrassing circum
stances for which his self-will alone
is responsible-are standing steady
for the Constitution and for Americas
independence and are quitting nobody
his voices in the air and visions OF
the horizon.
At the next pause in the revolu
ton of the Pullman car wheels, and t.
the next audience which he addresses
he communicates his discovery that Il
Is Ignorance" in the Senate which Il
frustrating his personal plans fol-
world reorganization ignorant mel
baking a statesman whose prescienc,
Ii such that he did not hesitate Il
assure Omaha that without Articl,
n. enacted exactly as he has ar
ranged 1t he "can predict with alb
solute certainty that within anotheI
generation there will be another worlC
war" And this from the seer VIII,
mss telling Washington audience les
than four years ago that "Amerlc,
ought TO devote itself only to tn
mn MI 4
believing that America stands apar
In Its ideals, 1t ought not to ALLOW
itself to be drawn, SO far as it's hear
is concerned, into anybody's quarrel /!
So he travels on toward the Colder
Gate, urging his fellow citizens to al
low their Government to be draw
into everybody's quarrels In order tina