Scranton Wochenblatt. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1865-1918, 1918-01-24

Let us listen for a moment to
the dull roar of criticism assail-
ing President Wilson's ears.
We shall discern articulate
questions in plenty. Why have
we yet no workable plan for or
ganizing Our labor supply and
placing the required amounts at
the command OF our most es-
sential services? Why are we
behindhand in our ship-building
program? Why have we not
faced and solved the problem of
providing trained crews for the
ships we are preparing to
launch? Why did we fail to
give adequate backing, material
and moral, to the political ele-
ments in Russia that gave pro-
mise of a reasonable degree of
governmental stability? Why
did we not discourage the Ita-
lians from a military enterprise
bound to lead to disaster? There
are more questions current, but
there is no profit in repeating
them. 1t is not disputed that
any critic could ask more ques-
tions than seven President Viii
sons could answer.
Are we to imagine that the
man who bears for the time the
chief responsibility in the world
war maintains always a serene
consciousness under the din of
questioning and criticism? Pre-
sident Wilson is human, arrest
ingly human in the rare Gimp
ses of his real personality that
his fellow-citizens are permitted
to catch. 1t is reported, unoffi-
cially and probably enormously,
that he has expressed wish
that all critics might be export
ed. In his heart he may well
have wished at times that all
critics were dead.
But no one knows better than
the President that neither ex-
portation nor death of the cri-
tics would bring more than
momentary respite to those who
are overladen. Criticism has an
essential function to perform,
and no statesman can safely
dispense with it. If our war
machine is not working per-
fectly, somebody ought to say
it, say it so insistently that the
whole people will be forced to
take account not only of this
fact but of the reason for it.
1t will not do to go on the sup
position that the official author
tiles will always anticipate the
unofficial critics in the discovery
of defects and well proceed forth
with to their removal. We have
no official authority to whom
we can more safely impute in
fallibility than the British had
in Lord Kitchener He was not
a soldier-bureaucrat tied up in
red tape, but an extraordinarily
energetic, resourceful master of
men. And yet he would not be-
lieve in high explosive shells.
British soldiers perished use
lessly upon entanglements that
shrapnel could not destroy, yet
Kitchener would not believe un-
til the Northcliffe papers forced
the issue. In so great an under
taking as our war there must
inevitably be serious wastes
and stupidities whose existence
will never be made known to
the President and the people
and whose correction will not
be undertaken at all if voluntary
criticism repudiates its proper
function.
Nor is this all. Wars never
move according to prediction.
We may have the best ground
ed expectations of success in a
campaign we are undertaking,
and yet fail in tangible results.
Is it better for us to march
serenely to failure, blinded by
optimistic forecasts, or to be
forced by the critics to take in
to account the chances of fail
ure? Wars never end in the
way even the wisest and most
disinterested statesman promises.
In the final outcome all pormises
must be pruned down to prac-
ticability. Shall we stop the
mouths of the critics, who set
up our hopes for us against the
background of the practicable?
If we do we shall experience
the same enraged disappoint-
ment as the Japanese experience
ed when they learned how far
the treaty of Portsmouth fell
short of their hopes.