Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 285, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1918 — AS TO CRITICISM OF PRESIDENT WILSON [ARTICLE]

AS TO CRITICISM OF PRESIDENT WILSON

A few very staunch admirers of President Woodrow Wilson in this city often speak of the lack of enthusiasm which is given the mentioning of the President’s name in public addresses made here. Toe community is criticized as being too partisan, or at least too strongly Republican. The assertion has been made that no good word is ever said here for the President. Any inan, who is the leader of one hundred and ten millions of Americans, must have a very great number of very commendable qualifications, and the person holding this exalted position is a man of great ability, but, possibly most of the people who differ with 'him about certain matters of public, interest, are as honest in their criticism as the admirers are in their praise of him. We regard the following editorial from the Indianapolis Star as a sample of fair comment: “President Wilson’s appointment of Carter Glass to be secretary of the treasury, is a commendable one and doubtless represents the final contribution of Mr. McAdoo to his altogether creditable administration of this important portfolio. The appointment is without political significance, as most of the President’s appointments are, for the new official comes from a section where no benefit can be derived from administrative favors. If it be objected that another Southern Democrat accedes to considerable power, there is a partial answer that the North contributes so few Democrats to public life and lately has still further restricted the proportion. “Perhaps we have all failed to realize -how scant courtesy, after all, the President has paid the Democratic organization. While he apointed no Republican politicians to the peace delegation, he also appointed to it no Democratic politicians. His selections, on the contrary, were guided by his uniform habit of choosing men from personal preference, more with a view to his own comfort and prestige than to any real or pretended solicitude for the Democratic party as such.

“It is a fait inference, moreover, that any lingering inclination he may have had to play party politics was effectually silenced at the November polls. An eminent appointee, selected on party grounds, was Mr. Bryan, but he did not last We can imagine how distasteful to Mr. Wilson’s personal conception of government must have been the demand for a Democratic congress, to include some of his most pestiferous critics, and it is not difficult to believe that his feelings on that score, now that the tragedy of his acquesence is at hand, may be expressed in the popular ejaculation, “Never again!” It is clear that the new secretary of the treasury did not want the place and apparently the motive in his selection was to fill the post with adequate quality.”