THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT AND THE WAR [To THE EDITOR OF
THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—You will have noticed in the past ten weeks a marked change both of tone and temper on the part of President Wilson in his dealings with Germany. It is understood that the Presi- dent desires re-election next year, and if this is the case he will have in some way to recover, not only the self-respect of the American nation which he has jeopardized since the.` Lusitania ' horror, but, what is almost as important to that strange polyglot but on the whole admirable community, the respect that America had previously commanded abroad since Lincoln's Adminis- tration. And this being the case, it is very important to recognize the directness of the appeal to President Wilson by the most responsible elements in his party. I do not refer to great metropolitan organs such as the New York Times and World ; the attitude of these papers is already familiar on this side: But a leading article in the Louisville-Courier-Journal of Decem- ber 9th is now before me, and I venture• to send you a lengthy extract, because• no one is higher in the councils of the. Demo- cratic Party than its proprietor and editor, Colonel Henry Watterson, and those who have long known and admired that very outspoken Kentuckian will have no :doubt whatever that this particular editorial is- from his pen and ne other. The Courier-Journal is by all odds the most important -Press-organ of the President's party south of Mason and Dixon's Line, and this is how it reflects on a recent speech of Hindenburg wben kite-flying for terms of peace :- " But apart from our obvious interest in a permanent Empean settlement with the Hohenzollern and the Hapsburg —not the German
have a score to settle which will down. at no
people—we man's bidding; the organized movement to involve us in eiviflwar by a subsidized Teutonic propaganda, which was none the •less en invasion because it was absurd and contemptible ; the murders of our women and children in the Irish' Sea, yet unatoned and unavengedi; the criminal activities directed from Berlin at once• against our neutrality and our industries, and the impudent support given these first by, the Hapsburg through Dumba, then by the' 11,ohers. zoIrcrn through Bernstorff, Boy-Ed, and Von Papen; who' yet linger unwelcome on this forbidden threshold. Except for these men and their _deeds, direct or indirect, public opinion in the 'United Statesmight be divided. It is substantially united. As matters maw ,stand the American who sides with the Hohen- zollern and the Hapsburg—to Hell with them !-is disloyal to 'America. -Whoever he is, wherever he be found, he is a traitor to his country: 'the-man Ford, whether he is a self-exploiting advertiser or• a wretch made insane by the inrush of gold ; the man Bryan, whether he-be the crazy visionary he has always seemed, or a sleek humbug out for gate-money and the Nobel prize ; in short, the man behind*the alleged peace societies, whether that man be a crank or a mercenary. Von' Hindenburg sounds the first offieial note of despair. The PrussiantStaff begins to realize that at least there is a People, if .there is MD God. The shoe pinches at home. There is a German' winter ahead. Yea I there is a"Russian winter ahead. Peace were si Wore indeed. 'Nor will the Government of the United States stand idly by anti see the slaughter go on, if there be-some Teuton power 4a treat,with on 'the basin of the only settlement which the 'world can permit—the dismemberment of the ;German Empire, and the relegation of'the Tour considerable kingdoms it contains back to their original sovereignties ; the recession of Alsace and Lorraine to Franceand the return of the money wrung.from France in 1870 ; complete indemnity to Belgium, and finally universal disarmament. 'Our own little bill on account of the Lusitania,' the Arabic, 'Ancona; and other matters appertaining to the massacre of our womenand. children,,nelto mention pay for each factory destroyed. ky German agents—these items can wait awhile. The Hohenzollern' and the. Hapaburg—to Hell with them!—being down and out, we shall notle too pressing. .But "Belgium first of ail! 'Come Hind,. old sport, since you are such a lover of Peacephow do you Mee the lay-otit r " "What is the matter with M'arse Henry Watterson" and Nisi splendid-01UL Ithie Graas State t—I ant, Sir, arc., M. F.
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