Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 214, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1918 — MR. TUMULTY’S EXCITEMENT. [ARTICLE]

MR. TUMULTY’S EXCITEMENT.

President Wilson evidently had no hand in the composition of Mr. Tumulty’s egregious letter to Chairman Hays. It is all Tumultian; and the state of mind it reveals must give some concern to Mr. Tumulty s friends. For it gives the clearest possible proof that he has got him-, self into a mental state wherein any one who opposes the Democratic party is guilty of a species of moral turpitude. He quotes the speeches of Republican statesmen,/wherein they express their natural! hankering for a Republican victory- and quotes them with 'a triumphant'air, as if he were convicting them of treason. . He had inquired of Mr. Hays whether that individual had charged the President with being willing to make a compromise peace if that would keep the Democratic party in power. Mr. Hays replies that he did not, and implores Mr. Tumulty, rather turgidly: “Let not political parties spend their time accusing each other of disloyalty when both are loyal.” Mr. Tumulty confounds him by producing a statement of his in which he said that “more attention to politics was needed. This statement, Mt. Tumulty says, with a bewildering air of completely confuting him, is ’’Obviously partisan.” ... . . .

Still with, that bewildering air of triumph upon* him, Mr. Tumulty proceeds to arraign Senator Penrose, who is a Republican, for making a Republican speech to other Republicans. He uotes an incriminating passage beginning, “I want to say to the Republican party, keep it vigorous and virile all through the United States, successful whenever it can be successful,” etc. He quotes passages from other Republican speeches, all of which convey to the ordinary mind the impression that these Republicans would like to see the Republican party win. No doubt they convey the same impression to Mr. Tumulty’s mind; but that mind is in such a fervid state that the expression of this desire on their part seems to him to verge on copperheadism. What does Mr. Tumulty want? The tone of his letter almost suggests that he believes it is near-treason to invite-any one to vote the Republican ticket. The President is very busy with more important, things, but it does seem as if he could spare a moment to put a little ice on his secretary’s brow or tame down his way. As for Mr. Says, wWWas speaking in what he supposed to be confidence and whose remarks were not stenographically reported, there is a version of his speech which represents him as saying nothing whatever about the President of the Democratic leaders in connection with ending the war, but as saying that '‘a certain socialistic coterie in Washington” would like to end the war without hurting Germany too much. If he said that, he understated tie truth; the coterie is not

only in that frame of mind, but seems to be doing all it can to bring its wishes about. It is only socialistic in the parlor-socialistic way, but it looks wth a kindly eye on pacifism and the nonpartisan league. It is not so long since it actually projected the notorius Lindbergh, of Minnesota, into the White House and got him an interview with the President. —New York Times Ind. Dem.