Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 213, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1918 — THE SHOE BEGINNING TO PINCH. [ARTICLE]

THE SHOE BEGINNING TO PINCH.

The Democratic state central committee is trying to explain the test of congressional fitness, as applied by the National Security League to votes on “the eight principal preparedness and wdr measures.” Analysis of the votes on those measures before the Sixty-fourth and the present congress is not all to the liking of Indiana Democrats who are talking so glibly about me importance of “supporting the President” by sending Democrats to congress. It shows that Indiana Republicans stood by the President and his war program more loyally than have the Democrats. The league’s estimate is particularly worrying to Messrs. Rauch, Barnhart and Cox, who are seeking to get back to Washington on their records.

The committee tries to convey the impression that the National Security League does not represent anybody except a lot of “cranks.” It does not come out, as did Representative Barnhart, who characterized it as “thg stool pigeon of the opposition.” He, of course, had nok taken the trouble to find out that the league’s honorary vice president is Alton B. Parker, former Democratic candidate for President; that its president is S. Stanwood, Menken, a well-known New York Democrat; that the chairman of its board of directors is Charles E. Lydecker, another prominent Democrat; and that there are other Democrats of nations Iprominence who are active in the league’s work and organization. The ‘state central committee is not so fooHsh and hasty as was Representative Barnhart. It does not accuse Messrs. Parker and others in the league of being “stool pigeons of the opposition,” but holds out the sug{estion that the names of those men ave been used “by cranks who are floating their product under the names of their ‘honorary’ presidents and vice presidents” Says the committee: “Does any sane man believe that Joseph H. Choate, Elihu Root or Alton B. Parker ever gave their assent to such a test as this on the loyafty of congressmen on preparedness and war measures?” Messrs. Root and Parker are both alive and in good health. The league’s analysis has been befofe the public many weeks and largely discussed, yet

neither of them has made any claim that his name was improperly used or that he does not indorse the findings of the league.—lndianapolis Star.