Theodore Roosevelt

A Wilson campaign truck spouting empty slogans--notice on the side the question "Who keeps us out of war?" is carefully worded to not say he 'will keep us out of war' in the future.

THE REELECTION OF WOODROW WILSON on November 8, 1916 (results not reported in THE FATHERLAND until the Nov. 15 issue) left the American "war party" in a strong position even though the true situation was confused in the public mind. Democrat Wilson campaigned on the slogan "He kept us out of war," while the Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes had openly anti-German Republican war-mongers (former President) Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root, Henry Cabot Lodge and others campaigning for him. This sentence, written by F. F. Schrader in the Nov. 29 issue (below), best sums up the true situation which was never reported in the press:

The consensus of cabinet opinion [in the Wilson administration, prior to the last stretch of the campaign] was that not only civilization generally but the United States in particular was interested in seeing Germany crushed. This sentiment was not only approved by the President, but was made more emphatic by him in a merciless verdict of condemnation expressed in a few but bitter words which closed the session.