Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-24
HOW TO HELP THE PRESIDENT
The Only Way to Deprive ki,chin and Dent
Of Their Obstructive Power Is by Electins
a Republican House

| because so far as backing up the fresi-
dent is concerned there is only one party
in the United States.
| When we are told that Democratic
Congress must be reelected in order that
the hands of the President may be upheld
every intelligent American laughs at the
| presumption Of those who make the plea.
Every man knows that there is no truth
in the charge that the election OF Ke-
publican House and Senate would hearten
the Germans and that the election OF
| Democratic Senate and House would
make the Hohenzollerns tremble in their
high boots and take for cover with all
| possible speed.
The issue in the approaching election
Is not partisan but personal. 1t is
whether Claude Kitchin of Scotland
| Neck. North Carolina, and S. Herbert
] Dent. of Montgomery, Alabama. shall
| remain as chairmen of the Committee OF
| Ways and Means and the Committee on
Military Affairs respectively.
Ktchin, of Scotland Neck. has uni
formly opposed the plans of the Presi-
dent. He voted against the declaration
of war He voted against the selective-
draft law and he has repeatedly voted
against increasing the army and navy.
So much for his war record. AS chair
man of the Ways and Means Committee,
which drafts the revenue legislation, he
has done his best to inject sectionalism
and demagogy into the tax bills.
Dent, of Montgomery, at the head OF
the committee intrusted with the prepa-
ration of laws for increasing the military
power of the Government, has been con-
sistently opposed to any enlargement Of
the army and navy and he cast his vote
against the selective- draft law.
Whatever Kitchin and Dent have done
to support the war policy of the Admin
istration has been done under compul-
sion They are leaders out of sympathy
with the purposes of the nation. 1t is as
if General Pershing were opposed to de-
Tending the dignity and honor and liber-
ties of America and had to be prodded on
by his staff to take any action that gave
trouble to the Germans.
The President could very well call
upon the voters in Dents Alabama dis
trict and in Kitchin's North Carolina
district to defeat these men in order to
relieve him of the embarrassment of
working through them to accomplish his
purposes. But as he has not done this
it is up to the country at large to secure
the same ends by changing the political
control of the House in such way that
these men will be shorn Of their power.
With Republican majority, Julius
Kahn, of California. will automatically
become chairman of the Committee on
Military Affairs and John W. Fordney, of
Michigan, will become the head of the
Ways and Means Committee. These men
are heart and soul for the war They
voted for increasing the military power
of the nation when Dent and kitchin
voted against it. If we are to have the
hands of the President upheld they and
their colleagues can be trusted to uphold
the Administration war policy with
enthusiasm and loyalty to the best inter-
ests of all America.
The issue is so simple and clear that
it is understood in every hamlet in the
whole country. We are dropping par
tisanship and we are uplifting broad
minded Americanism. The defeat of the
party of Kitchin and Dent is to be accom-
plished not because of any weakening of
the national purposes, but because the
hac dad fbo. ha
its present leadership, is not warlike
enough, and because these faithless
leaders, if their party were returned in
control, would justly assume that the
country had ndorsed their lukewarmness
if not their opposition TO all forms Of pre-
paredness both before and after we en-
tered the war.
Dent and Kitchin could be retired, it is
true, if the House would abandon its
practice of promoting men to committee
chairmanships on the basis of length of
service on the committees. The Pres-
dent might urge it upon both the House
and the Senate. But he has not done it
and he is not likely to interfere with the
prerogatives of Congress. He had his,
lesson when he attempted to force the
Senate to accept his judgment instead of
its own on the woman suffrage amend
ment to the Constitution. So our only
recourse is to elect Republican House,
not because it is Republican, but because
it is the quickest and surest way to take
from the hands of the men obstructing
the war aims of the nation the power to
make their obstructive tactics effective
in any degree.
| Though the clubs in this city will quit