New-York tribune., 1918-05-17
Criticism

lines should be clearly drawn between
friends and opponents" says President
Wilson. Therefore, he protests against
the resolution under which the Senate
Military Affairs Committee was prepar-
ing to have a broad inquiry into the
conduct of the war In his opinion the
passage of the resolution would be "a
direct vote of want of confidence in the
Administration"
We have already criticised the rcso-
luton as such. 1t intrinsically deserved
what the President said of it, namely,
that it seemed to contemplate not alone
an investigation of the conduct of the
war, but supervision as we'll, and that, of
course, is the Presidents business. How
ever, the incident has other aspects
When the President in resenting crit
cal inquiry by Senate committee draws
the line between friends and top
ponents" we are confused. Certainly,
there are many critics Of the Adminis-
tration's conduct of the war who are not
opponents" of the war.
That the execution of the war pro-
gramme has deserved criticism does not
require to be asserted. Mr.. Baker has ad-
mitted it. Mr.. Wilson has himself rec
ognized it, the latest proof of which is
that he calls on Mr.. Hughes to inves-
tigate the charges his own private in
vestigator made against the men in
charge of aircraft production.
That criticism has been in many in
stances very effective also will be con-
ceded, even by members of the govern
ment
Perhaps the critics, calling attention
to failures in the war programme, have
themselves failed to evolve a construct
i've technique. Their true function is not
to weaken confidence, but to promote it,
Yet it is very difficult to be critical
without seeming to be destructive and
unhelpful; and this difficulty will be
enormously increased if the President
intends to characterize criticism as op-
position and to accept inarticulate SUD-
port as friendliness. We do not believe
he intends to do this
No one knows better than the President
how necessary criticism is in that human
process Of trial and error by which the
efficient way is found.
NO one could more clearly perceive
the psychological unwisdom of putting
upon criticism the onus of being un-
friendly or of confusing criticism of
the wars conduct with opposition to the
war or to the Administration. His won
derful conversion of the radicals, paci-
fists and Socialists was by another
method. To attack the use of criti-
cism is to challenge it to it's own de-
fence, and there begins the feud, in
which everything is forgotten but the
distractions of the quarrel.
The way to deal with criticism is to
dlsarm the critic; and the easiest way
to disarm the critic is to call him in.
give him an insight into the problems
and ask him to help The more violent
the critic the more effective this method
will be. If you whistle to the dog be
Will stop in amazemcnt. What after
ward happens will be governed bv
reason
Mr. Wilson'S invitation to Mr.. Hughes
10 investigate the aircraft situation
points the moral That was stroke of
.lae genius II the aircraft situation
Is not bad, distinguished Republican
wa DC Obliged to defend it and tell
"herein 1T was misrepresented If # is
.ao' the results of the investigation will
oe curative Why not go further in this
direction? - '''''
The real difficulty between the presi-
vent and the Senate Military Affairs
oo''i'h'ttee Is that the committee. which
. IN war time one Of the important apen-
eisS oi the government, does not know
w"as is gong on. The only wav II c.n
"lu -oue IS to start an investigation in
spirit OF criticism. If it were kent in
formed 1T would behave very differently
~ mas something to give which tho sov
erhmcnt can afford to take; and if this
were rightly appreciated much unfort,
nate publicity could be avoided ~
Senate Military Affairs Committee does
not want to publish the failures Of tho
war programme; it wants to know about
them, SO that it can. help, if helm ba
needed; and one way in which it could
help would be to say to the country.
We have looked into the situation we
have been consulted, and we are con-
yinced that the right remedies are be-
ing applied"
People do not want to know that fail
ures are, or have been, taking place
They want to know that they are NOT