Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 254, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1918 — WILSON SEEKS TO BE DICTATOR [ARTICLE]

WILSON SEEKS TO BE DICTATOR

WANTS DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS HE CAN MOULD “ABSOLUTELY TO HIS WILL.”

By William Howard Taft. (By Courtesy of The Public Ledger) (Copyright, 1918, Public Ledger Co.) Philadelphia, Oct. 25.—The President, having put by, in grim times like these, the scruples of taste in his ap? peal to the American people for the return of a Democratic congress, of coarse invites a respectful consideration and discussion by every loyal American citizen of what he says. The appeal of the President is forcible but specious. The unified leadership he asks is autocratic power in fields in which the Constitution and principles of democracy require that be-should consult other representatives of the people than himself. In pursuit of his policies he consults neither his own party nor any other. He wishes a Democratic Senate, not because he would seek their assistance in the foreign policy to which by the fundamental law they are to advise and consent, but because he can mould them absolutely to his will without consulting them. He has visited his displeasure on every Democratic member of either house who has differed with him and called upon that member’s constituency to reject him. Is it necessary for the country s welfare that he should be absolutely ruler of this nation for the two years ensuing from March 4 next? That is the premise upon which the soundness of his appeal, in its ultimate analysis, must rest. Do we need during, the life of the next congress a dictator? One who knows the facts of this war, and our part in it, and who loves liberty and popular government, must answer no. 'The war is nearly won. It may take a year longer. We hope it will be less. The complex questions of the terms of peace are to be settled in the term of the ebngress now to be elected. The still more difficult questions of reconstruction after the war are to be met by that congress. Do the American people by their action in the next election vjjsh to make both the terms of peace and the reconstruction after the war depend on the uncontrolled will of Woodrow Wilson? That is the issue which he puts to them in his appeal. “Unless you give me uncontrolled power, you repudiate me and my leadership before the world.” Aut Caesar aut nullus. Never in the history of this couptry has the President had such vast and unlimited power as he has today. It has been often exercised through agencies selected by him. without great consideration of the individual. Far too many instances of partisanship in the selection of these agencies are known of all men to give point to the President’s disclaimer of thought of party in this appeal. The people have restrained protest against arbitrary exercise of power in their anxiety to win the war. The power which the President has was voted to him by the Republicans in both houses. They manifested no partisan desire to withhold it, in spite es the knowledge that it would tempt the use of for partisan purposes. The great measure for which the President can claim credit in this war are the two draft acts. The first he could not have secured but for Republican support. The second he aid not initiate until four months after Xie had first rejected it and until after Republicans and certain Democrats he had' proscribed for differing with him had forced it upon his reluctant attention. But for the Republican congressional support that he has had in this war he could not have conducted it to its present status. He charges Republican leaders with seeking to take the choice of policy and conduct of this war out of his Lands by putting it under instrumentalities of their own choosing. The difficulty with this statement as that it is not true. The mere mention of the name of Julius Kahn and his work in this congress answers every reflection the- President makes on the Republican minority. What the Republican leaders attempted to do was to furnish the President with an executive organization by which he might carry on the war more effectively. There was not the slightest suggestion that he was not to appoint those who were to exercise the powers under his supervision and direction. He did not wish to delegate power to his appointees sufficient, to enable them to achieve what had to be done and so objected. In the end he was driven to do in more awkward way that which months before the Republicans sought to give him effective machinery to do. Thus the War Council of Mr. Baker passed into innocuous desuetude, while Stettiinus and Goethals, first rejected, were given requisite power. Thus Denman was put forward, withdrawn, then another, then another and finally Schwab was given the unrestricted chance to push the making of ships. So with .aviation, a lamentable waste and failure came ‘first and then Ryan with requisite headship and authority is doing the job. ■_ * What was it that stimulated a reform of lamentable methods and delays in clothing, rifles, machine guns,

1 I 1 n i j ilii i i I 1 artillery and ammunition but investigations in the Senate Military Committee of Republicans and a few wilful but patriotic Democrats? The patriotism and usefulness of the Republicans as a minority 1 in winning this war stand out so clearly as compared with that of the leaders of the Democratic majority that the Republicans may well go to the people on the issue which the President raises. Nor is there any more'real weight in the President’s plea that an election of a Republican congress will injure the cause of the country in this war abroad as a vote of want of confidence in his prosecution of the war. The intelligence which he says the European peoples have, has enabled them to see that an election of a Republican congress will mean a more certain prosecution of this war to Un unconditional surrender than if the President shall secure a'house and senate who will only do his will and second his desires. The shiver which went through the hearts of the American people when the implied proposals of |he President’s first note for a negotiated peace were so quickly accepted by Germany was shared by all the brave but suffering peoples of our allies. For reasons apparent to all, the real expressions of feeling in respect to President Wilson’s utterances in England and France are restrained. But when the torrent of American public opinion compelled a gradual return toward a demand for unconditional surrender the joy of our allies was unrestrained. They know that a verdict at the election for a Republican house will end forever the dangers which seemed to face a negotiated peace. Instead of obstructing the President and our allies in winning this war and a dictated peace, nothing would so discourage the Germans and hearten our allies as the return of a Republican congress.,