The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1907-11-19
the PRESIDENT rNcENsED.
he Should BE Angry with Himself II
Badly unaerstood.

A&uiy AhANt3kNeAe
The President i reported 10 BE- great.
" incensed over what be RECORDS a. a
deliberate and continued misrepresenta-
ton Of his attitude toward corporations.
In private conversation he said seaem.
entity 10 deny that any fair reader of
his public uterances gives warrant for
the accusation that he has made any
general attack on corporation manage.
ment The grapevine press bureaus q
Washington say that he points out 70
callers that he has always been careful
to difIerentiate between the bad cor
poations and the good oorPorations--
that bis speeches nave always declared
his belief in the general soundness Of
business and financial conditions and
morality.
Going over the Presidents speeches
At l., Of course, possible to collect a
large number Of qualifying and discrimi.
mating phrases. Yet the purpose Of
language being 70 convey thought, and
the impression left on the mind Of the
hearer being the important tning, the
President must admit that some blame
should attach to himself il he has been
generally misunderstood--if ne has not
succeeded in making 1t clear to bis
countrymen what he really meant. he
cannot say that he has lacked oppor-
tunity 10 be heard-that there has been
any deposition on tie part Of the press
not 10 print or on the part OF the pub
lie not 10 listen.
II Il to be suspected that the Presi.
dent Is deficient IN knowledge Of pop.
ular psychology be has forgotten
how the faulty ordinary human mind
works For example. suppose the Pres.
identf discussing labor unions, should
conspicuously say IN general terms that
many OF them were In conspiracy against
the law--tnat many Of them were Off
cered By emalefaetors' who should be
punished. and that be proposed to do ell
in his power 10 punish tnem; under
these circumstances would not labor
unionists rate the President a. an enemy
of their organizations, even though,
when making the charges, he parentheti-
cally dropped the remark that there
were good labor unions as we'll as
"bad"i Similarly, If the President had
talked about the banks, saying that the
maiiagements Of many were rotten and
that their executive heads were @unde
sirables," It i probable this would have
been construed rs = general attack on
the banking business, even though most
Of the banks were sound and 60 be trust
ed. When severe criticisms are vigor-
ously made against unarmed and unijef-
titled members of a class suspicion
against the whole class Is inevitably ex-
cited even though the critic warns mis-
hearers against entertaining general sus-
picion. The natural effect Of the Pres
dents references to tho great corpora
lions was to arouse prejudice against all
of them. even though the President did
not 50 intend. Men are not only respon-
sible for what they literally say, but al
50 for the meanings that the ordinary
man, not taking time to make a nice
study, win probably draw from his
words.
II NAV be assumed that recent events
nave instructed the President as to the
need of considering not only the mean
ings but probable differences. and that
during the remainder of his term he gill
carefully avoid falling into she fault of
misplacing his emphasis. It is to be
hoped. however, that the lesson viii not
stop with him, but have an effect on mis-
successor and all others whose positions
give weight to their words. New York
Globe.