Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-04-21

| half or more of the electorate, deprived OF
| any share in the conduct of the war and in
prescribing the terms of peace. Two years
ago, when the war was known TO be about
ended, despite the Presidents appeal to
| the country for support, Republican
majority was returned in both the Senate
and House Of Representatives. The
| people thus showed their disapproval Of
| the narrow and partisan course that had
| been persisted in by the President. Now
| that the war, actually, though not tech
nically, is over, we appeal to the people to
give to the Republican party the oppor-
| t,nity TO make a peace for this nation that
will recognize all the obligations of the
nation to the other nations and peoples
of the world, preserve the high position
| and moral influence that I'll e nation has
gradually attained throughout its history,
and at the same time, keep inviolate the
faith and principles of our fathers and pur-
sue course in harmony with our great
governmental chart, the Constitution OF
the United States.
We endorse and approve the successful
| administration of Governor Townsend and
the other officers of the State who have
constituted part of his administration.
We particularly commend and approve
all the efforts of the governor and his adj
mnlstratlon to improve the health and
educational conditions of the State, and
for the great improvement in the highways
of the State and we also approve the
methods that he has adopted to bring TO
the attention of the people of the State the
exact nature of existing conditions so that
remedies for existing evils may be in
telligently applied.
We especially commend the effort
made by the last session of the present
General Assembly to give to the State a
modern and efficient system of public
education. 1t is almost impossible that so
radically different governmental ma
chine as was created by the general school
law passed by the last session of the
present Legislature should Immediately
operate with absolute satisfaction to the
people; and we commend the wise and in
telligent action of the present special
session of our Legislature In creating n
commission, wisely composed almost en-
tirely of members of the Legislature that
originally passed the law, for the purpose
of making such changes In the general
school law as will obviate the objections
which its operations have demonstrated.
We also commend the patriotic per-
formance of their duties by our Re
publican representatives in Congress and
affirm our belief that all of their official
acts have been dictated only by what they
believed would be the best interest of
their country.
We are opposed to a large army of pro-
fessional soldiers. We favor the American
policy of a small standing army, with q
trained citizen reserve, subject to call for
service only in case of declaration of war
by Congress. The training of citizen
soldiers should be under national super
vision and it's control, shared by citizens
who are not officers in the regular army.
The purpose of this training should be not
only to provide trained citizen reserve,
but to promote the health of the youth Of
the land, as well as TO instruct them in
good citizenship and in useful habits of
industry. This would be return to one
of the basic principles upon which this
government was founded as declared by
law during Washington's administration,
namely universal obligation to be fit to
serve. 1t is the direct opposite of mill
tarlsm.
Finally we reaffirin our belief that the
Republican party is the most effective
and successful political organization that
has yet appeared in the history of our
country and that the great questions of
post bellum reconstruction now confront
ing the nation can be best solved by an adj
ministration of public affairs by that
party.