Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1918-02-08
WASTING TIME.


OF all which Senator Hitchcock said
yesterday, one paragraph persists in
demanding repetition here. 1t is this:
The question at issue is not par
tisan. Neither is any principle in
volved. The matter at issue is
purely practical question wheth-
er we can improve the efficiency
Of the war administration by
Ing supplies and whether we can
get order out of confusion and &C
ton instead Of delay, by co-ordi-
mating great government bureaus
now running almost independently
and often at cross purposes.
And of all the more or less rambling
and altogether futile speech by Sen
ator Williams-futile if 1t was aimed
at defense of that which Mr.. Hitchcock
Attacked few sentences stand out.
They are these:
Aren't we all doing our level
best to win this war? Isn't every
republican trying to help win the
war except a few pacifists who
have nearly ended their political
lives?
Thus we have it on the authority of
two of the foremost democratic SEN
ators that the question of war cabi-
net Is not one which turns on the ques-
ton of political party alignment. Sen
ator Chamberlain, who is credited with
starting the whole quarrel. certainly
holds the same view, for he is as prom
inent democratic leader in the upper
house as either Senator Hitchcock or
Senator Williams.
II is as foolish for democrats to
ascribe partisan politics as the reason
for objection to the headless system
of conducting the war as for the paci-
fist Des Moines Register to declare
that all the critics of Secretary Bakers
course are impelled by dislike for him
because he opposes universal military
training. The Register, which calls it.
self republican, could not echo the
democratic charges of partisanship
while defending Mr. Baker without de-
claring itself democratic. So it comes
to bat with its laughable charge Of
militarism.
The whole situation is degenerating
intb farcical tangle which under ex-
Gting circumstances can have but one
cal result-a further delay in effective
prosecution of the war. Certainly, as
Secretary Baker admits very frankly,
there has been enough delay already,
and too much. If debate could change
enough votes in congress to force the
enactment Of the senate military COM
mittee's bills over the presidents veto
the victory would be an empty one. A
war cabinet can be really effective
only if President Wilson appoints it,
calling the very strongest men in the
country to constitute it. This can be
expected only if he demands of con-
gress the enactment of law permit
ting him to make the appointments.
Every reasonable effort to convince
him that this should be his course has
been exerted and has failed. If Sen
ator Chamberlain, Senator Hitchcock
and the others who are demanding the
reform should refrain from repeating
their charges of inefdciency and the
declaration that the president does not
know the real facts, there would be
less reason for such resentment as Mr..
Wilson displayed in his indictment OF
Senator Chamberlain.
II debate should cease and the ad-
ADMINISTRATION should be permitted to try
to make good its promises and realize
its hopes, the failure Of its program
which Mr.. Hitchcock foresees with
such pessimistic confidence might be
the very thing that would cause the
president to propose war cabinet OF
his own accord. Stranger things have
occurred than this. Indeed it would
he no more notable than the frantic
speed with which Mr.. Baker has reor.
eanized his department in an effort to
keep pace with the criticisms offered
before the senate investigators and to
forestall the bills for a ministry OF
munitions and a war cabinet.
But every speech such as that OF
Senator Hitchcock is calculated to
make it more difficult for the president
lto adopt the war cabinet plan as his
own in the end. Therefore, as was
said in these columns yesterday. The
Courier deplores the tendency to keep