Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 May 1915 — Commends President Wilson’s Philadelphia Address. [ARTICLE]

Commends President Wilson’s Philadelphia Address.

It would be easy to pick flaws of one kind, and another in the President’s address at Philadelphia; but in one respect it is above criticism; and that is in his interpretation of the new spirit that has come into the world on the subject of war. The rightfulness of /car as a last resort in a good cause is conceded by all thoughtful men; but within' the last few years an awakened spirit of humanity has become alert to the ’protest which the poets and philosophers of nil time have put up against the barbarity and the awful cost of these demonic struggles for princely power, for territorial aggrandizement, for commercial; supremacy. The noblest use of power is in its restraint. And our President has exemplified this quality of restraint in the face of provocation in a striking way ever since he took up the , responsibility of his office. Today he is embodying it more impressively than ever. before and, if we take into account the popular clamor, going .on all around him, against far greater pressure than ever to take up ths sword. Perhaps it is too early yet to say whether he is more nearly right than those of his critics who call loudly upon him to act. But at least it is permissible to hope that time will yet show that a nation may reveal its greatness and nobility of soul by holding on to peace as well as by rushing on to war. It is hard to see where We could derive any tangible benefit from entrance on this titanic struggle. Perhaps it will also turn out Jhat self-interest and high ideals coincide.

It is in these attempts to express and realize the higher spiritual aspirations of our people that the President appears at his best. We can all applaud his sentiments and sympathize with his aims, even when we can not be sure he is right as a matter of verile national policy; but as opposed to the passions of war and the obviously inspired pleas of the political opponent, his brave and sober words must meet an answering response in’ the hearts of all true American citizens, who wish their country to be great in thought as well as in action, and to lead men out of the miseries and enslavements of the past into the blessings of the thousand years pf peace,,—-Indianap-olis Star. , '