The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-02-05
The Tribune and Wilson

The Chicago Tribune editorial on the death
of Wilson is an Illuminating screed. 1t is al
most two columns long but it can be summar-
lied in 13 words:
The Chicago Tribune liked Wilson, the war
maker, but it hated Wilson, the peace-maker.
1t says:
Our chief admiration for Mr.. Wilson is for the
manner in which he drove the activities once
we committed. That determination was evolved
from his character. He used CONSUMPTION He fur
nshed the allies with what they needed-men,
money and materials in the amounts needed.
Weakness at this time might have ruined u.s.
man less determined to have his way, less i'm
pervious to what said of him, might have
hnched at conscrpting soldiers He might have
tried to fight the war with volunteers. He might
even have tried to fight it with money and mate
rails. He might have tTfS6 to spare the nation
human sacrifices or to limit the expenditure OF
human life.
Then we should have entered losing war and
have been among the losers just in time to be in
the wreckage. Consumption his big decision
and, whether he realized it or not, was his most
dangerous one. Hughes might have had serious
draft riots From. Wilson the people took the draft
with hardly murmur, and the war was won right
then -
We call particular attention to the last SEN
tence quoted This is the tribute paid by
American industrial capitalism to the liberal
Of liberals who betrayed the confused masses
that saw In him an apostle of peace. 1t is
damning testimony added to much already at
hand to show the treacherous role played by
middle-class liberals in times of great crisis.
1t is in the fact that Wilson cajoled the
masses into acting as docile cannon-foddel
that The Tribune finds something admirable
and its approval begins and ends with this
shameful and bloody achievement of the VIII.
son administration
The Mexican and domestic policies of Will
/. son bring editorial curses from The Tribune as
irsneS the internationalism of the House OF
Morgan that the Wilson mind rationalized as
the league of nations.
We cannot understand the bitter hatred OF
spokesman of industrial capital like the Nc
Cormick owned Tribune unless we are cog
infant of the division on the question of for
eign policy in the ranks of the industrial and
financial overlords
One group, industrial capitalists, wants to
confine the American adventures in imperial
ism to the Western hemisphere the other
finance capitalists, see in Europe the most fer.
tile field for investment and exploitation
There is much overlapping and interlocxing OF
interest in these two groups but not enough to
erase entirely this division.
Wilson, middle-class liberal, was elected as
the advocate of return to competition in
industry; his book, 1.-The New Freedom" il
the last wall of an expiring middle class althc
the discontinued and unclear working class
accepted it as defense of them.
WILSON, soon lOunu JnaJ the mldule class does
not and cannot rule this nation. He had tt
choose between Imperialism in Europe and the
homegrown variety. He chose the former
and ended by earning the undying enmity Of
both groups.
The liberals of the middle class in high office
or out of Office for that matter, make theil
peace with heavy industry and fnance-capita
only when they are the smoke-screen behinc
which Imperialism hides its mailed fist unit
such time as war comes as the inevitable re
suit of the conflict of nations arising from tn,
rivalry for new areas to loot.