Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 237, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1916 — “He Kept Us Out of War.” [ARTICLE]

“He Kept Us Out of War.”

Chicago Tribune. J The tremendous arraignment of Woodrow Wilson’s presidency made by Theodore Roosevelt at Battle Creek Saturday night, with an eloquence and acumen seldom equaled in our public life, placed before the American people the essential issue of the elec--tion. It is the issue of false peace. This is not a question of choice between war policy and peace policy, between a> man of war and a man of peace. It is a question of choice between a falSe peace and a true peace, between a statesman who keeps peace at a price that is morally bankrupting and would eventually materially bankrupt the nation and a stateman who, we believe, could and would keep peace by following the straight, strong, course which alone can make peace desirable or secure.

The warning sounded at Battle Creek comes from a statesman who himself kept peace without loss either to the ~ material or moral treasure of the nation. He met crisis after crisis promising war’ and kept peace by keeping our honor clear. Mr. Wilson’s chief asset is the fallacious slogan “He kept us out of war.” If the intelligence and foresight which have guided the American people in the past so welLare not hfizclouded by the selfish pre-occupations of the moment this slogan will not win the political battle now on. Neither in the experience of the individual nor in that of nations have weakness, hesitation, vacillation, and procrastination kept any man or any nation out of trouble. We are not in war at this moment because of fortunate circumstances not to be credited to Mrr-Witeon—’We have been on

the brink of war through his policy and in futile military operations which have cost unnecessary lives through his policy. But we do not believe that the common sense and shrewd discernment of the American intelligence wiH be cheated through .sentimental rhetoric into mistaking Mr. Wilson as a safe guide in times of trouble simply because we have not been preepitated by his blundering into immediate military hostilities. There is but one way for us to keep straight, consistent course with stout hearts ready to meet any danger steadily and with determination. The highest value of Col. Roosevelt’s great speech is that it challenges the weak and foolish pacifism of this day in America. If we yield to this fear of war by cringingjbefore risk and danger, as we have never done before, hiding our weakness in a haze of the Utopian rhetoric witL which Mr. Wilson has constantly to cover the faults of his policy, we shall go the way which weakling nations have always trod. We shall not keep peace. We shall most certainly meet war. We may postpone disaster a few years, but we shall be steadily preparing it. Mr. Wilson has given us a false peace. A strong, forthright man, as Mr. Hughes has proved himself to be in every public test, would have given us true peace, the peace that is founded on a courageous assertion of right, a determined obedience to principle. Our peace today is bitter in our mouths, and over our case there falls the dark shadow of dangers postponed, not met and dealt with: The election of Nov. 7 will be not a trial ■ef-Jfc-Wilson but a trial of ■ the in.--sight and foresight of the American people. Can there be any doubt that they will -once more prove themselves as they have jn-all the great crises of our history?