Part 26 (2/2)

Ex-President Benjaht the people to ”stand behind the President,” saying:

If the word goes forth that the people of the United States are standing solidly behind the President, the task of the peace commissioners will be easy, but if there is a break in the ranks--if the Deressleam of hope, she will take fresh hope, and a renewal of hostilities, more war, may be necessary to secure to us e have already won

When Colonel Roosevelt himself became President, he followed the usual precedent without even the excuse of a war eust 18, 1906, to James E Watson, he wrote:

If there were only partisan issues involved in this contest, I should hesitate to say anything publicly in reference thereto But I do not feel that such is the case On the contrary, I feel that all good citizens who have the welfare of America at heart should appreciate the iress, organized as it is, and the urgent need of keeping this organization in power To change the leadershi+p and organization of the House at this ti confusion to those who have been successfully engaged in the steady working out of a great and comprehensive scheme for the betterment of our social, industrial, and civic conditions

Such a change would substitute a purposeless confusion, a violent and hurtful oscillation between the positions of the extreme radical and the extre the lines of a carefully thought out policy

Is it not clear in the light of the events that followed the repudiation of the President and his administration in 1918 that he was justified by reason of the unusual circu for a ”team” that would work in cooperation with hinantly criticized him for his partisan appeal attacked him and the measures which he recommended for the peace of the world with a partisanshi+p without parallel in the history of party politics Soave the most emphatic proof that what he did was necessary Nor can they honestly defend the that their partisan attacks on the treaty were justifiable reprisal

Before he everall in their power to undermine his influence at home and abroad, and he knew it The appeal was no reflection on Republicans as such, nor any minimization of the heroic service rendered in the war by Republicans and De and civilian services, but the President knew that Republicans organized in party opposition in Congress would not assist but obstruct the processes of peace- under his leadershi+p And all the world nos that his judg to read the President's appeal to the country, written by hiressional elections are at hand They occur in the most critical period our country has ever faced or is likely to face in our time If you have approved of my leadershi+p and wish me to continue to be your unembarrassed spokes that you will express yourself un a Democratic majority to both the Senate and the House of Representatives I areat trust assigned me by the Constitution would be seriously iment be adverse, and I must frankly tell you so because so many critical issues depend upon your verdict No scruple of taste ri the plain truth

I have no thought of suggesting that any political party is paramount in matters of patriotism I feel too keenly the sacrifices which have been made in this war by all our citizens, irrespective of party affiliations, to harbour such an idea I mean only that the difficulties and delicacies of our present task are of a sort that ive its undivided support to the Government under a unified leadershi+p, and that a Republican Congress would divide the leadershi+p

The leaders of the ress have unquestionably been pro-war, but they have been anti-Administration

At alht to take the choice of policy and the conduct of the war out of my hands and put it under the control of instru This is no time either for divided counsel or for divided leadershi+p Unity of command is as necessary now in civil action as it is upon the field of battle If the control of the House and Senate should be taken away fro e all action to be taken amidst contest and obstruction

The return of a Republican ress would, moreover, certainly be interpreted on the other side of the water as a repudiation of ing you to elect a Republican Congress in order to back up and support the President, but even if they should in this way impose upon some credulous voters on this side of the water, they would impose on no one on the other side It is well understood there as well as here that the Republican leaders desire not so much to support the President as to control him The peoples of the Allied countries e are associated against Gernificance of elections They would find it very difficult to believe that the voters of the United States had chosen to support their President by electing to the Congress a majority controlled by those who are not in fact in sympathy with the attitude and action of the Administration

I need not tell you,your support not for my own sake or for the sake of a political party, but for the sake of the nation itself, in order that its inward unity of purpose may be evident to all the world In ordinary times I would not feel at liberty to make such an appeal to you In ordinary times divided counsels can be endured without permanent hurt to the country

But these are not ordinary times If in these critical days it is your wish to sustainthat you will say so in a hich it will not be possible toour associates on the other side of the sea I submit my difficulties and my hopes to you

[Illustration: The President's appeal for a Deress, as he wrote it on his typewriter and with his corrections

[Transcriber's note: contains a reproduction of the first page of the above-quoted letter]]

In an address at the White House to members of the Democratic National Committee, delivered February 28, 1919, which was never published, the President expressed his own feelings with reference to the defeat of the Deressional elections a fewthis defeat, he said:

Personally, I aressional election Any party which carries out through a long series of years a great progressive and constructive progra about a reaction, because while in the main the reforms that we have accomplished have been sound refor reat many definite interests in a way that distressed them, in a way that was counter to what they deeitimate interests So that there has been a process of adaptation in the process of change There is nothing apparently to which the hue, and in the business world that is particularly true because if you get in the habit of doing your business a particular way and are compelled to do it in a different way, you think that soton does not understand business, and, therefore, there has been a perfectly natural reaction against the changes we have made in the public policies of the United States Inand currency reform, the country is entirely satisfied with the wisdoreat many interests have been disappointed andconsummated So that, there is that natural explanation And then I do not think that we ought to conceal from ourselves the fact that not the whole body of our partisans are as cordial in the support of soht to be

You know that I heard a gentleentleislature)--he said to his Senator: ”We have the advantage over you because we have no publication corresponding with the _Congressional Record_ and all that is recorded in our state is the vote, and while you have always voted right we knohat happened in the ressional Record_” Noith regard to a great ressional Record_ shohat happened between the beginning of the discussion and the final Vote, and our opponents were very busy in advertising what the _Congressional Record_ disclosed And to be perfectly plain, there was not in the minds of the country sufficient satisfactory evidence that we had supported sos that they were interested in any better than the other fellows The voting record was all right and the balance in our favour; but they can show a great s that discount the final record of the vote

Now, I a partisan Either a ot to play the gaame, and I have no more sufferance for such a ot exactly as co to them and I haven't any bowels of cos they pretended to support And the country knew they didn't,--the country knew that the tone of the cloakroo were different tones Now, I ae of party loyalty by the cloakroom, and not by the vote and the cloakroo to imply that there was any kind of bla individuals That is not fair But in assessing the cause of our defeat we ought to be perfectly frank and adht to be So that we have got to convince it that the ranks have closed up and that the men who constitute those ranks are all on the war-path and s they say and that the party professes That is the

Now, I think that can be accomplished by ress have to live in Washi+ngton, and Washi+ngton is not a part of the United States It is theI have ever known If you stay here long enough you forget what the people of your own district are thinking about

There is one reason on the face of things The wrong opinion is generally better organized than the right opinion If some special interest has an iet up thousands of letters hich to boet the impression that that is the opinion at home and they do not hear from the other fellow; and the consequence is that the unspoken and uninsisted-on views of the country, which are the views of the great eht to be a Constitutional provision that Congressht to spend every other week at home and come back here and talk and vote after a fresh bath in the atmosphere of their home districts and the opinions of their home folks

CHAPTER xxxVI

THE GREAT ADVENTURE