The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1918-02-14
New York Sum

(NeW YORK SUM-
Here is short catalogue of some oil
the major powers and responsibilities
never exercised or borne by any OF
his predecessors, which Mr.. Wilson
as war president, has taken or pro-
p;ses to take upon his shoulders; with
a courage which seems dauntless, a
patience that seems inexhaustabl., and
an apparently boundless confidence in
his ability to bear the load:
He has undertaken to be not only
the executive administrator of the laws
enacted by congress with his approval
but also the fountainhead of iegisla :
tive policy, the dictator of his politi-
cal partys creed without restraint by
precedent or previous platform 1eliy :
erances, the inspirer and leader of
public opinion for the whole country.
Under the general war powers con-
ferred by the national security ard
defense act of August 10, 1917. he has
undertaken to supersede in his own
person the Laissez Faire of the old
political economy with regard TO the
production, manufacture, storage, dis
tributon, sale and even consumption
of the food supply of the nation of a
hundred million people The natural
laws of supply and demand, operating
through competition with enlightened
selfishness as the handspring, have
sufficed during 60 centuries or 50 of
recorded human experience. In the
days when it was the fashion to lie
ride the idea Of any arbitrary su osti-
tute for the established economic sys-
tenn, favorite illustration was to pic
ture the certain breakdown of govern
ment paternalsm in a Quixotic at
tempt to provide the single city Of
New York with the single article of
milk for only one day. Yet that is
what President Wilson, with calm
confidence, is taking on himself to do
for the entire food supply of the
United States for an indefinite period.
He has undertaken to regulate the
production and distribution of food
stuffs not merely with reference TO
domestic consumption but beyond that
to meet the food needs of foreign peo-
pies, our allies in the war or the OBJ
jects of our national sympathy as suf-
ferers by the acts of the common
enemy 1t need not be said that this
is an amplification of executive func-
ton which no other American presi-
dent ever dreamed of as possible.
w.
He has taken on himself, through
IS fuel administrator, the enormous
task of doing for the cook stoves and
heating apparatuses and factory fur
naces and lighting and power plants
end locomotive and steamship boilers
of the entire nation the same thing
which he is attempting to do, through
his food administrator, for the stom-
achs of our people. Not only the COM
fort, health and lives of the men, wo-
men and children of the country, but
also the life Of American industry in
its myriad forms, is made to depend
dill ectly upon the wisdom, foresight
technical knowledge and personal in
tegrity of the agents he chooses.
The president is responsible for il
all; and while our patriotic people are
resolving to obey and suffer, mistake
or no mistake at headquarters, the
suspicion Is becoming widespread
among them that there might have
been less suffering, less on the whole
if Laissez Faire and not DR.. Garfield
had been on the job. Whether this
Impression is just or unjust to the
fuel administration and to Mr.. Wilson
behind it, there has been no announce.
n,cnt yet from the committee on public
information that the president himself
has wavered or staggered, or that
hair of his head or even an eyelasf
has whitened in consequence. Th'
power is concentrated in him, both al
to the American supply and as to tina
which can be spared for foreign needs
The next step with regard to fue
would make the president. for tn
period Of the war, the miner of Goa
beth hard and soft the pumper
oil from the subterranean reservoirs
the dispenser Of natural gas, tn
chopper down of forests for flrewooo
These further functions are implie
in the law which concentrates in hin