The Washington herald., 1918-01-18

Copies or william Hards speech
before a Philadelphia club were laid
on the desks of every member of
Congress yesterday.
To say that this speech. coming
as it did from a staff member of
son mouthpiece. created a sensation
is putting it mildly, far too mildly.
The truth is, it brought out the rich
est discussion that has been INDUCED
in so far over administration mat
ters. 1t was productive of more sug-
gestions than have yet come forth
unofticially from Congress over the
conduct of the war.
For this reason, and the reason that
the Hard speech strikes straight at
the root of Americanism. it should
be given thought of those in the rank
and file of our citizenship.
Mr.. Hard spoks of the shortcom-
ings of the present administration,
and proceeded upon the main theme
that It is not disloyal to point out
the deficiencies of the administration
when the thought behind the criti-
Cism is the Improvement of our fight
ing machinery.
He erred in one or two particulars.
but on the whole voiced many SEN
timents that are lurking suspiciously
near the surface of the minds of many
an American these days.
Probably the most unusual state
ment he made. before he had thought
twice, was that the President can
do no wrong, and that the people
will not stand for criticism of the ad-
ministration's way OF handling the
war.
This Is not at all the case. The
people of the country, in truth. in
stigated the probes which Congress
now has under heRdway. They are
responsible for It, mainly, and not
the learned gentlemen who are con-
Quoting these probes. The people
want the highland they will have
it.
The American people are holding
the war. They want to win it as
quickly as possible. But they do NOT
want to undertake the battle in such
a way that business is discarded and
errors are ms % which later must
be rectified at huge cost.
The Rmerican people are holding
the administration responsible And
they have their representatives here
I'm this city to watch the conduct of
the war from this end. They want
to protest when things go wrong.
They expect Congress to act in a CO.
responsible way with the Executive
branch. And they will not hold Con-
gress blameless IL anything Of a huge
nature goes wrong.
But by all odds the most startling
thing Mr.. Hard did was to take a
rap at the President himself. He in
sisted that the nation today has no
ressonpible head, that President Will
son does not attend to his duties
as he should-and that the advertis-
ing agency at 10 Jackson Place is
constantly lulling the people into the
feeling that the President is always
right. That Mr.. Burleson is always
right-though the people are more
doubtful over the latter than any
thing yet suggested-and that Baker
is all right, and so on, are supple
mental duties which this active COM
mittee always has to perform, he
says, too.
Mr.. Hard makes these points, fur
ther:
THE United States Is today a coun-
try without an administrative head;
that Is the central fact and Il is, un-
fortunately, an incontrovertible fact;
1t is the source of all our inefficiency,
and why is 1t not seen and openly de-
nounced?
For the one alarming reason that
our government has been able to
spread the idea through the whole
country that criticism of the govern
mept and particularly of Mr.. Wilson
is something that carries with 1t a
taint of possible disloyalty. Mr.. Will
son Is the only ruler of a democratic
government who has ever been able
to acquire that divinity which was at
one time supposed to hedge a king;
the only ruler who has been able to
arouse the feeling that he is enveloped
in a sort of sanctity that the people
who know hesitate to say that, ad-
ministratively, Mr.. Wilson is simply
not on the job.
Take Great Britain; Lloyd George
meets continuously and daily with his
chief assistants. When say daily,
use the word advisedly; there are only
rare days when these meetings do not
take place. In these meetings there
are daily discussions as to the efforts
Great Britain Is making and which