THE FORUM

FOR JULY 1912

I

EDITORIAL NOTES

T would appear, from the daily papers, that for some

time past the President of the United States and his predecessor in that office have been conducting a political campaign, in the interests of the country-viewed from different standpoints. No one would have imagined, from the peculiar nature of the interchanges, that a President or an ex-President was remotely connected with the proceedings. When the people begin to take a really effective share in the discussion, there will be some natural curiosity as to their attitude with regard to this travesty of tradition.

MR. TAFT has had an exceptionally unpleasant situation to face; and he has faced it, after long inertia, with painful results. It was right that he should try to make an effective rejoinder to the irresponsible accusations scattered broadcast to the winds. Yet the President knew his own temperament far better than it was known to his advisers, and it would have been wiser for him to persist in a policy of comprehensive silence, which may cover a multitude of littlenesses. To carry the war into the enemy's country, once, would certainly have sufficed; but to accuse himself by reiterated excuses, to accept, while feebly protesting, the regrettable tactics of his opponent, was an irreversible mistake. The President is not a competent fighter, by instinct or by training. He may do the right thing, but he selects the wrong time; while he has an unhappy facility for doing the wrong thing at any time. With normal conditions and a less unscrupulous rival he might have failed less obviously, or even apparently succeeded. As it is, he has succeeded only in failing completely.

THE American public has for some time been familiar with William Randolph Hearst; and familiarity has been more and more steadily breeding contempt. He has used the enormous power of publicity that he controls, not in the sole interest of truth, though incidentally he has attacked abuses and furthered reforms; not in the interests of the country, though incidentally he has returned to the country a slight proportion of the benefits that he has derived from it; not in the interest of the reasoning, reasonable public opinion, without which institutions and policies are unstable and delusive: but in the interests of personal aggrandizement, personal prestige and personal bargaining. Opportunities come and go; recur, and pass again. But in the long run, the man who single-heartedly and to the best of his ability tries to serve the public, will be recognized by the public and rewarded with their confidence. One cannot eliminate the personal equation. The most conscientious man may be wrong. But to speak the truth fearlessly as one sees it, and shame the devil in so far as he may be shamed that is the least that can be required from any man who would intrude his opinions on general attention. Mr. Hearst has often spoken fearlessly; he has the courage and the resources that might have won him a secure place in the esteem of his countrymen. But he has not spoken the truth. When it suited him to try to mislead the people, he has tried to mislead them, deliberately, persistently. He has set before him no high ideal of public duty and public service; he has merely been obsessed by the idea of high office, and low standards. The latest instance of his unworthy use of publicity is his disgraceful campaign against Woodrow Wilson. No pretence was made to ascertain the truth and to present just conclusions from verified facts. By the cheapest type of malicious suggestion, by the crudest personalities, even by such absurdities as the attempt to distort past history to suit momentary political prejudices, the vilification of the fittest Democratic candidate was carried on so openly and shamelessly that even the special class of reader for whom the travesty was intended, revolted at the insult to his intelligence. Mr. Hearst believed that he could break the reputation of Governor Wilson into minute fragments, by vulgar ridicule, by innuendo, by the per