UNITED STATES POLITICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3372, 30 October 1918, Page 16

UNITED STATES POLITICS.

A PRESIDENTIAL APPEAL. (By Cable.) President Wilson has appealed to the American people to return the Democrats to power in Congress at the November elections if they approve of his conduct of the peace negotiations. The return of a Republican majority would certainly be interpreted as a repudiation of his leadership. While the President is the people's servant, he must be ready to accept the people's decision without cavil. Nevertheless, Presidential power to administer the great trust assigned to him by the Constitution would be seriously impaired should the judgment be adverse. No political party was paramount in the matters of patriotism and the sacrifices made by all- citizens, but the difficulty and dangers of his present task were of a sort making it imperative that the nation should give its undivided support under united leadership. The Republican leaders were undoubtedly pro-war in sympathy, but at the same time they were against the Administration. At every turn they sought to take the choice of policy and the conduct of the war out of the Presk dent's hands and place it under the control of instrumentalities of their choosing.

The Republican leaders might claim that they supported the Administration, but on the other side of the Atlantic the only conclusion that could be reached -would be ! that the country had repudiated President Wilson's leadership. It was well known, abroad and at home that the Republican leaders desired not so much to support the President ae to control him. He (Mr Wilson) was not asking for support for hifl own sake or for political purposes, but •for the sake of the nation itself, in order to show to the world its unity of purpose. The Republican leaders in the Senate and House, replying to President Wilson's political appeal, remind him that the war is not the President's personal war, but the American people's war. The Republic can Party, representing more than half the people of the country, demands its rightful share of the burdens and responsibilities which the war imposes. The Republicans believe that the question of surrender ought to be left in Marshal Foch'a hands, and when he reports that Germany has laid down her arms then it will be time to conduct debates. Everyone knows that the Republican Party's policy is solely unconditional surrender.