Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-07-31
Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 81, 1917
NO GOVERNMENT AS USUAL

A BSOLUTISM, we are told, has in.
"A sidiously wrapped its fingers about
The American neck and choked our demo.
cratic institutions. Beware" cries the
alarmist, beware the grants of power
that swell the Presidency to prodigious
sase. shrink Congress to the proportions
Of q recording clerk and wipe out unwrit.
tan guarantees which, by common con.
sent. have been established for the pro.
lection Of individual liberty through four
generations of republican government on
this hemisphere. Already are our methods
sidetracked. our modes of administration
abandoned. and frantically we announce
70 the world that democracy is a failure,
that we cannot rely on it in time of war,
that we must jettison 1t apace. since other.
wise disaster sure and certain will wait
on US. Beware"
Never is a heresy so illogical that no
converts to 1t will be found. Religions
rise and fall and preachers of fads line
their pockets with gold by promulgating
doctrines that delight soft souls. Put a
grain Of truth with ten thousand grains
Of falsehood and the one grain will shine
and glisten and blind mems eyes to the
black company in which 1t rests. 1t has
taken thousands Of years for the human
race to get any vision at all; it will require
decades more of evolution to make that
vision clear. But some things have been
tested In times experimental pots SO often
and 80 thoroughly that men have come
the accustomed processes as automatic
truth. Among them is the necessity Of
concentrated and absolute authority in
the conduct Of any government in time
Of acute national danger.
The genius that formulated our method
Of government incorporated in it this prin-
ciple, for it is specifically provided in the
Constitution that the President shall be
commander.in-chief of the army and navy.
BY virtue Of that office in time of war
he can assume virtually unlimited powers,
declaring martial law. staying the several
civil processes and suspending even the
writ Of habeas corpus, which is the very
cornerstone Of liberty. For such
dictatorship the founders Of this nation
provided They anticipated such crises
q now confront us. They did not fear
that concentrated authority. under the
push of temporary exigency, would de.
stroy democracy; but they did fear that
democracy would destroy itself II insist
ence on the individual rights 1t guaran.
tees were permitted In such periods. 1t is
che privilege of democracy to become
s autocratic and it functions superbly when
4 Il does SO by popular consent.
n men so love our system Of govern
ment and fear so greatly any interruption
Of its processes that with all their souls
they fight against that interruption, how
<en they square their attitude with the
Hkeuhood of perpetual deprivation in the
Svent Of failure to overwhelm the ruthless
military machine which is now driving
4 nfraight at the heart of democracy and
hopes to wipe it from the face of the
eGrth? We fight the devil with fire, not
], kocause we like fire, but because we dis
me the devil and only with fire can we
~ him. A sure way of having conscrip-
s 1lo6 with US always. without exemption.
q - enormous taxes. and absolute au-
~ SSity without consent of the people. and
{. nnsn In drudgery and thinking in SUB.
}s icn IL to insist now on government
( yupal.r
moro sre some little men who see no
i1hsr than that some right of theirs
been invaded; therefore. to them.
scracy 10 caving in. They will live
hhank God that democracy is intelli-
&nd lights with both fists. 1t sleeps
~ cushions in peace days. but in
noa 1 hobby for machine guns.