Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 62, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1916 — AN INDEPENDENT VIEW [ARTICLE]

AN INDEPENDENT VIEW

The independent voter, in all probabilities, will occupy a more important place in the coming election than ever before. And likewise, the independent newspaper has a more important mission to fulfill than has usually been accorded to them.

As the greatest of the nation’s independent newspapers, the Chicago Herald occupies a place of utmost importance before those thousands of independent voters of the country. Realizing their position The Herald on last Friday printed an editorial under the heading “The Presidency,” and sums-up the political situation in an able and conscientious manner, giving each candidate full credit for his just dues, and then recommends the re-election of Woodrow Wilson to the presidency, telling its reasons for so doing. The Herald editorial in full follows;

THE PRESIDENCY As an independent newspaper, tied to the chariot wheels of no political party, a newspaper that does not make itself a mere sounding board for the vocalizations of contending factions, the Herald cannot accept the partisan view that the fate of this great nation depends on the triumph of a particular man or side one week from next Tuesday. And yet this is being dinned into the ears of those who will sit in judgment on the merits of President Wilson and (Mr. Hughes and men who seal the convolutions of their brain with a party label believe it. No divine fire descends from above each four years and tips the tongues of political orators with prophecy, their minds with omniscience and their foresight with the accuracy of hindsight. We are suffering from this quadrennial lunacy in a particularly vicious form. We are told that Charles Evans Hughes and Woodrow Wilson are unfit to sit in the White House, and that to elect either man is to court disaster at home and abroad. No matter who is chosen chief magistrate on November 7, the Herald believes that in both Wilson and Hughes the/e is enough courage, patriotism and foresight to insure the grappling with problems that may arise in a spirit of broad, capable and patriotic nationalism. j There is a strong and reasonable sentiment in this country in favor of rewarding the efforts of tried and acceptable public servants by reelection. We see this principle invoked in every contest from the smallest local political fight to the greatest national struggle. Within the great parties a President who has done well is conceded the right to renomination. There is no reason why this test should not be applied at this time to President Wilson himself. On the record—as a whole —of things done, on the prospect of things to be done, is there a real reason for the Amercan people at this time to repudiate the President?

There are to the Herald good reasons why they should not do so. Out of the disquietude of recent events the nation has sailed into the calmer seas of the present. But what American can or should forget in so short, a time the manifold difficulties which confronted President Wilson during the first two years of the war? V r hat American can or should forget that he was called on almost at every moment to act on matters big with the fate of the nation? What just man can overlook how anxiously he studied the public opinion of the country, that he might put the decision of the government in accord therewith? Above all. who can forget that he acted not in the light of subsequent events but under the direct menace of the event itself? There has been much criticism of the course of our foreign policy during this troubled period. The Herald believes, on the whole, that it was largely in conformity with the will of the nation as a whole. It is asserted that our prestige has been impaired thereby, and we are shamed as cowards in the face of the world. We see no evidence to that effect. On the contrary, we see that for months Germany, finally brought to an agreement in the submarine mater, has loyally adhered to her promises. We see that Great Britain and the other allies are being pressed by the administration for a recognition of American rights in the spirit of a real neutrality. That the results have not always tallied with expectations may be true. American rights have been violated by the belligerents. but so have the rights of every other" important neutral nation. During great wars neutrals always suffer. But never has President Wilson surrendered any of the vital interests of this nation. Critics of the President’s action in the Lusitania affair insist that diplomatic relations should have been broken off at once after the vessel’s sinking. Some of the censsrTßt»s- souls of today would have flayed him alive if he had done this thing. Then (some of them for unworthy un-American reasons) they counseled calm, deliberate action, pointing with horror to the possi-. bilities that would follow such a course. Today l;hey pin on the President the yellow badge of cowardice.

