New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-12-03
The Presidents Message.

Hou that President Wilson has shown how,
evervbodv will wonder that it never before oc-
Cured TO his predecessors to make an annual mes
sage short enough to he read And the message
can be read There is no Ito he continued III our
next" at the end deter the public for Presldeh-
tiaI message is one of the least thrilling serials that
is ever encountered The only suggestion that 'ne
President did not succeed in unburdeninG his nina
completely in the three columns or so which VIII De
found elsewhere in The Tribune is contained III
tho nromise of another message on the antitrust
law. Let us hope that it, too, will be brief
President Wilson accOmplishes brevity by the
simple process of not going into details instead
of summarizing the reports of the departments vi
the federal government he refers Congress directly
70 them as it has already received them Ihis Is
good sense, and it means a great saving IN print
ers' ink all the land.
An examine Of the Presidents avoidance or detall
is his reference to the need Of currency legislation
He does not describe the bill that should De
enacted We hope this omission signifies more than
a determination to be brief and readable We nope
il means that the President does not insist upon the
faulty bill which the Democratic Senate conference
has evolved and that he is ready TO accept a com
promise.
We touch elsewhere upon what Mr. wilson mas
to say upon the most interesting topic III HIS HTS
sage Mexico and also upon his views regarding the
Philippine islands Aside from these matters, the
most important one referred TO in the message is
antitrust legislation, regarding which Mr.. Wilson
outlines the idea which he has in mind for his
prospective message thus;
think il will be easily agreed that we should let
the Sherman antitrust law stand unaltered as IL 49,
with it's debatable ground about IT, but mat we
should as much as possible reduce the area OF that
debatable ground by further and more explicit leg
islation. and should also supplement mat great ACT
nv legislation which will only clarity 1t but also
facilitate its administration and make II iaeT 70 al
concerned.
It will be easily agreed, the President says.
And yet the carrying out Of this ideal Is fuii Oh
difficulties If not impossibtes New language IN
tended to clarity will only furnish new grist for the
legal mills. We have got certain distance toward
clearness through generation of adjudication upon
the Sherman act Let not lose what we nave
gained, at all events.
Upon the subject of national law doing away
with party national conventions and providing FOR
the direct nomination Of candidates for the Presi-
dency we do not think that the country VIII be
with Mr.. Wilson. Many states are not yet prepared
for direct primaries 1t would be a radical expert
ment to go at once to the nomination of national
candidates without the aid OF national conventions.
The tendency is no doubt strong toward primaries
in which a vote is taken upon candidates for Presi-
Dental nominations and delegates are bound by the
preference expressed by the But this is far
short of what Mr. Wilson proposes. There Is no
need of national law to call Presidential primaries
into being. There probably will be need of a ma
tionaI law to regulate them