The Washington herald., 1918-07-10

gress. something which Is causing
some distress in high places. is a
remarkable thing. Of course. But
it is really very natural. The war
has transferred the President to the
active rank of commander-in-ch chief
Of the army and navy Of the United
States and the active war head of
all the nation and its resource.
He is the war maker of the ma
tion- In exercising the duties of
this once. therefore. he exceeds the
powers ordinarily given him in
peace times. And there are no loyal
men in the nation who would for
a moment question any orders given
to them by the President-not even
Hiram Johnson. the bellicose indi-
vidual from California, or Mr.. PEN
rose, the amiable, buN sometimes
petulant, Senator from Pennsylvania.
Viewed in this light, then, there
is no usurpation of Congressional
functions by the President He is
merely bringing Congress under
such domination as it Is natural for
him to possess during a war period.
He is doing just what he has to do
in order to make our fight against
the enemy most effective. That is
all there is to It. Contentious other
than those seeking to charge the
President with undue exercise of
executive functions is political gun
fire.
A. VIA satd ,,,opfha =, on fba ha affla
for democracy compels us to be
more than autocratic in our own
government-becau military power
is naturally more autocratic than
civil power-but we should have no
worry over this because the man
at the head of the government is
Democratic at'heart and the end Of
the war will see the restoration of
the utmost democracy in our civil
affairs.
The New York Times in a copy
righted article on Sunday gave con-
siderable space to a review of the
situation. The article was prepaT-
ed by military experts connected
with the British Embassy at Of
tawa so, it is said here. And the
are set OuI
are very significant, it appears to
US:
ITO go into Russia merely for an
altruistic purpose with no military
object as the erux of our plan
would be an inexcusable waste of
effort, of money and of men.
The only remedy for the Rus
sian state of affairs Is to rebuild the
Russian front through an interven-
tion which win operate to restore
the war in the East. Just how this
shall be done remains to be seen.
but the ultimate object must be
accomplished, however we go about
it IL we would give ourselves a
reasonable hope Of final victory"
The expert also states that victory
Is not possible until we can separate
Russian endeavor from German
enmity. The two are cooperating
now against us. he indicates
Russia, Of course, presents to us
a most prodigious and difficult prob
lem. There are all manner Of So
,lutions to be suggested by men who
are thoroughly familiar with its af-
fairs. The President has heard
many men Of many minds with re-
gard to 1t and has carefully weigh
ed them according to what they
have had to say. The President
has had, in his own mind, certain
basic principles to which he has
felt any eventual solution must ad-
here. This has enabled him to
choose from each suggested plan
Just what he e'thought would be wise
and to discard anything he deemed
not important or necessary to the
master plan.
The outstanding difficulty is. of
course; that the Russians them
selves do not know what they want
other than that they want peace
and certainly do not know what
IL necessary for them to want II
thoy desire to maintain their place
In the world and blot out the in
sidious efforts of their arch enemy,
Germany. This difficulty is one not
easily surmounted.
Russian government Is hard to
understand. in some ways. The rap
idity with which news travels from
each Townships we would call II
Ito the next township and from
there on and on, 10 mystery to
our observers : The. most surpris-
ing part Of It sll Is. however. that
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