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Show H THE FIRST TEST. B The first test to which the administration has submit- B 'ted itself, politically speaking, since the declaration of H ; war against Germany was in the recent special election H to fill a vacancy in Congress from New Hampshire. The B district was normally Republican. Only once in twenty- B seven years and that in the year of Republican division H lms it sent a Democrart to Washington. Last fall it B rc-elected the late Congressman Sulloway by a plurality H of more than two thousand. It went for the Republican H -candidate for governor by nearly four thousand. Though B i Wilson carried New Hampshire by fifty-six, this district K went for Hughes by twenty-two. It was Republican ter- Hr ritory. Left to itself, it would have gone Republican B without question. H Yet the President who is crying for non-partisanship H because he has not "kept us out of war," was unwilling H: to allow this normal Republican district to pursue its po- H fitical way in peace. He raised a partisan issue, he sent H -partisan agents there, he caused a partisan campaign to H' 1)e made. His spokesmen, alleging that they spoke by Hj President's authority, made the astounding assertion that B ti vote for Republican candidate would be reckoned as vote ' "'for Prussianism and the Kaiser." In the face of the rec- j -ord of opposition to the President's war program which H the leaders of his own party have made in Congress, these B1 -emissaries of the administration had the effrontery to fl -plead with the New Hampshire Republicans to desert m ' their own party as a means of displaying their loyalty to fl- ( i the nation and to send another Democrat to Washington M to "stand by the President." B The specious argument failed. The district failed to B respond to the plea that it was "unsafe" to elect a Re- B publican to represent a Republican constituency. Though B the vote was light, the percentage of Republican per- B ponderance was maintained. In the first test which the B Democratic party, at the President's instigation, sought B to make upon a false issue its failure was unmistakable. B "The false issue, "he kept us out of war," succeeded last B "November. The false test, "Stand by the president," finds B no reaction of success now. The first attempt to capital- B Izc the war for partisan uses has met with disaster. It B J Is a good omen. BBB i |
