Life — March 2, 1916 — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

MARCH 2, 1916 ‘While there is Life there’s Hope"’ Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPAN’ J. A. Mitcurtt, Pres’t. R. WIL- SON'S un- popularity seems to be grow- Cy ing. He is un- C} popular just now with M. Clemenceau in France, whose specialty is demolishing statesmen, with Punch and others in London who think him too patient, with Germans, Austrians and Turks pretty generally, we fear, with Mr. Root, Mr. Roosevelt and most of the other Republicans and Progres- sives who are getting ready to nom- inate some one for President, with some Democrats who don’t know what they want but are conscious of a sus- picion that they are not getting it, with pacifists like Mr. Bryan and Mr. Vil- lard, with militarists generally and es- pecially the continental army and uni- versal-compulsory-service kind, with Colonel George Harvey, with a large company of dislikers of Josephus Dan- iels, and with everybody who ever bet a cent on the business future of Mexico. If Mr. Wilson was malfeasant, in- competent, cowardly, vacillating and insincere in the degree that all these detractors, between them, aver, the wonder would be that he had managed to shuffle along three years in office with such immense defects without having a committee appointed to be answerable for his behavior. That makes one think that the circumstances of the world have a good deal to do with most of the complaints that are made about him. If his detractors could concentrate on two or three good points—say Mexico, Garrison and the Lusitania—they might score. But there A. Miter, Sec’y ond Treas. 17 West Thirty-frst Street, New York English Offices, Rolls House, Breams Bldgs, London, E. C. is safety for him in the variety of their accusations. They lambast him for the tariff bill, the shipping bill, the persecution of corporations, the inva- sion of Belgium, the Lusitania, British meddling with our exports, the c:- ploits of German spies and fire-bugs, the resignation of Mr. Garrison, the retention of Mr. Daniels and the neg- lect of Americans and their interests in Mexico. It is hard to get proper team-work among so many accusers. They get to correcting one another and that weak- ens the attack. But it is true that there is doubt and dissatisfaction in the land. So there is in every other country on earth, The war is harrowing, and even here the harrowed don’t like it. We have been warmed up to deeds of valor and sacrifice and then allowed to cool, and the effect on the national disposition has not been good. Perhaps it is just as well that the tonic of a Presidential campaign is about to be poured out for us, and that the rival doctors are giv- ing out their diagnoses and telling us what we ought to take. R. ROOT is the leading diagnos- tician. His speech on February 15th at the Republican Convention in New York in which he arraigned the Democratic party and its President as unfit to conduct the affairs of the coun- try was the chief topic of political dis- cussion for a week, and is still dis- cussed. If there is anything that Mr. Wilson or the Democrats have done— the Canal Tolls Repeal bill for exam- ple—that pleased Mr. Root, he left it out of that speech. If there was any- thing that was adapted to persuade the voters to put the Republicans back it control of the country, he put it in. Mr. Root is quite free from the fault imputed to Mr. Brandeis of being on both sides of a contest ut once. It was a good speech, whatever its defects; a speech that will be read and reread and kept for reference and study. It was a useful service to examine the Democratic record and put together in form, convenient for examina- tion, everything that can be said about Democratic incapacity and the expediency of turning the Democrats out. We don’t want to keep them in if we can do any better. A great multitude of voters in these times are for the United States, and for what- ever group or party that can handle its affairs best. Democratic incapacity means, practically, incapacity in Mr. Wilson. More of him is all the Dem- ocrats can offer us next November. If, as the New Republic concludes and an- nounces, “he is not up to his job” it is the duty of the opposition to offer us an acceptable change. me, ook EWN 'HEREFORE, go it, Republicans! Rake over your principles, present your complaints, capture your candidates and put them all in your show-window where we can take a look at them. We are willing to change if we can better curselves; willing to look at your sam- ples, and listen to your terms, and do any business with you that our needs and means and past experience may warrant. A former Bull Moose cam- paigner who loves France said that when he heard Mr. Root’s speech he cried. His soul had long been athirst for the sound of a voice that meant business. When he heard Root his weary spirit said to him, “Here, at last, is a prophet who can smite the rock and make it gush.” But will the rock gush votes for Mr. Root? Probably not. Mr. Root is not a comicbooks.com