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Show I The People's War At tfie front the men of the Allied armies have no illusion about the strength of Germany, but they have no thought for any end Difttory. This is a people's war; .riot merely a war of armies; we are,all of us in the fight aa a part of the indispensable indispens-able reserves, and .we have'gfrt to' think, and talk, and act jusf as we would if we werti at the front ourselves. The joldier,who talks aboUta drawn battle is not fit to figh. Neither is a citizen. ,' .Tlhis German, drive, of whicjhjwe are seeing the beginning, be-ginning, makes weaklings quiver. It makes strong men exultant It is a sign of strength in this country that this German drive is.,waking Americans up. To win victory this country nust unite, solidly its force, its skill, and its yfi&aiiti Neither political partisanship par-tisanship nor personal partisanship must block the ef-fort. ef-fort. In this the Presidentirtuet lead the way. """To lead, the President mjpt jiace ability, fitness, and patriotism above adherencetqlfis party and his person. When he put General Woodi-mn admittedly great miji-, miji-, tary leader, into an inferior, position because of General Gen-eral Wood's early advocacy of that preparedness which the President now knows was eminently desirable and when recently he refrained from calling upon General Wood upon his return from. France to report to him personally at the first possible' moment, the President failed in leadership. When,i on, the other hand, he sent Senator Root, a political opponent, to Russia, the President Presi-dent moved in the right direction. In England, no sooner hadlthe war broken out than the political leadersLiberal, Conservative, Unionist, Home Rule, and Ulster threw party politics to the wind. Parties still existed, different war policies were advocated, but partisanship in war matters was abandoned. aban-doned. Perhaps' we cannot 'have a coalition Cabinet here; but we can at least have from the President due recognition of the fact thatearnest and able men of the other party like Senator .Lodge, to take only one instance, in-stance, men who are heart and soul for the vigorous prosecution of the war, are not his personal enemies, and that to point out whaVeteps taken are wrong is helpful to the country's cause' and an act of patriotism. To suggest remedies for existing failures is not, hostility hostil-ity Mt was hot'dfeloyalttpaMcKinley'to bring to light the "embalmed beef" scandal;. it is not hostility to President Wilson to point out that the Committee on Public Information hap made false statements about airplanes. Mr. Roosevelt never spoke a truer word than when in his speech in Maine recently he declared: This is the people's war. It is not the President's war. It is not Congress's war. It is the war of the people of the United States for the honor and welfare of America and of mankind. It is the bounden duty, of the Republican party to support every public servant, ser-vant, from the President down, in so far as he does good and efficient work in waging the war or helping wage the war, and to oppose him exactly to the extent ' of his 'failure to do such work; for our loyalty is to the people of the United States and to every public servant in exact accordance with the way in which he serves the public. The right view of this matter is admirably expressed in an article by Professor George T. Ladd in the New York Times, when he says: Let the red tape be cut; let partisanship be banished. banish-ed. We must demand of our President and of our Government in all departments and operations bear- ,. ing on this war-the highest possible efficiency, utterly regardless of personal preferences, partisan considerations, consid-erations, the necessity of humiliating confessions of mistakes in the pastf and the sacrifice of eyen a reasonable rea-sonable pride in past achievements, if these are to be employed in any manner or degree to cover up or atone fbr past deficiencies and mistakes. What Mr. 'Roosevelt and Professor Ladd say applies to Democrats and Republicans alike. Blind partisanship partisan-ship is unpatriotic. It is as unpatriotic to try to stifle criticism that will help to correct errors in the prosecution prose-cution of the war as it is to indulge in criticism that merely .impedes. At a football game the spectators are in no doubt as to the heartiness of the support of the team on the part of those who are shouting: "Get into the game! Why don'tyou put that ball across? What's the matter with you! Buck up!" And sometimes the moment comes when the supporters of the team in the earnestness earnest-ness of the.ir support even shout, "Take him out!" That, as Dr. Powell, speaking, on his tours under State Council of National Defense, has pointed is what Americans must keep saying to their Government. And the Government can surely be in no doubt that those who are shouting to it .to speed up are the most earnest supporters of the country's cause. The enemies at home are not those who are showing the defects or urging haste, but are those who are talking about peace by negotiations, or about a stale- ' mate, or about the British and French doing it all, or m are harping on vain regrets, or are saying "Perhaps." .M There is no room in this free country for men or women ft who by their talk are robbing the people of their will .aj to win and keep their freedom. fm This is a people's war. It may take years, it may pj exact from us a terrible price for our past negligence; Wj, but it is going to end in the defeat of Germany. ' 2 Whatever is in store for us during this German of- Sg fensive, we must keep our heads as steady as the Brit- gtp ish keeptheirs and our hearts as high as French hearts. fip We are freemen, fighting for liberty. We are not K blind men to be guided, but freemen to be led. We want Ifl leadership, and whatever leadership will bring us to - H victory we will follow. The Outlook. , H |