New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-11-01
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: The attention of Republicans
and also OF thoughtful Democrats -
should be drawn TO two papers by Pres
ident Emeritus Eliot, one in the 0cto-
Der Atlantic Monthly" the other in the
October 90 issue Of the Sunday maya
zine section Of one OF your city con-
temporaries especially because OF gro
tesque features they display quite diff
fcrent from anything We can recall, in
earlier years, from the same deft and
usually rational pen. The second paper
seems TO have been written under the
conviction that the reasoning OF the
first needed strengthening; the doctor
himself must have recognized that IT
was weak at many points.
II needed judicious terrifying. 1t
gave in its closing paragraphs an un-
pleasant impression Of mere catalogu-
ing Of virtues and achievements, as If
perhaps some Cabinet officer, and he
not one of the wisest, possibly McAdoo,
with his attention temporarily with
drawn from his favorite shipping bill,
had "primed" the doctor for the con-
test; for a listing Of trihing details
and petty considerations does not con-
stitute such a performance as We are
accustomed to expect from DR.. Eliot.
Il gives the impression that, having
agreed to write in advocacy of Mr.. Will
sons reelection, he had asked sum-
mary of supposed administrative
achievements; had not gone to the best
or largest-minded source; had been the
victim of third rate presentation, and
had accepted it without exercising his
critical faculties upon IL.
Among other things IL displayed a
singular misapprehension and distor-
tion Of facts. IL makes no better show
rg, c. g., than the bombastic Glynn has
made in claiming entire credit for the
Federal Reserve Banking act for the
Wilson Administration in complete
disregard and in obvious ignorance Of
the fact stated in "The New York
Times's" leading editorial Of Novem-
Der IA, 1914, that ain any distribution
Of praise, in any acknowledgment Of
the country's debt TO the building Of
the Federal Reserve Banking System,
the name of Nelson W. Aldrich, lately
Senator from the State of Rhode Island,
must and will stand first of those TO
whom credit is due"
Should il be affirmed that no one can
be expected at an advanced age to keep
au courant with even the main material
facts of complex political situation,
the response comes spontaneously that
one who does not should not assume TO
instruct voters in a campaign bristling
with numberless issues and facts rele-
want thereto. Such an assumption. by
a man whose speech usually carries
weight, is not simply inexcusable, but
positively wrong. Demonstrably, this
is what the doctor has done.
But obviously this second paper is Of
a higher grade than the first, and one
can account for the admission into "The
Atlantic" of the first only on the sup
position that whatever the quality of
the contribution the authors name
would have secured its being accepted.
That paper laboriously sought to make
capital out Of President Wilson's stern
resolve not to fulfil an early promise Of
his own; that is, it praised his deter
mination to take no steps to aid or re-
lieve an American citizen in any for
egn country who had been plundered,
assaulted, outraged in any way, or suf-
fered any of the numerous wrongs
against which for centuries govern
ments have deemed themselves bound
to protest and demand satisfaction for.
But Dr. Eliot's arraignment Of the
eight-hour legislation, so called, con-
stitutes the most marked feature of his
papers, and this is all so critical of
what the President and Congress did
that one feels astonished that with this
handicap Of dement's he still could
bring himself to support man guilty
of such folly, based on such fallacious
reasoning.
When Dr. Eliot speaks of the Adam
son law as "hasty and incompetent leg
islation," and says Congress was "pri-
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