The Natchitoches enterprise. (Natchitoches, La.) 1888-1965, 1917-03-22
The Closed Book

The United States has passed out of
one of the most eventful and remark
able epochs in its history. 1t is not
merely that a Congress ceased to exist
yesterday, or that a presidential term
expires; it is that the last leaf in a
volume has been turned, and that the
book has been closed. 1t would be next
to impossible, while impressions are so
fresh and strong, and while the thoughts
which they have engendered are so
vivid, and in many cases so conflicting,
to frame a nicely balanced verdict on
the testimony within the covers. One
glancing backward five or ten years
hence will be able to estimate more
clearly the events of the last few hours,
and to pass calmer and sounder judg
ment on the acts of men who have
placed obstacles in the way of measures
demanded by the overwhelming senti-
ment of the public. But for some con-
illusions there can be, and there need
be, no waiting. The closed volume
preserves rather than precludes con-
victions. These may be subject to
modification or amplification later on.
For the present they make up the sum
of popular opinion.
Woodrow Wilson has worn better
than either of his congresses, He has
worn better than his party. At the
end of four years the record of achieve
ment at his end of Pennsylvania avenue
dims that at the other end almost into
obscurity. The best bits offered have
been Wilson bills; the best laws enacted
have been Wilson laws The nation,
since 1912, has been lamentably de-
ficient in legislative ability; it has, how
ever, had a great executive, real
president.
Woodrow Wilson would doubtless
have accomplished more during his first
term had he been better supported. A
stronger Congress would have inspired
him to take stronger measures. How
very weak and indispensable has been
one of his principal lieutenants, the
chairman of the committee on foreign
relations of the senate, has only just
been revealed to an amazed public
How closely the president has brushed
up against desertion the country is
only now discovering.
The Sixty-fourth, like the Sixty
third Congress, has enriched the statute
book. Progressive legislation has been
demanded by the White House, and the
demand, to a much larger extent than
the country realizes, has been acceded |
to. Because other leadership hesitated
or failed in crucial hours, Woodrow |
Wilson assumed a dictatorship. In
stead of resulting in ultimate revolt,
this "usurpation" of authority and |
power, as some have called it, culmi-
mated in the spectacle presented to the
country and the world on Saturday,
night and Sunday morning,
the marvel of all the elements of politi-
cal partisanship save one, and that an
element of alien instinct, blending and
melting into Wilson Americanism. AL
though rendered temporarily impotent,
this unifcation of Congress STANDS out
as the brightest and most significant
fact of the moment. If not today, to-
morrow, or the day after, its tremen-
dous influence will be felt in the de-
termination Of world affairs.
The old book is closed; the first page
of the new volume, turned today,
stamps with condemnation the coterle
that has brought the republic, for the
time being, into undeserved contempt
before the rest Of mankind, undeserved
because tns neart of the nation is true,
ana ...o nonor of the nation is unsullied.
CHRISTIAN Science Monitor.