Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-06
Mr.. PALMER AND MR.. BoRAH
The Bonniwell Incident in the Light Of
Recent Political Prophecy

| a recollection of Senator Borah and the
sleety political prophecies tossed off in
Washington a day or two ago by the
man from Idaho.
The coincidence of Mr.. Palmer, Mr..
Borah and the Bonniwell case isn't to be
disregarded. 1t is luminous. Mr.. Borah
has just taken time for contemptuous
dismissal of our illusions Of a coming
reform in politics. The war, he holds,
has not tempered the heart or the soul
of either of the big parties. 1t will not
have tempered them in 1920.
"There wiU be no pioneering Nth neW
political or economic or social doctrines
upon either side" said Mr.. Borah. He
said fatty that politicians were towards
and that they will remain towards; that
they will continue to trail furtively be-
hind the crowd rather than in front and
continue to job themselves to the de-
sired places. Politics in America tCtU be,
after the Uar, what it aOas before.
The newspapers had a pleasant time
with Senator Borah and his prophecies.
They were acclaiming him as a gloom of
the first magnitude. They said his peri
scope was logged. And then Mr.. Palmer
stood upon his feet and gave tongue and
revealed-or pretended to reveal-Judge
Bonniwell and Senator Penrose and a
flock of first-lne politicians of both par
ties in attitudes which caused thoughtful
men to look twice at Mr.. Borah and say,
by all the prophets The man may
have been right
Now, few persons seem to realize as
yet how dramatically the Democratic
candidate for the governorshp has been
pushed forward in this instance to pro-
vide test of the temper and spirit of
the people. Mr.. Palmer has made it
appear that a group of public men of
great influence who talk prettly enough
about the war and manifest dazzling skill
as flag wavers are, in reality, untouched
in their consciousness even at this hour
of hours by any of the wars meanings.
Mr.. Palmer has charged in effect that
they have done their utmost to discredit
and to disregard and to make ridiculous
the institutions of free government the
things for which we happen to be fight
ing in France. The Democratic State
chairman named men in both parties.
But no one has sued him for libel. No
one has died of anger or of indignation.
1t may be worth while to digress here,
for the sake of the moral, to Senator
Sherman and the amazing attack which
he has just made in the Senate upon
President Wilson. We're it not for the
situation in Pennsylvania we might look
to Mr.. Sherman for proof of Mr.. Borah's
shining abilities as prophet.
"All the Republican Members the
wires said, "applauded Senator Sher
mans address," The country didn't ap-
plaud it. The country sneered. What
we must wonder now is whether Senator
Penrose was there to applaud Senator
Sherman-the same Senator Penrose
who is now charged with an effort to
boss the future Governor of Pennsyl-
vana, whether that Governor be a Be
publican or Democrat.
Senator Sproul is Senator Penroses
| friend. There is no secret of the rea-
ton between them. 1t is clearly visible,
we'll understood, and there is nothing
disc-editable about it to Mr.. Sproul or
| to Mr.. Penrose. With Judge Bonniwell,
| Mr.. Sprouts rival, the situation is differ
ent. A Republican Senator accused of
| paying the way of Democratic candi-
date for the Governorship is a novel
spectacle to the uninitiated. Judge Bon
niwell, who is thus singularly distin-
guished, is charged with attempts to sell
out his own party, his own friends.
Deep qcuter this! We shall have to
wait and see what comes out of it.
Words are of little use noW. All con-
cerned ooH be appraised by what they do
Mr. Palmer is known as a truthful man.
liar. But they haven't proved him one.
What we should like to do now, for
the interest of science, is to take Senator
Borah, of Idaho, by the hand and lead
him to grand stand seat, from which
he might observe the progress of Judge
Bonniwell in the State election and de-
liver up saws, observations and prophe-
ces suited to the occasion. We should
still insist that he talked nonsense re-
Gently in Washington. But We should
confess to gimmering doubts. There
are many who had hoped that the par
ties, like the rest of the world, would
receive a new baptism of grace and de-
cency from the war. They will know
whether to believe or disbelieve Senator
Borah, whether they were fools or wise
men, by the progress of affairs in the
Pennsylvania campaign from this on.
They have only to keep an eye on Bon
niwell.
What shall we do if it is proved that
Mr.. Penrose sought to have the Demo-
| cratic Governor in his nncket Shall