Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-11-21
As "Marse Henry Sees 1t
Louis Vile Courier Journal

perfection OF our electoral machinery, let us for
a moment survey the field we have just traversed.
In the late campaign there was but one para
mount issue: the overthrow of the existing gov
eminent Of the country in the face Of world
crisis; the substitution Of pilot having the
sci well in hand for pilot untried, II not I'M
skilled; in short, the swapping OF horses in the
middle of the stream. Though this had brought
official spoil, personally interesting only to
few, the joy would have been htful and illusory.
Bitter disappointment would have quickly en-
sued.
The conglomerate elements behind Mr..
Hughes could never have mixed and mingled
in the work of forming successful administra-
ton. Mr.. Hughes has shown himself in many
ways disqualified for successful party leadership.
A man OF high integrity and fixed beefs-an
old-line New England federalist, crossed on
unyielding and tactless-he would inevitably have
broken down as president of the United States
even as ne broke down as governor OF the state
Of New York.
The reelection of Mr.. Wilson may bring in
dangers OF another sort, not yet visible to the
naked eye, but it ayerts many dangers which
both real and visible We owe our escape, not
to the boosted wisdom and culture Of the east,
but to the robust common sense of the west and
south. That means much. 1t means that Wall
street-and by Wall street we designate the ag-
gregate wealth Of organized capital-does not
govern the country and that popular party may
elect president without the vote of New York.
We are thus emancipated from the money mad
ness which possesses the trade centers. For a
time at least the Money Devil has been made
to go way back and sit down. On the other hand
vast responsibilities for good or evil are piled
upon the democratic party, and these, of course,
will be largely, maybe altogether, determined by
the man to whom credit for the achievement must
be wholly ascribed.
Mr. Wilson anotber C,rcot ,y,s n. oro,,
izer Of victory. He drew the plan Of every bat
tie. He was his own strategist his own tao
tician, his own architect, his own campaign man
ager, the best and easily the best, of the cam
paign orators. To him with the rewards will
come the accountabilities, and, although as
scholar and man of letters he may think he fully
understands himself and comprehends the situa-
ton, the muse of history may nevertheless
whisper in his ear loud enough to be heard above
the din of the cheering: Have care, Wood
row, OH my son, have a careP
Jefferson was right That is the best gov
eminent which governs least. In framing the
federal constitution the wise and patriotic men,
led by Madison, the republican, and Hamilton,
the imperialst, sought to keep between them
the Scylla Of centralized monarchism and the
Charybdis OF pure democracy. They constructed
a representative system, OF limited powers, grid
round by definite checks and balances which they
believed would protect the people against des-
passion upon the other.
Measurably this has been the result But it
has been qualified Of late by a demand for re-
forms which have in some quarters risen to a.
kind of hysteria. As consequence two dangers
have come to pass; disregard for precedents
inevitable to craving after the experimental;
and the complication, not to say the confusion,
OF orderly governmental procedure incident to
an annual flood Of legislation, state and federal
The country is honeycombed with commits.
sions. Though state rights survived the war Of
sections the home rule principle was put to
serious strain. Now whatever happens to be
wapted anywhere, the word is ION to Washing
ton" Woodrow Wilson calls this the new free
dom; Theodore Roosevelt calls it progressivesm;
the Duluth Herald calls it social justice; the cheap
periodicals. call it the uplift
Whatever it is, or aims at it is departure
from the simple and benign in government and
a menace to the country; an outgrowth not OF
freedom but OF slavery; survival OF the age OF
theologic controversies of the inquisition and
the conventcle; return to the era of church
and state beneath whose tyrannous rule men and
women were to believe what the prelates told
them and to be made good by law
That Woodrow Wilson, an academic dog
matist, and Theodore Roosevelt a spectacular
potician-both more or less bent on power
should agree about such functions of government
is not surprising but, now that Woodrow Wilson
has crossed the Rubicon of reelection and is
about to enter his second and final term as pres-
dent, it becomes matter of moment and of
supreme moment how far he may be able to out
live the ill-digested notions OF the doctrinaire
and to surmount the peculiar infirmities of the
schoolmaster and to address his experience in
Office and undoubted abilities to the working out
OF problem, not in human ethics, but in actual,
practical government.
Unless the people can be brought back to
the simple rescripts of Thomas Jefferson as dis
tnguished from the haf.baked sentimentalisms
OF Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt
the abnormal conditions which made the Reign
OF Terror possible in France may be brought
round in America, the crowded centers hot-beds
OF insurrectonary spirit; labor, supported by the
rule of numbers, but misadvised of its rights,
wildly loose in the land; capital driven into a
corner. the rule of force no longer able to come
to the rescue of property, as helpless as the
Regime Ancien.
Surely such surmise is not toryism Nor is
it PROCLAMATION to suggest that Woodrow Wilson
cannot improve Thomas Jefferson. Nor yet inim-
ica to add that he may with profit mend some
of his ways.
In saying that he makes common cause with
one the Courier Journal has not intended to
imply that he should wear his heart upon his
sleeve, or that he should not in every case be
the final judge. By common cause it has meant
intellectual and patriotic community of interest.
Neither has il spoken without advisement The
charge is made at Washington by those COM
petent to know who are not hostile that he has
cultivated as president an isolation not merely
abhorrent to republican ideals, but personally
unwise and absurd, and has surrounded himself
not with counselors but with servants, repelling
men of his own calber.
Yet in these despites he has made an ex-
ceent president. His handling of our European
slatta bas haau adj Dor, a., ,~ot,