Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-27


have driving force enough to compel action.
TTNHE country has been damning Congress
Il for its inaction for the last 81 months.
Not new warship has been laid down, moth
ing has been done to increase the army save
to authorize the addition of a paltry 10000
men to the regular force. No consideration
has been given to meeting the pressing foreign
trade problems that will confront us at the
conclusion of peace. No adequate provision
has been made for enlarging the merchant
marine in orde. that we may be independent
of the shipping of other nations. And great
Industrial questions at home have been ig-
nored as though they did not exist.
Yet the whole political and commercial
face of the world has changed since the
beginning of August 1914.
Congress has debated for nearly two years
There is no agreement on anything. The
Administration failed to read the signs Of the
times at the beginning, and 1t has only begun
to stumble through the alphabet and to spell
out twoletter words in the primer OF indus
trial statecraft and in the first reader OF inter.
national politics.
The time is approaching when the nation
must decide whether It is to be content with
this sort of conduct of public business in
Washington The politicians out of power
are as blind as those in office. They are en-
gagged in a fight for control Of the party
organizations in the various States. What
man shall be rewarded by nomination for
office and what man shall be punished for
his bolting interests them more than the for.
mutation of any great policies. Principles are
ignored. Programs are forgotten. Personal
advantage is all that is sought
So long as the business and professional
and working men Of the country are indiffer-
ent the politicians will continue to play their
petty game, regardless of the complex issues
which the nation must confront In the near
future
If there ever was time when men of polit.
ical and Industrial vision were needed 1t is
the present. What kind of President and
Congress do the manufacturers and mer.
chants, the lawyers and doctors, the ministers
and the farmers want? 1t is within their
power to get them. These people are the
real rulers of the country. II they have any
opinions they give mandate which their
public servants will disregard at their peril.
AS the demands of the nation are
definitely formulated the politicians will fall
over one another in their eagerness to pledge
themselves to execute them If only trusted
with power.
The Government cannot go on for the future
it has in the past without counting disaster.
But SO far as the evidence shows the nation
has been as Indifferent as Congress. 1t has
contented itself with damning the Govern
ment, and has proposed no great constructive
policies. There is more truth than poetry
in the remark of ex-President Taft that God
takes care of fools. children and the United
States, for the United States has managed to
escape great calamities for other reasons than
the deliberate forethought of its statesmen.
It cannot expect to enjoy this good fortune
forever One-half of the prudent judgment
employed in the management of a great
business undertaking would reform most of
the abuses In the conduct of national affairs.
But no greater mistake could be made than to
nominate mere business man for the Presi-
dency. What we need is not politician nor a
business man. but a statesman with vision to
see and courage to act and driving power to
force his views upon others.
What have the voters been doing for the
past months to crystallze the demand for
this sort of q man in the Presidency and
men of the same type in the House of Repre-
sentatives? There Is evidence that any
thing has been done. We are drifting and
trusting to luck. Manufacturers and mer-
chants, lawyers and doctors and the rest have
been negligent as Congress-
Something must be done and that right
early. We know whom the st. Louis conven- |
ton will nominate. We know what to expect |
of President Wilson. If conditions are to be |
and we are to face the future with |
confidence of weathering the unforeseen
storms. a bigger man must be named in Chi
cago. And the politicians who will make the
must be impressed with the duty
Of responding to the popular demand for busi-
ness as well military preparedness. But
they win not respond unless the demand is
uttered In unmistakable terms
It is time that the best men in the country
haRan To make their views known.