The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 9, 1918, Page 6

“ vy “?”‘"’% 7. % 4. e 55 v vflm_ DI 5 'I////I/// FORD, ROOSEVELT AND PATRIOTISM 1 H ENRY FORD is a candidate for the United States senate - in Michigan. Recently he was the object of a bitter attack by Colonel Roosevelt. The colonel declares Mr. Ford unfit for office. It is interesting to inquire into this typical attack on another public man by our distinguished ex-president. “First, let us state Mr. Roosevelt’s case against Mr. Ford. The colonel says that Broth- er Ford was AGAINST A PRO- GRAM OF EXTENSIVE PRE- PAREDNESS FOR WAR, be- fore we got into the war. He says that for this reason Mr. Ford does not measure up to the standard of patriotism demanded in the United States senate at this time, the inference being that a person opposed to pre- paredness BEFORE WE GOT INTO THE WAR is in some way pro-German or disloyal. It is admitted by the colonel that Mr. Ford has turned his vast automobile factories over g to the government to help win the war. The colonel, however, does not point out that Mr. Ford has declined to take any profit from the government on war contracts. . ; 3 S FURTHER evidence of Mr. Ford’s alleged lack of patriot- ism, the colonel says that Mr. Ford’s son secured an exemp- tion from draft on the ground he was a married man with a family. We had understood that Mr. Ford’s son’s exemption was also on the ground that he was engaged in an occupation essential to the war. Be that as it may, the exemption of Mr. Ford’s son, which the colonel admits was legal, is no evidence of the patriotism of Mr. Ford himself. It could not possibly be distorted into any evidence of that kind. Reference to it could only have been made by the colonel to cast reflections on Mr. Ford’s family and thus indirectly reflect on Mr. Ford himself. This, therefore, can be left out of the question. We do not think the colonel will desire, on calm reflection, to press this as evidence of Mr. Ford’s lack of . patriotism. 5 The question therefore narrows down to this: whether Mr. Ford is unpatriotic and. unfit to be a United States senator because he opposed a gredt military establishment and compulsory universal military training before we got into war. . o E THINK the colonel can be sufficiently answered on this point by the statement that President Wilson himself, for two years before we got into war, vigorously opposed the preparedness program the militarists of America, including the colonel, tried to force on the nation. The president was deaf to all pleas that he back such a program and use his influence to have congress pass it. The president is still opposed to a program of universal military training, which Roosevelt is advocating, to be adopted now but to APPLY AFTER PEACE COMES. If Mr. Ford is pro-German or disloyal for having opposed a peace times, Mr. Wilson likewise is. This shows the absurdity of the “argument” of the colonel against- Mr. Ford. Our eminent ex-president, however, lays down one doctrine that we are willing to accept. He holds that a man’s conduct since the declaration of war is “ not alone sufficient on which to base a conclusion as to his pa- triotism. The Leader will agree to this method of determining the fitness for office and patri- ] otism of candidates, providing ) o . the whole pre-war record of the - person whose patriotism is to be examined is used as a basis. - . Having agreed, then, to determine the patriotism of candi- || duct since the declaration of war, let us apply the test to one | president in 1920. - i We ‘charget] wat Mr: Roosevelt, during his whole P L /f% %IV% ) Z 7 " raphy a drawing of himself and the kaiser. _ican citizen who approved of and believed in German - institutions. -with Germany, President Wil- great military establishment in_ . - dates for office on their pre-war conduct, as well as on their con- .- .. 'Theodore Roosevelt, candidate for the_Republig‘:anj nomination: for 7 7 9 A > > [$ % v 4 ,//////// % | '%/4 v s “»f lic career, has not been an enemy of or fought autocracy = B and militarism, to wipe out which we now are fighting Y 54 Germany. We charge that Mr. Roosevelt believes in and ' stands for many ‘of the very things we are seeking to rid CP- the world of in this war. Therefore, Mr. Roosevelt does L not live up to a strict standard of real patriotism and true 7 democracy. This is our indictment of him. We: offer the following proof: 2 : ’ "I VHE colonel was a friend and admirer of the kaiser for years. He says in his autobiography that he can never consider the Germans as foreigners, and he publishes in his autobiog- The artist attempted R to make both these gentlemen look fiercely militaristic, and to show > that they really looked alike—and he succeeds. The colonel con- sidered this drawing, comparing him with the kaiser, 8o compli- mentary that he included it in his life of himself by himself. - The colonel visited Germany some years ago and the world’s press for a week told how he and the German emperor had become pals. He rode on horseback with the kaiser and reviewed the Ger- man army and was loud in his praises of the German military sys- tem. In the great demonstrations for him in Germany he joined in cheers for the kaiser. He was received as the leading Amer- The kaiser expressed further favor for the colonel by present- 3 ing the United States with a bronze statue of Frederick the Great he B during the colonel’s term as president. Roosevelt officiated at the & dedication of this statue of the great German autocrat and mili- tarist, and sang “Die Wacht am Rhine” with the German ambas- 5 B sador during the dedication cere- mony. Since we got into war THIS 1S POSITIVELY THE ONLY CURE FOR A BAD son has had this statue of Fred- CASE OF PROFITEERING erick the Great pulled down. It has no place in the public forum of a nation founded on the prin- ciples of democracy and justice. EALIZING that Colonel R Roosevelt was friendly to the kaiser and to German institutions, particularly Ger- many’s militaristic institutions, the Germans attempted to capi- talize this in America AS GER- MAN PROPAGANDA. A Ger- man professor, Max Kullnick, wrote a book in German under : h & ¢ ; the title “Rough Rider to Presi- : A gk dent.” This book is a biography of Roosevelt. Its main object is to prove that Roosevelt, whom it calls “the idol of the American people,” is exactly like the kaiser in character, temperament and ideas. Whole chapters are devoted to showing that the colonel’s mili- tary views, religious views, methods as a public man and as presi- dent, etc., etc., are exactly like the kaiser’s. This book was trans- lated into English and widely circulated in America. It can be found that have not thoroughly purged them- today in all public libraries selves of ‘German propaganda since we got into the war. In 1913 Roosevelt, then an ex-president, joined with several other equally eminent gentlemen in congratulating Kaiser Wilhelm on the anniversary of the kaiser’s rule over the German ‘people.. Editorial comment in regard to this in the New York Times at the time was as follows: : ; It _is through no mere desire to be complimentary, and it is by no . confusion of the wish with the thought, that the two ex-presidents of the United States, the Duke of Argyll, Lord Blyth and Sir: Gilbert Parker, Arthur von Gwinner, the financier; Alfred H. Fried, the peace advocate; Andrew Carnegie, Hugo Munsterberg and Nicholas Murray Butler agree in hailing the kaiser as the “greatest individual forcé in the practical maintenance of peace in the world.” Their opinions are backed by the evidence; the testimony is full and complete. I N 1913 the colonel congratulated the kaiser on his f‘fir#étical | maintenance of beace.” A year later the kaiser-plunged the . world into the bloodiest and most terrible war of all history. He was planning for this war at the tim ' It is to be remarked that the colonel today is advocating th “practical maintenance of peace” as he was then advocatii always has been—the maintenance of peace BY TIONS ARMED TO THE TEETH, WAITING TO POUNCE ON EACH OTHER. arming to maintain peace. Men te guns. - Every ‘knows: that e the colonel praised him. .