New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-03-01
The Failure.

regret the people Of this country must
feel as they see the passing of the pres
ent Democratic Congress.
It was good thing. it was useful
thing. for the whole nation that the Dem
ocratic party. after years Of defeat, de-
lection. ineptitude. should regain the
commanding place at the capital. There
was need for a change. There was
demand everywhere that new men, new
ideals. new spirit should come into a
political life grown sterile. Republican
failure TO meet the just demands Of
public no longer TO be driven by mere
iteration Of the empty legends Of other
days gave the Democrats deserved
chance-a real opportunity.
Turning back TO March 4, 1918, 1t Is
still possible to recall that, save for the
narrowest of partissns, all shades OF pub
lie opinion looked with frank enthusiasm
or resignation upon Democratic resurg-
ence. Even the most loyal Republicans
saw in it an assurance that their own
party might be driven by adversely and
through necessity to do in exile what It
had declined to do in the hour Of pros
perity and power.
And on March 1, 1915, how far we
shall be away from all that. What a
mess the present administration has
made Of its splendid opportunity And
II one seek to discern the cause for
this failure, it is impossible to escape
the conviction that it is found in Mr..
Wilson's incapacity to face fact, TO deal
with things as they are, grasp the
Opaque and solid substance rather than
pursue an evanescent shadow.
Things as they are Mr. Wilson has
Q, wholly failed to see. IN his vision the
p Mexico Of Huerta became the America
y of 1875 and bloodstained bandits like
Villa were transformed into the hber-
ators who were 10 play the part Of
Washington and jefferson in the south
ern republic. To this distorted concep-
ton the Americans who died at Vera
Cruz were sacrificed, and when the fact
did prevail, as facts must, we scuttied
out Of Mexico hiding flag still unsa-
luted and leaving behind the wreck OF
wears Of patient effort to earn the re-
spect and regard Of Latin America.
At home, at time when the streets
Of this city were filed with lines Of the
hungry and the miserable, when every
man in this town could know among his
own acouaintauces and see in the world
about him unmistakable evidences Of the
extent of unemployment Of the area or
hunker. Mr.. Wilson told an amazed ma
ton that this thing was psychological,
and when it persisted lecturcd the en-
blowers and censured the capitalists for
failing to provide employment for men
in mills whose doors had been closed by
Democratic legislation, by Mr.. Wilson's
own methods and measures. He would
have had men gamble on the hope he
had banished, and in their refusal he saw
the proof Of moral obliquity
More than all else there has been re
vealed in Mr.. Wilson an almost pathetic
faith in the phrase, blind confidence
that there was in the lucky comblna-
tjon Of meHifuous words a magic to
charm away the grimmest fact or TO
conpel obedience from the most unruiy
of natural forces. Again and again,
when a crisis came, when action, cool,
experienced judgment were required the
President has appeared, on the balcony.
as il were, TO admonsh the clouds and
the wind. to bid the storm depart and the
,rsves 10 be still. and then retired con-
6dent that what had been needed had
been supplied.
Again and again it has been as If Mr..
Wilson had touched button at his desk
% set in motion mighty machinery many
miles away. without the smallest thought
that there was lacking any wire to con-
nect the button with the distant lever.
Government by phrase We have had, by
a nbrase that was honestly believed to
~ potent TO transform Bryan into
SECRETARY Of State, Daniels into Secre-
tarv Of the Navy, TO make useful public
servant out Of McAdoo, to abolish all the
ancient superstition that there was re-
Istion between supply and demand
And now after two years Democratic
=, Congress goes out followed by no sp-
b clause save that which its going arouses
e. and a new Congress comes in, Demo
= cratic by the smallest Of margins and
.lreadv divided by fractional differences
,,,bich nromise the paralysis of the whole
, majority programme. 1t comes in unweI-
coned bv country already discounting
Republican victory year hence +"
country filed with doubt, apprehension
! and distrust toward Mr.. Wilson's ad-
visers. frankly alarmed at the posslblIi-
,ies for harm at home and abroad IN the
! next two years Of man whose desire 10
do well is not denied.
The very worst thing about the Dem