Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1919 — CRITICISING EVERYTHING [ARTICLE]

CRITICISING EVERYTHING

> The “Man On the Corner” in the last issue of the Tippecanoe County Democrat says some good things •which every fair-minded American citizen who may have been inf fluenced by the mouthings of the ■Lodges, the Borahs and other disturbers in the U. S. Senate will do well to ponder over: President -Wilson will be back in this country in a few days. The ipeace pact and the league of nations will be submited to the senate for ratification and I have always contended Organized Republican opposition ,is fading away—most of the wise' ones are looking for a place to light—a soft place. Just now Republican leaders and spokesmen are resorting, with increased frequency, to a form of political attack which is well defined and characteristic. The method adopted consists chiefly in an attempt to mobilize the forces •of discontent, to stiffen partisan lines, and to exaggerate, beyond all reason, what the enemies of the President are pleased to describe as “the mistakes of the administration.”

This method of campaigning brings a speedy response from the thoughtless, but its weakness consists in Its essential unfairnes and in the excesses of denunciation to which it gives rise. Those who employ this system become its first victims. They lose their sense of perspective and Indulge in violent and unpatriotic attacks upon those who, in a very difficult period, are managing affairs of our country. Much of the Republican oratory is as amazing to the listener as it is discreditable to those who make use of it. I do not know how others may feel about it, but as for myself, I am proud to be an American citizen, I am proud of the army. I am proud of our great navy. I am proud of the heroism of American men and women. I am proud of the role that America has played in the affairs of the world. I am proud of the power of my country and of the manner in which that power has been used; and I am proud of the leadership of President Wilson. ■ A grea deal is being said in partisan quarters to the effect that the administration is responsible for America’s so-called unpreparedness for war. Measured by the standards of great military nations, America was not adequately prepared for war. In that sense, a democracy is not likely to be prepared for war. A peace-loving people, desiring only relations of friendliness with other nations and moved by aspirations higher than those of conquest, is not apt to turn its attention to the creation of great military establishments. America was prepared for peace and for all the processes of peace, and the thoughts of America were turned away from the thoughts of war and exploitation. But let it not be forgoten that modern Ivar is not fought by armaments alone. It is a measuring of the strength of peoples. The struggle is economic and touches every aspect of the national life. The banks, the factories, the I mills, the warehouses and the great farms of America were essential to American success -In this war. When our army went abroad, it whs supported by the financial power and the indastiy of America, by the labor In the factory and the labor upon the farm. When the heal test came, no country was ever better prepared for it than America. America was strong be-

cause it had adequately prepared for teat of its atrength. When the war began it waa the solemn judgment of the military experta of the German empire that we would not be able to create an army inside of two years. They said that even if we were able to secure men, we had no officers to train them. They said that even if we were able to create an army, we would not be able to supply it with arms and ammunition. They said that even if wc could accomplish this feat, we octi Id not transport th': army to Franco because we led no ships aud could not secure them. They said that even if we ob- t talned the ships, the U-boats would destroy them. They said that even if we transported an army to France, it would be unable to support it there with food and clothes and arms and ammunition. And they said that even if some of our soldiers reached the firing line, the trained troops of Germany would destroy them. And yet we raised an army of. four million men and we transported more that two million soldiers across three thousand miles of sea, where, well-officered, wellequipped, and indomitable in spirit, they turned the tide of battle, won' imperishable glory and triumphed , in the greatest war that the world' has ever known. This surpassing achievement 1s the final and overwhelming answer to those who complain of America’s so-called “unpreparedness for war." The gentlemen who are now leading the Republican party, criticizing the President of the United States and warning the people against the policies of Wilson and the league of nations, are the bad

advisers of old, the discredited leaders, the men whose counsel led to trouble, and whose advice had to be discarded before America could make progress. Is this too general an assertion? Let me be a little more particular. Was it not Senator Lodge who proclaimed in the senate that the federal reserve system was foredoomed to failure? Was it not Senator Root who said that the federal reserve system would ruin the financial structure of America? Was it not Senator Penrose who took the same position? And did not all these gentlemen oppose the passage of the shipping bill which was urged by Secretary McAdoo two years before war began? Was it not this same group ,of leaders who are responsible for the opposition to the income tax, [ the farm loan system and the agricultural and labor bills? These are the samo bad advisers, who, , hopeful that America had forgotten , their bad advice, are now tendering their suggestions as to the future. While the Republicans ‘ have charged Wilson with many “mistakes’’ they have failed utterly to substantiate the charges and their party is today in the extraordinary position of having no issue and no really available candidate.