The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-06-04

| ton In government must always be
held in check by new forms of cen"
| ~tralization. Only a democracy can De
trusted with an autocrat.
This attitude of mind is what Is so
infinitely puzzling to congress. a
heated southern senator, with a vision
Of Jeffersonianism slain on the marble
steps Of the White House, rushes up
to see Mr.. Wilson.
"See here, Mr.. Wilson," says he,
don't you see that this bill with its
provision for a Federal reserve board
to control the national currency means
a dangerous Capitalization or power
at Washington"
But, Mr.. Senator" says the presi-
dent quietly, don't you see that the
regional banks for the west and south,
which are also provided for in the
bill, will tend to decentralize financial
power, reduce the supremacy of Wall
street and the east?"
Mr.. Senator goes away scratching
his head, and votes for the bill.
A similar situation has developed in
the discussion of the trust question.
Loud cries of "trust-busters" for more
competition in industry and for decen-
tralization Of commercial power; loud
cries also by the monopoly regulators
for the cooperative view of industry
and the Capitalization Of the control Of
commerce. Both sides appear with
gatling guns shotted with deadly ar
guments, and lombard the White
House. Mr.. Wilson, unlike either Of
his predecessors, ~retires to the wilder
ness to think-in this instance to a
place bearing the symbolical name Of
Pass Christian. He comes back with
suggestions for five trust bills. the
purpose of which is two-fold: To Sc
cure more competition in industry, but
more governmental superstition. He
thus recognizes the new forces of de-
Capitalization and the new forces OF
J Capitalization.
Our government has only OCCASION
ally been governed by thought. Most
ly our progress in America has been
the result Of the crude impact of
events. Few of u leaders have had
any historical or economic back
ground; few have had any power of
constructive thinking. Again and
again we have drffted until impaled
upon the event; and have had our
education by a process of explosion.
Sixty years ago, in spite of the noblest
efforts of the noblest thinker of his
time, the country exploded in a
civil war, and by this bloody means
came to a solution Of the slavery ques-
ton. We explode periodically in An
ancial panics; we explode Industrial
ly in strikes-and learn little. All of
these destructive explosions might be
avoided if, instead of plunging ahead
and acting breathlessly all the time.
we should stop for a moment and
think-really think. 1.-THE inability
to stay quiet, the irritable desire to
act directly" writes Walter Bagehot.
lis one of the most conspicuous fail
ings of mankind" 1t hurts to think:
it is UNNECESSARILY less painful to act.
Try it and see!
For the moment. then, the govern
ment is being guided by thought. Mr..
Wilson is a thinker.
Now, a thinker is so rare, either in
the White House or outside of 1t, that
it is difficult to know just how to
take him. Washington has not been
so puzzled over anyone in years as it
Is over Mr.. Wilson.
I CHANGED to come across two men
who had recently been up to the White
House to call on the president. The
first one told me he thought Wilson
extremely difficult Of approach-not sc
much physically as intellectually
that he was distant, uncommunicative
likely to parry inquiries with pleasing
ironies. l should say that this was the
dominant view at Washington Of