The Washington herald., 1914-01-21
Good Work, Mr.. President.


There is a fine and helpful spirit
in the Presidents message, deliv-
cred yesterday in person and with
impressiveness. Throughout the
country there will be general sat
isfaction that Mr.. Wilson has been
true to what his friends predicted
for him at this time, and that his
latest utterance breathes forth not
slaughterings and lightnings, but
friendliness and good will.
It is manifest that whatever may
be done will not be done precipi-
lately. And for that all those busl-
ness men who have had their breath
carried away by the CELEBRITY Of the
tariff reformation and by the swift
ness of the new currency measure
will heave a sigh of relief and will
take their walk to the Office this
morning, with their pulses barely
above normal again. And all those
wage-earners, whose dinner pals
are empty-and we regret to say
that there are still more of them
than the glowing reports made by
Secretary of Commerce Redfield
would indicate-will pluck up cour-
age and hope for speedy resump-
ton of manufacturing activity. In
which hope-although our own din
ner pail is fairly well filled, thank
you've devoutly share.
Of course. when it comes to en-
acting into statute the Presidents
various recommendations, the con-
stitutional lawyers all over, as well
as the lawmakers up at the Capitol,
are going to have busy time.
Whether you can legislate so as to
forbid Tom Jones and Jack Robin
son from forming and owning
purely as a matter of convenience
to themselves-a little corporation
whose business it shall be to hold
certain securities which Tom and
Jack formerly owned, we are lit
tie uncertain. Certainly. if we are
going to prohibit all holding COM
panies, as the President suggests,
Tom anu Jack will have to quit.
And yet that little corporation of
theirs may be the most innocent,
and, in fact, helpful device in the
world for them, never designed and
never destined to harm a soul. In
other words, some big holding COM
panies may have worked injury,
but lot of others good. Shall we
execute all of them just so as to de-
stroy the few? Perhaps it is nec-
essary. 1t isn't for us to say-any-
way, we wort worry about it yet
awhile.
There is Just one phrase in Mr..
Wilson's message that sounds al
most too much (please accept our
humble apologies, Mr.. President)
like the muckrakers. It is that one
where he talks about "the great
harm and injustice which has been
done to many, if not all, of the great
railroad systems of the country by
the way in which they have been
financed and their own distinctive
interests subordinated to the inter-
ests of the men who financed
them," &c.
You're wrong. Mr.. President, if
you don't mind our saying so. Some
of the railroads may have suffered
injury in the way you say, but
mighty few of them, and as for ''if
not ALL" that is absurd. Somebody
must have misinformed the Presi.
dent as to the railroads. Or perhaps
he has drawn general conclusions
(which is always a dangerous thing
to do) from a few much-heralded
instances. Some day all the facts
about all the railroad financing will
come out, and we believe that Mr..
Wilson and the whole country will
be delighted when they learn how
conservatiyely, economically, and