Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-25


llcan party and business men are permitting
leadership In that party to go by default
WAETnTs up, cuisines. interest, Of philadelphia
and Pennsylvania seem to be asleep at the
switch There is need now, an imperative
need, for business craftsmanship of the highest
type. There is need for active interference by
business men in political direction. They can.
not be laggards they must get busy.
There will be peace in Europe during the
next national Administration. The mills Of
the Continent will begin to hum once more.
The soldiers will be back from the trenches.
The work of reconstruction will be under way.
The Joint competition of the several European
nations will again be vigorous. 1t will be more
than vigorous, for men who have been engaged
in a lifeand-death struggle under arms will
not be timd in their battle to win back pros.
perity. They will fight in the marts Of the
world as they have never fought before. They
will make up for shortage of capital by
cheap production cost the most important fac
tor in which will be cheap labor. Not only
will this competition confront us In foreign
fields, but 1t will be at its height i'm our home
market unless the sovereign power of the ma
tlon is invoked to protect American industry.
OF all the States of the Union there is none
interested in the assurance of constructive
government during the next four years as
Pennsylvania, and there is no city whose pros
perity is more surely dependent on wise leg
islation in Washington than Philadelphia.
The Republican party is the only vehicle
through which the kind of laws and the kind
of craftsmanship wanted can be secured. The
Republican party cannot win without vlrile
leadership, and It cannot get that kind Of lead.
ership unless business men. who constitute the
rank and file, take Off their coats and get to
work. 1t cannot get that kind of leadership IL
the great Republican States, out of which
should come leadership, are tied hand and foot
to the band wagons of noisy factional leaders,
socalled, who have no vision and no soul and
no ambition other than to feather their own
nests and get their fingers into the pie.
1t is the time of times when Pennsylvania
alert, clothed in fighting raiment, sounding
the challenge and trumpeting the slogan of a
great campaign 1t is a time when a really
great Pennsylvania delegation should go to
Chicago, a delegation of men sturdy in
the faith, Of men who speak with authority,
whose advice is worth while because 1t has
been tested in the fire of large experience and
thoroughly tried; delegation of men repre-
senting the enormous interests which are i'm
periled by weak and theoretical government;
delegation capable of speaking for Pennsylva-
MIA in tones commensurate with the dignity,
the importance and the authority of so great
a Commonwealth.
Instead we are confronted with asinine fac
tionalism. Has a temporary war prosperity
deadened the perception of industrial leaders
that they blind to the situation? What do
they mean by their inactivity in a period of
,,I,
when, most of all. their voices should be heard.
They may well lose by default not only their
own prosperity but the very bread and butter
of the thousands of employees who are depend
ent on their foresight These, employees expect
as they have right to expect that the efl
cheney with which giant manufacturing enter
prises conducted should manifest itself also
in wise sensible and patriotic attention to
the kind of government which is to prevail.
We say, in all humility, that neither the
Wares nor the Penroses can represent Penn
sylvania efficiently or properly at Chicago. We
write II down as a self-evident truth that the
party's chances of success are being trifed
with and even betrayed by incompetence and
neglect. We say that an era of free trade and
soup houses is actually being invited by the
brain and intelligence of Pennsylvania, and
particularly of Philadelphia, because neither
the brain the intelligence is being ac.
lively employed in political preparedness
All the labor-saving machinery in the world
will do no good If the laws of the nation expose
our products to pauper competition. All the
caustic criticism In the world will do no good
II Democratic Congress again sits during the
period of rehabilitation and adaptation to new
conditions.
Business men cannot now nominate candi-
dates of their own. They have been caught
in a trap. Their neglect of preparedness is
no whit less criminal than the neglect OF the
which has permitted months
to pass without doing any practical thing for |
national defense But business men can, If |
they viii, put definite purpose behind the
delegation which goes to Chicago. There are
some candidates for places on the delegation, |
few though they be. who can worthily rep
resent the Commonwealth. And these men. II
can dominate the delegation and give |
to the voice of Pennsylvania the meaning
which it ought to have In the national conven-
ton.
Let business men wake up. Let them get
busy. Let them protect industry by putting
efficiency behind the party. They can bring
It about even yet that the solid interests of the
State shall speak at Chicago, instead of it's
politicians, and that is what they must do
unless they are content TO risk their interests
on the throw of the dice and trust to blind for
tune TO take care OF them.