The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1918-05-31
WHAT IS TALKED ABOUT IN
THE NATIONS CAPITAL
The Airplane Scandal Might Have
Been Averted if the President Had
Listened to Advice.

The New York evening Post, re-
GREETING that the President attempted
to set his face against aircraft in
vestigation by the Senate, expresses
the above hope that-as result of
this or other agitation-there will
come "some kind of Congressional
committee or commission, to keep in
touch with the executive departments
and to know what is going on, pre-
cisely as happens in France today"
Two men of vision in Congress fore
saw the need for an agency of this
kind year ago-Senator Weeks of
Massachusetts and Representative
Madden of Illinois they offered
resolutions in the two branches of
Congress to provide for joint Con-
gressional Committee which would
have the right to scrutinize war eX-
penditures and which would be the
medium through which Congress and
the executive departments would be
brought into closer touch.
The President would have none of
it-and, curiously enough, the argu-
ment which he then employed to de-
feat the proposal in the House after
the Senate had adopted it by an i'm
pressive majority, was exactly the
same which he used when attempting,
recently to stifle the aircraft investi-
cation, he said that it would be a
reflection upon the administration
and that it woud hamper the eXecu-
tive in the conduct of the war if any
one should be watching what was be-
| ing done. In other words, Mr.. Will
son, then and now, is nervous, not
with the nervousness, we hope, which
comes from knowledge of ineffi-
cheney, but with the nervousness of
man who has tackled job which
is too big for him but which he is
| unwilling to acknowledge as such.
Add to this the Presidents intense
egotism and his increasing arrogance,
and we have the complete formula
for man who stubbornly resolves
to have his own way, cost what it
may.
Before the cost to the country has
mounted much higher, however, there
will be reaction, which may display
itself in the approaching elections or
which may break out in Congress as
reflex of the popular judgment.
The Senate's resistance to the Presi
dents insistence is symptomatic. The
New York Evening Post may soon
see its desires fulfilled.
A few pacifist minds-and few
there are of them now operating pub
! llicly-interpret Mr.. Balfour's speech
in the House of Commons as militat
ing against the doctrine preached by
some in this country that Germany
must be beaten down before peace
can be had. They are wrong. Mr..
Balfour declares, it is true, that the
British government is now as always
ready to discuss peace whenever an
authoritative offer will be made by
Germany in acceptable terms before
Germany has been beaten down or at
least before Germany has come to a
point where utter defeat is staring
her in the face. That day must
come, sooner or later-depending up
on the speed and the efficiency with
which the United States can make the
contribution to the war which our
numbers and our resources indicate.
To that day, therefore, the war will
go on. Mr.. Balfour knew what he
was saying; the pacifists do not know
On of the ironical developments
of the last few weeks disclosures at
Washington is that the American
soldiers who are now brigaded with
French and English troops on the
Western front are fighting with
Lewis Machine guns and Enfield
rifles, both of which Secretary Baker
a year ago thought not good enough
weapons for Yankees to use.