No one can say that merely severing relations would have been any more of an adequate settlement and no one can safely affirm .that subsequent events would have been more satisfactory than they have been. If, as we are told, the Lusitania case was woefully mismanaged, if the insult to the nation is still as burning as ever, if the national honor is absolutely unsatisfied by the course of events to date, the question is not “What would you have done?” but “What will you do now?” No mere lapse of a year or

so can “heal the hurt that honor feels.’’ No one will Insist that President Wilson has not made mistakes. No President ever has had so many opportunities to do the wrong or the right thing. His course toward Mexico has not heen productive of the happiest results as yet. But there is no good ground for assuming that any other course would have been happier. Here again the Herald believes that President Wilson’s general attitude toward military intervention in Mexico has fairly reflected the sentiment of the nation as a whole. It has been neither bold, brilliant nor audacious. It has perhaps erred on the side of an idealism deeply impregnated with academic theories of government. But it has thwarted the plans of conquest of crazed annexationists and has served to bring into clear relief the disinterested, patient and just attitude of this nation toward the Latin-American peoples and to strengthen our good relations with the whole of Latin America. Should it ever be necessary to employ force in settling the Mexican question President Wilson’s course will provide us with a justification which a more precipitate action would not have furnished. From the standpoint of foreign affairs the question which presents itself to the American people is whether it would not be unwise “to swap horses in the middle of the stream.” The President has all the ends of the tangled skein of foreign politics in his hand. He has the assistance of an able secretary of state. From the standpoint of efficiency no change is needed. From the standpoint of the effect on foreign nations a change probably would be bad. It would encourage the idea that America is a field where foreign intrigue in the field of politics may produce good results and to that extent weaken the present administration’s successor. Turning to domestic affairs we are confronted with what the Herald believes to be the administration’s great mistake. The Herald’s opinion of the method by which the Adamson law was put through congress—the bad effect of the blow at arbitration and of the plain evidence that legislation may be gotten by putting a pistol at the head of the government—has been frequently expressed, remains the same and need not be dwelt upon. But one action does not infect a whole program. On the whole the administration has done well in the domestic field. Its general attitude toward business, as President Lovett of the Union Pacific correctly states, has been fair. It has not attempted to harass it, but has proclaimed its desire to assist it on every occasion. And it has passed much legislation in that spirit. As to the wisdom of that legislation time must pass its final verdict. But it is generally agreed that the reserve bank act is sound in principle and, with a few changes due to experience, will ultimately prove a valuable part of our national system. The anti-trust law and the trade commission act are two pieces of legislation passed with the idea of affording business added light. The rural credit law is good in principle and should be workable in practice. The .child labor law is the voice not of a party but of the country. In matters of social readjustment the President has proved himself a true progressive. When congress was uncertain about and leading members of his party opposed the necessity of military and naval preparedness Woodrow Wilson appealed to the people and preparedness won. Although traditionally opposed to a large army and a large navy, the President saw the necessities of the case and led the nation to a successful reversion of the historic policy of military weakness. Soon Mr. Wilson will appoint the members of the tariff commission recently authorized by congress. The President originally was antagonistic to such a board, but, listening to argument, was converted. Fought, on this issue in congress by leading members of his own party, he forced it through because he believed it right. It is the most important step yet taken to divorce the tariff from politics. The Herald sees no real reason for the belief expressed by campaign orators that Mr. Wilson's re-election means commercial disaster. It sees much reason, as Mr. Lovett said in the interview heretofore referred to, why a national party that has done its best in the right spirit to treat business fairly should receive recognition of the fact from business men. The contrary course must in the end result in making one party extremely radical and the other wildly reactionary: and that means that we shall have administration and legislation on class grounds and not on national grounds when either party gets in power. That is certainly something well worth avoiding. Too much bitterness, too much personality, has heen injected into the campaign. The charge of “yellowness” and “cowardice” against great masses of the American people refutes itself. But many days after November 7 we shall see these and many other things in a more normal light. The campaign is closing. The nation is entering into “the valley of decision.” FJach member of the great Herald family will vote for the candidate whom he or she believes is best fitted to grasp the wheel of the ship of state. But the Herald believes, as it believes a great majority of its readers believe, that for what he has done, for what he has not done, for what he has induced his party to do, Woodrow Wilson has earned four more years of service to the American people. Re-elect him.

The population of the United States has increased by 24,000,000 people in the last fifteen years, and the number of beef animals has decreased 6,000,000 and sheep 10,000,000, while hogs have increased only 11,000,000.

Purchase yo»r calling cards, correspondence cards, correspondence stationery and envelopes from The Democrat’s fancy stationery department. We carry the most complete line to be found outside the large cities.