New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-07-24
The Presidents First Serious Defeat.

President Wilson's prestige will suffer from the
break down of the Jones confirmation fight. 1t is
the first time since he entered the White House
that Mr.. Wilson has been obliged to confess de-
feat He has caioled and driven Congress and
always found way to make 1t accept his Will.
But on the Jones case the Senate stubbornly
locked horns with him and forced him to retreat.
He employed the old methods. but found them
lacking in coercve power. He grew weaker and
the Senate grew stronger the contest proceeded,
and he has now abandoned clearly lost cause.
The nomination Of Mr. Jones was an indiscre-
ton, TO whose gravity personal friendship blinded
the President The Democratic party has as
Sumed attitude Of unsparng hostility to trusts.
At this session Mr. Wilson has been dragooning
Congress into passing additional antitrust leGsla-
ton. although Congress and the country have seen
little necessity for trying to amplify the very COM
prehenSive provisions Of the Sherman law. Yet
in the face of that record the President chose as
one Of the members of the Federal Reserve Board
q director in trust which had been barred from
several of the states for violation OF their anti
trust laws and which is at present defending a
suit against itself in the federal district court for
the District Of Minnesota. In his capacity as a
director Mr.. Jones appears as party In this suit.
The President seemed TO recognize that the
questions OF Mr. Joness activities on the Harvest
er trust board must be met in discussing the pro
priety of the nomination. He therefore in letter
TO a member Of the Senate. endeavored to establish
a claim in Mr. Jones's behalf that he was superior
TO his associations. He said that the nominee
had entered the Harvester board strictly as q re-
forming influence and had worked there TO soften
the trusts hostile attitude toward the enforcement
of the Sherman law. Unfortunately. Mr.. Joness
own testimony before the Senate Banking and
Currency Committee did not back up the Presi-
dents well meant eulogy. He failed to show that
he had altered the policy of the board or had ever
tried TO do 50. In fact he stood pat on the boards
record and frankly said that he approved the acts
which had brought the trust into collision with
the federal authorities.
A certain false pretence therefore attached it
self to the nomination. and the more the case was
discussed the more difficult it became to live that
false pretence down. The opposition in the Sen
ate based itself on the general principle that it is
inadvsabe to name for an Office OF special honor
and emolument a man who is defending himself
against serious charge in federal court The
President should have been the first TO remark
disqualification Of that sort That he did not
proves that his political judgment Is capable of
being very injurlously affected by his personal
feelings.
The Senate won In the Jones case because It
was right and the President was wrong Con
grcss knows now that Mr. Wilson cannot always
prevail. right or wrong. That discovery may have
a good deal 10 do with shaping the future rela
tlons between the Capitol and the White House.