The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1918-02-07
THE CRISIS
Engineering and Mining Journal).

feel cheerful about 1t rather than 9th
erwise. The policy of Washington ha
been wrong. A large part of the in
telligence Of the nation. especially tina
comprised among men of practical ant
successful experience in business, hai
been convinced of the error from thu
beginning. The press has been ricl
in its criticisms and warnings. Thes,
have been unheeded by the admins
tration, whose doctrinaires have com
placently pursued the testing of thei
theories in the running of the great
est business that any nation ever un
dertook. Gradually we have seer
things go from bad to worse, and &
fear has spread among the far sighted
that possibly America might be de.
feated in it's main purpose. We des-
paired of the mass of the people ap.
preciating the situation until it was
too late to correct it. We have fore.
seen that the people might be aroused
by some great disaster to our army
abroad. We could hardly expect thai
the awakening would come earlier an6
from some less serious event at home
In starting this DR.. Garfield has per-
formed an inestimable service.
DR.. Garfield simply dropped the
bomb, when he issued his order OF
January 16. His administration of the
coal business had been inexpressbly
bungling and incompetent. Blunder
had followed blunder, and things had
finally reached such situation that
some heroic remedy was necessary
and to administer it he naturally made
blunder huger than the accumula-
ton of his long series of previous
blunders. Yet it is likely that it was
better to have this happen than to
have taken counsel and hit upon some
wise step that would have prolonged
concealment of the trouble in the fun
damental organism of Washington.
The public needed blow on the head
to drive in the idea that the govern
ment at Washington was not the best
possible of governments.
DR.. Garfield is the immediate object
of objurgation, and no doubt he de-
serves much of the criticism that is
being directed toward him. but the
disease in Washington is more deep
seated than he Even as to individ-
uals there are others, for whom he is
now serving as the scapegoat, who
are far more responsible than he is.
These men and their lick spittles are
now trying to becloud the truth with
recriminations and excuses. The fav-
orite ones are the railways and the
weather. That the administration
gambled the welfare Of the nation on
the weather and lost may be admit
ted, but the intelligence Of the United
States will not overlook that the
trouble in the coal business began
when Secretary Baker repudiated the
agreement between Secretary Lane
and the coal producers, when William
B. Colver, in behalf of the Federal
Trade commission, guessed wrong
about the cost of producing coal and
insisted upon impossible provisions,
and the recommendations of these
doctrines were incorporated in pres
idential ukase.
The fundamental fallacies in Wash
ington are:
1. The theory that economic law no
longer prevails.
2. The suspicion Of business men
that prevents even the adoption OF
business methods in the prosecution OF
the biggest business that anybody
ever imagined.
8. The conplacent Difference to the
traditions of official red tape.
4. The inability of the president tc
select good men and his loyalty to his
selections long after everyone but him.
self knows that they are bad.
5. The effort Of the president per-
sonally to do more things, major ano
minor, than any other man in the uni
verse is doing; and more than it is
possible for one man to do.
Congress was already seeing this
and it's ideas were crystallizing as
the result of it's Investigations. Some
men summoned before it made goot
impression, like Mr.. Hurley, who sale
frankly that the shipbuilding had beer
going badly, but henceforth it Woult
90 well or he would be to blame
Others, like General Crozier, caused III
mental distress by their revelations o
important things undone and thei
complacency about it. Secretary Bak
er gave his fellow countrymen a shocl
with his SNUG talk about the wa
being 5000 miles away Congress wa
getting ready to act by creating de
partment Of munitions, when the pres
ident and secretary of war refused t
sanction that plan. Still were the
unwilling to recognize that things wer
going wrong To many people 1t Is
mystery why the president is so con
tented with his Bakers, and Colvers
and Garfields, and little while ag
we might have said his Denman. be
cause he knows and admires a certal
man, who may personally be very es
Unable, It does not follow that he
the right man for particular JOB.
II remained for DR.. Garfield, with
.A...-x t1,,pdar RI omen the eve