The Washington herald., 1914-06-17
BUSINESS REST m SIGHT.
November Elecioa Expected % HaIt
injurious LesisIaion.

After ten years Of turmoil, . rest II In
sight for American business.
The November elections promise to put
stop to the administration,s hodge
podse. hit-or-miss. now-you-see-it-nov-
you-don't anti-business legislafion.
President Wilson. divining the danger
Of the election Of Republican Congress
next November. ID whipping his un-
willing team to greater speed while yet
the road is clear. Yesterday he issued
an ultimatum that. willing or unwilling.
Congressmen must obey his command
to pass anti-business laws before they
can hope to be released from duty. In
other words, the schoolmaster will not
allow his class Of boys out TO play until
prescribed for them
Congressmen. realizing the change In
public sentiment, the demand for .
respite to enable prosperity TO Gust de-
preston, are anxious to adjourn forth
with and give the country q soreiy-
needed rest
The ten-year period of agitation was
inaugurated by President Roosevelt i'm
mediately he received his mandate
from the people in 1904 He vent after
the Beef Barons" and some other-not
all other-..maIefactors Of great wealth."
including Edward II. Hartman. the
Morgan rival.
Next President Taft took up the fray,
directing his fire particularly upon the
Roosevelt favorites. the steel trust, the
Harvester trust and other Morgan ven-
lures. Attorney General Wickersham
started more trust prosecutions than ALI
his predecessors put together. ard 2ut
the country in seething, unrest
President Wilson took up the cudsets,
even before his inauguration And. egsed
on by his chief lieutenant Bryan. en-
barked on campaign to turn the whole
process of business upside down and
particularly to cut big units ffff0 Httfs
ones. In this task he was eagerly as
sisted by Messrs. McAdoo and SHELTON
Williams. both Of whom. like Bryan. had
old scores to pay on against High
Finance.
But the Wilson combination have dis.
played extraordinary ineptitude In for
mulating antitrust bills. President VIII
son, knowing nothing about business,
caused first one panacea and then an
other to be trotted out for inspection.
As each attempt failed to effect his pur-
pose and aroused storm Of protest. he
or some of his aides-bIandly an
nounced that it was foolish to become
excited since the bills had been drawn
only for fun and would not-not for a
monent-be urged upon the serious at
tention of Congress.
The medicine succeeded only in fright
ening the patient half to death without
doing IT one bit Of good. without remedy
ing one of Its ailments.
And when the patient-business-
planned. 1t received a scolding; was told
| all its troubles were merely psycholo-
gical''
That there were grave evils to correct
in the financial and business world no
one-least of all the Hearst newspapers
L.
Of agitation, however, has about spent
| itself. And unless the Wilson adminis-
tration can present something more SEN
sible than the chaotic, chameleon-like
bills which have been put out and pulled
back during the last few months. the
\ sooner the public insist upon a respite
the better for everybody.
| The signs are that the people have had
enough OF injurious, prosperity-slaying
bungling.
President Wilson'S pet ruse of dis
| covering an insidious campaign to de-
feat his projects has again been resorted
| to. Yesterday he revealed that certain
| business interests had gone the awful
length of advising the politicians to go
home and rest This. too. mind you,
when it was perfectly wen known that
the President desired them to do other
| wise. -
! Could infamy. could treason go further1
/ The new freedom" was never meant
! to work that way. Apparently the poll
ticians may do and say any mortal thing
they like. but business men must keep
mum no matter what absurdities and in
justices are proposed
Perhaps the president will ere long re-
gret that he did not take counsel of prac-
teal business men in remaking the tariff,
for the record Of our imports and ex-
ports this year is peculiarly ominous.
Prosperity Is not to be won back by
jamming through half-baked anti-busi-
ness bills oozing with uncertainty. Con-
f1dence can not be restored by such q
short-sighted expedient.
The whole tone of business has been
raised enormously during the last dec
ade, but more harm than good would re-
suit from forcing impossible anti laws
on the statute books until our political
theorists have imbibed a little more horse
! sense on business.
The public's handwriting is beginning