The evening world. Newspaper, October 28, 1916, Page 9

. b THE EVENING WORLD, SATURDAT, COTOBER 28, 1916, 1 Js poutiea | onericat | Has He Kept Us Out of War? 6é E KEPT us out of war” is offered by the Demo- cratic Party as a statement of a supreme accomplishment. That slogan is false. To accept it with- out thought or reason is danger- ous to the life of the nation. For months we have been con- ducting a border war with Mexico. At Vera Cruz we demanded that our flag be saluted. The demand was refused. We landed troops; a battle followed. We withdrew without the salute, bringing nineteen of our dead with us and leaving our honor behind; and to this day the salute de- manded has not been fired. The weakness of Mexico, not the strength of the United States, is all that has prevented our act of war from being turned into the-se- rious fact of war. : If the slaughter of American citi- zens—men, women and children— by armed troops, if the killing of American soldiers by the soldiers of another nation, if the sacking of our towns is not war, what is it? The J udge Advocate General of ourarmy saysit is war. The Mex- icans say it is war. Wilson’s acts show it is war, but Wilson’s voice says it is peace. The Truth is that it is more than war. It is war without honor and murder without reparation. It is a condition that makes every true citizen ashamed of the spectgcle we have become in the eyes of other nations. Wilson’s course vitalized civil war in Mexico 4d border war with us. The vacillating and irresolute policy of the present administra- tion has brought humiliation upon this country, bot at home and » abroad. We have been at War; we are now at war; many lives have been lost; our honor has been be- smirched, and yet the Democratic Party cries to the nation ‘‘He kept us out of war,’’ ‘‘He has protected me and mine.’’ The fact is that he has neglected our greatest treagures—the lives of our citizens and the honor of our country. It is the world war in Europe, not the acts of the Wilson admin- istration, which has kept us out of international complicationsthat would have sorely tried our cour- age and our strength. Just prior to the outbreak of the war there was forming a combination of European na- tions to demand of us that we stop the disorder in Mexico, to demand protection of the lives and vast property of European - citizens in Mexico, to declare that these European nations would give protection by force of arms if we did not. What would that have meant? It would have meant that we must adopt a determined policy to en- force order in Mexico, which was the only duty consistent with the stewardship which we assumed under the Monroe Doctrine; or it would have meant war or the sur- render of the Monroe Doctrine. It was the accident of war in Europe which then prevented ret- ribution for the policies of the administration in Mexico. When the war is over those nations will again press their claims and we will face the consequences of the Wilson policy of watchful waiting. Have we sunk so low that we can approve such a policy? Have we become so morally flabby that we will tolerate its continuance ? This-administration has created »war. It has created causes for fu- ture serious international friction. Notes and words and shades of meaning born of rhetoric rather than straightforward patriotic sincerity, have marked the course of our re- lations with foreign nations. Force of character, a fair and honorable course, would have closed the debate which facility of language kept open. Force of character would have stopped murder on the high sea. Does the low estate into which we have fallen among nations make a foundation upon which to build prestige for this country or safety and moral stamina for our children? It is our tradition to honorably keep out of war but not to spine- lessly creep into war. Mr. Wilson has not kept us out of war. Mr. Wilson has put us into war. Mr. Wilson is making war upon the moral fibre of this nation. “A Nation Which Does Not Protect Its Own Citizens Has Already Begun to Die.” Republican National Publicity Committee ‘ a ‘