Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1920-09-17
HE KEPT US OF WAR
NEMESIS OF DEMOCRATS.

He kept us out of war, "athat
celebrated shibboleth, said to
have been invented by Postmas
ter General Burleson, which was
mainly responsible for the defeat
of Charles Evans Hughes in the
campaign of 1916, is returning to
plague the Democrats and. under
the surface, is one of the great
moving causes of the unmistaka-
BILE trend toward the election of
Harding and Coolidge, and a Re
publican Senate and House.
This is accentuated by the fact
that Governor Cox has assumed
the entire Wilson burden by de-
claring that whatever the Presi-
dent has promised he will fulfill.
Whether his declaration includes
the promise to keep us out of.
war may be gathered only from
his statement that the league will
help to prevent future wars.
Members of Congress are re-
calling to their constituents the
utterances of President Wilson
in 1914;
America should lead her own
life. We cannot form alliances
with those who are not going our
way. We need not, and we
should not, form alliances with
any nation in the world. Those
who are right, those who hold
their honor higher than their ad-
vantage, do not need alliance.
And they recall that at Shad-
ow Lawn in 1916 he stated that
these gentlemen (meaning the
Republicans, will never get us
into war because they will never
have the opportunity"
There is no longer any doubt
that great numbers of voters
were swayed from Hughes to
Wilson by such statements, any
more than there is doubt that it
was best that the war be fought.
The point in the minds of the yo
tiers who have memories is that
the President and the Demo
cratic leaders deceived them,
for there is plenty of evidence
that the President and his advis-
ors realized that the war was in
evitable.
At the time the Lusitania was
sunk the President made no
move. And Immediately after
that event Governor Cox said in
his newspaper
I'VE have not heard of many
Americans biting their finger
nails at the thought of subma-
rine activities. All of us feel
sorry for a merchant vessel that
is sent to the bottom Of the sea,
whether armed or unarmed. We
feel sorry also for the man of
war that is sunk Immediately af-
ter an encounter. We sympa-
thize with the soldiers who are
losing their lives in the trenches
with miserable humanity in gen
eral. But our skirts are clear as
regards the activities of the Ger
man u boats. They have com
mitted no crime against us. They
have played the part Of combat
ants and respected our boarders.
We feel sorry for the men who
have lost their lives in the war
and for the women and children
who have been made to suffer
through no fault of their own.
But it is not our war, it is the
war of Great Britain and Ger
many, and we are not going to
interfere with either side so long
as our rights are respected"
The President repudiated his
first utterance and is today pro
posing that alliance with Europe
an powers which Governor Cox
has accepted without the slight
est change. Almost as soon as
the inauguration was over war
was declared. And then Demo
cratic leaders for the first time
denounced Germany for sinking
the Lusitania. Now another cleo
ton is at hand and the same
promises are being made, with
the result that Republicans are
asking the American people !;
f'Vill you be buncoed again ?"