The Washington herald., 1917-12-05

Now that the President has spoken.
Congress will be alert In doing what
he suggests.
We are Q military establishment just
now. and the President is the COM
mander-in-chief. Congress Is essen
TALLY q part of the war machine-a
subordinate part in war, always-and
the voice Of the commander. speaking
orders which he deems advisable to
give, will be obeyed.
The message Is. therefore, q lengthy
order. 1t will be perused in much the
same spirit, coming from the COM
mander-in-chief, as captains and ma
jors and colonels peruse orders given
them by their superior officers. 1t IL
the laying down of a definite policy.
A policy it Is, given with the soulful
wish and hope OF the President him.
self, that we may win this war and
win It with the least loss Of life. and
the lowest possible expenditure Of our
national resources.
Congress will see new suggestions In
1t each day for several days to come.
The members will grasp more Of its
significance as they read It They
will really begin to see-if they have
not realized 1t before-what a man.
moth task We have dedicated our
selves to, and what the price Is we
must pay for saving the world from
Hohenzollernism.
The feeling of America is going
through the same transformation
other countries went through, after
they entered the war. The Presidents
message puts US down to the business
side of winning to the war-and
presses home the importance Of mas
tering the vital parts of international
politics.
When Congress takes up its real
work. therefore. It will begin to
handle the problems of the second lap
Of the war-so We might call it-in the
them after they had reached a similar
position. There are many of their
mistakes We can. with their help.
avoid and profit by. But the country
must go through exactly the same
mental stages they went through-and
yesterdays message of tho President
prepares US for o1r second stage.
The very fact that the message does
not go into burdensome details. as to
some of the big problems we have
U.S. Du' OHly IHc
principles which are most vital to our
existence at this time, means that
Congress will be left to work out
some of these details.
That will be very much to Con-
gress' liking. The Presidential wishes
will. Of course. be learned from time
to time, and 1t will be found out be-
fore legislation is finally sent to the
White House for approval whether it
conforms to the standard which the
President has set In his own mind.
And the way Is open, moreover, for
the President to appear before Com
gress and read further messages to
them about subjects of outstanding
Importance. He may handle one sub
ject at a time, or more. He Is quite
free TO come and go as he wishes,
and to urge further solutions upon his
lawmakers as from time to time he
deems 1t necessary to do SO.
The Austrian war declaration, de-
cidedly one feature of the message,
Is handled from manifestly strong
American standpoint. The President
nullifies Italian war aims, so far as
we are concerned, by stating that
We owe 1t to ourselves, however. to
say that We do not wish in any way
to impair or to rearrange the Aus
tro-Hungarian empire" This disposes
OF a troublesome question and with
the statement Of Americas position
with regard to that empire, as well
as Bulgaria and Turkey, it Is made
easy to later on. in the message,
urge the war declaration. The
President wisely left the request for
such a declaration until he had pre-
pared his auditors for 1t, and until
ne had clearly stated what Americas
peace aims win be.
The effect Of this may be very
great The President has truthfully
been torn between conflicting emotions
on this: question, He admits it frank
~ In his message And It IL obvious,
from the course he adopts and from
what he urges Congress to do, that
he is endeayoring by one monster
stroke to- make great progress to-
ward reaching ths Austrian hsart