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Show The President and Politics j There -has been a deal of balderdash since President Wilson ! fssued his statement last week urging that a Democratic majority j be returned to congress. The statement appears to have attracted ! far more attention than is justified and to have aroused Republican ' party adherents to a defensive campaign far greater than the situation situa-tion warrants. Assuredly no one would expect President Wilson to want anything any-thing except a Democratic majority in congress. Despite the fact that he is th'e president and has risen to the position of the leading statesman in the world, he is still, a Democrat and the recognteed leader of (hat party. Why, therefore, all this howl because the president in a formal statement asks tis-te-do-what we all knew he wanted u to dor even without the asking? Did you, or anyone else, expect him to ask for the election of a Republican majority? , , Perhaps, though, the complaint is tha,t the president made a statement, smacking so strongly of partisanship. If so, there is ample justification. When Harrison, McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft toured this country they talked politics at every city and hamlet and they urged the election of Republicans while they extolled the virtues of the C O. P. They wanted t Republican majority and Ihey got It President Wilson is denied the satisfaction of a cross country speaking tour, business affecting the future of the whole world keeping him in Washington, and because he cannot deliver the political message orally be' sends forth a brief and trite statement. He says what he wants as president, as leader of the Democratic - party-ands a private citizen. Where is the harm? Surely he has only uniformed to precedent and done exactly lut could havej been expected of him. ;j There is no question of patriotsim involved, for as far as antl-j Germanism and pro-Americaniiin goes the people of the United.) States are solidly united. The issue is pro-admiiiistion--Tr'anti-administration' and the president naturalWJeels lie can rely better upon the Democrats than he can upofTRepublicans. It might be argued.'lf "we wished to delve into the situation, that this feeling has been forced upon the president by the recog---mzfj" leaders of the Republican p:irty. For instance, if Colonel Roosevelt was in congress the president could scarcely look to him 'or friendly support. Colonel Roosevelt has been particularly severe and loquacious In his denunciations of President W ilson and his acts. Yet, we know '.he colonel to be a thorough patriot and to be sincere and earnest about it, just as sincere as at the time when he was anti-Republican tnd as he now is in the pro-Republican role. Of course, politics is involved, and such will always be the rase if we continue to elect presidents by popular vote instead of having them inherit the job like the kaiser. |