Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 55, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1916 — THE WOMAN FAILS [ARTICLE]

THE WOMAN FAILS

Greece has decided to enter the war on the side of the allies. The declaration is only against Bulgaria; But no one doubts that further declarations will follow as occasion or the allies suggest. After a long period of hesitation, culminating almost in a revolution, Greece has yielded to what is diplomatically called “pressure” but what is actually necessity. The decision ends a period of palace intrigue and woman influence with majesty tr.uly Byzantine in character. From the first it has not been the nation that stood against joining Greece's fate with the fortunes of the allies. It has not been the principal leaders who stood off from the tempting terms which Greece could have secured earlier in the war. .It has not even been King Constantine himself, though, as rulers go, he seems to be a man of some force and character.

It has been the queen of Greece, sister of Kaiser Wilhelm v who has blocked the way <rt every turn. It was her influence that was responsible for the failure of Venizelos to carry out his ideas for so long a time. She it was who inspired the protest against the allies landing at Saloniki. She it was who kept her loyalty to a brother until the loyalty of her husband’s subjects was undermined to the point of revolution. We may be sure that Greece’s German queen, left none of the .resources of feminine strategy or palace intrique unemHov.- 1

„But circumstances have proved too strong for her. The woman fails. The world will hardly withhold from her the tribute of admiration for one who has manifested such extra* ordinary will and power under such difficult circumstances. Some day, written, it will be read with avidity. For the present her consolation must be that she did her best—and only yielded to the pressure of the greatest combination of powers in history. i •

T 7 « Whatever others may think about the way President Wilson has managed our foreign affairs, he is conscious that he has done his best to steer a steady course in a choppy sea, as shown by his answer to the president of the “Truth Society,” who telegraphed that unless he began to twist the lion’s tail he would not get their support. “I would feel deeply mortified to have you or anybody like you vote for me. Since you have access to many disloyal Americans and I have not, I will ask you to convey this message to them.” At the time he held the office of President, Cleveland was much criticised for his refusal to be “managed” or “handled,” history records his courage as one of his greatest virtues. But he never had anything on Wilson for courage. Mr. Wilson may be defeated for the Presidency by those of our people who believe ths country should ’have sided with Germany, by refusing to sell Great Britain and her allies the products of our farms and factories, but he evidently will accept it with a clear conscience, and with no regrets for his course. We cannot see how the American people can take any chance on his defeat upon such grounds, and with no economic ques-' tion pressing on them personally, surely our true - blue Americans, regardless of previous or future party affiliations cannot vote for anyone else with a clear conscience that they have not put party ahead of their country.—Benton Review.

The Indiana State Federation of Labor at its thirty-third annual convention in Logansport last week, by resolution, commended President Wilson and Senator John Y», Kern for the many legislative acts in the interest of labor winch they aided in putting on the statute books and .strongly condemned the Republican party for nominating Jim Watson for United States senator. Mother Jones, “the angel of the miners,” said: “I don’t know much ahout Watson, but any one who had anything to do with that Mulhall is' pretty rotten.” That fits Jim’s case exactly.

The women of New York, that is, the class who can afford to give dog dinners at SSO a plate, are coming West to tell the farmers and laboring men’s wives that they ought to vote for Hughes, and yet it is only a few months ago that the men of York refused to extend the right of suffrage to these feminine spell-binders. Gan you blame them?